{"id":33973,"date":"2025-07-31T05:08:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33973"},"modified":"2025-07-31T05:08:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:08:26","slug":"land-clearing-in-nsw-surges-40-as-the-minns-labor-government-stands-by-and-looks-on-in-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/land-clearing-in-nsw-surges-40-as-the-minns-labor-government-stands-by-and-looks-on-in-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Land clearing in NSW surges 40% as the Minns Labor Government stands by and looks on in horror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Shadow Minister for the Environment, James Griffin MP, has slammed the Minns Labor Government for presiding over an environmental catastrophe, following the release of data showing a 40% surge in land clearing across New South Wales in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the 2023 NSW Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (SLATS) released yesterday, 66,498 hectares of native vegetation were cleared last year \u2013 a 40% increase from the previous year, and the equivalent of 237 Sydney CBDs or four Royal National Parks lost in 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Griffin said the Minns Labor Government has betrayed conservation and communities across New South Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is environmental vandalism on a scale comparable with palm oil deforestation in Indonesia. This Labor Government came to office promising reform, and two years later they\u2019ve delivered nothing but excuses and inertia,\u201d Mr Griffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLabor campaigned in 2019 and 2023 on curbing land clearing yet clearing has exploded on their watch. They campaigned on this issue and have delivered absolutely no solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Griffin said, \u201cThe State of the Environment Report earlier this month was a shocker, the Great Koala National Park is a farce, there are no aquatic reserves or marine conservation ideas to speak of, and clearly the environment doesn\u2019t really matter around the Minns Cabinet table\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labor\u2019s inaction contrasts with the forward-looking initiatives of the previous Coalition government &#8211; conservation initiatives such as those aimed at:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The establishment of NSW\u2019s first Natural Capital State Accounts \u2013 a nation-leading framework to measure, value and protect the state\u2019s ecosystems in economic decision-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Major investments in koala habitat corridors and private land conservation agreements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strengthened data systems for land cover monitoring and vegetation mapping.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And an ambitious push to integrate biodiversity metrics into infrastructure planning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorised by Chris Stone, Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division, Level 2, 131 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donations by individuals to registered political parties of between $2 and $1,500 in a financial year are tax deductible. Phone:&nbsp;<a href=\"tel:0283560300\">02 8356 0300<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nswliberal.org.au\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shadow Minister for the Environment, James Griffin MP, has slammed the Minns Labor Government for presiding over an environmental catastrophe, following the release of data showing a 40% surge in land clearing across New South Wales in 2023. According to the 2023 NSW Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (SLATS) released yesterday, 66,498 hectares of native &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/land-clearing-in-nsw-surges-40-as-the-minns-labor-government-stands-by-and-looks-on-in-horror\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Land clearing in NSW surges 40% as the Minns Labor Government stands by and looks on in horror&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33974,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33973\/revisions\/33974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}