The Minns Labor Government is contracting with private companies to take over parts of New South Wales national parks.
Under a new \u201csupported camping\u201d scheme, Labor is handing exclusive control of 23 campgrounds across 16 of the state\u2019s most loved national parks to private operators.
These include Kosciuszko, Blue Mountains, Killalea, Bouddi, Mimosa Rocks, Dharug, Booti Booti, Wollemi, Warrumbungle, Ku-ring-gai Chase and Murramarang.
Private operators will have the right to book and resell campsites, hire out caravans, tents and equipment, and sell food packages. They\u2019ll be exempt from park entry fees. Families will still have to pay. Labor says it\u2019s about \u201caccessibility\u201d and \u201cvisitor experience\u201d, but those are just buzzwords to hide the truth. This is privatisation of public land.
Leader of the Opposition Mark Speakman said this is gobsmacking hypocrisy from a government that said it was opposed to privatisation.
\u201cLabor promised transparency and fairness, but after three budgets they\u2019ve delivered spin, slogans and now privatisation of camping sites,\u201d Mr Speakman said.
Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope said that Labor\u2018s \u201csupported camping\u201d is just a money grab.
\u201cIt\u2019s symptomatic of a government which has lost control of its budget and is now reaching into the pocket of every household that loves getting outdoors,\u201d Mr Tudehope said
Shadow Minister for the Environment James Griffin said Labor criticised the former Coalition governments plan to create multi-day walks to ensure everyone in NSW, whether a seasoned hiker or budget conscious family could enjoy our national parks.
\u201cThis plan from Labor is another example of them picking the pockets of people trying to visit a NSW national park\u201d Mr Griffin said.
Shadow Minister for Tourism Kevin Anderson said this could put the great outdoors out of reach in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCamping has always been a great Australian pastime, with generations of families enjoying some time away from the rat-race in the peace and tranquillity without breaking the bank,\u201d Mr Anderson said.
\u201cOur national parks are a huge draw card for rural and regional areas, receiving more than 50 million visits every year, including 1.8 million overnight campground stays, but now Labor wants to put our most treasured natural assets behind a paywall which is absolutely outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minns Labor Government is contracting with private companies to take over parts of New South Wales national parks. Under a new \u201csupported camping\u201d scheme, Labor is handing exclusive control of 23 campgrounds across 16 of the state\u2019s most loved national parks to private operators. These include Kosciuszko, Blue Mountains, Killalea, Bouddi, Mimosa Rocks, Dharug, Booti Booti, … Continue reading “Chris Minns privatising NSW national parks”<\/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-35648","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\/35648","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=35648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35649,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35648\/revisions\/35649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}