Despite Labor\u2019s glossy talk of an ecosystem approach to protecting nature, the 2026\u201127 Budget reveals a government that is quietly gutting the very projects it claims to champion.
These cuts will now leave koalas without a dedicated, funded strategy, the critical Beachwatch program without a budget line item and over $90 million in last year\u2019s conservation funding sitting unspent.
Shadow Minister for the Environment Jacqui Munro MLC said the Budget papers tell a very different story to Labor\u2019s press release.
\u201cLabor want families to believe they\u2019ve found new money for nature. They haven\u2019t,\u201d Ms Munro said.
\u201cStrip away the spin and you find that none of the headline announcements in this portfolio have an identifiable line item that we can scrutinise. It\u2019s old funding, repackaged with new slogans.\u201d
\u201cWhile Labor is busy re-announcing yesterday\u2019s money, they are cutting the projects that were actually committed to last year. The environment infrastructure budget has been cut by $18.7 million. That\u2019s if you can trust the numbers given last year\u2019s significant spending shortfall.\u201d
\u201cNot even accounting for inflation, nature is getting less than two-thirds of the support it received under a Coalition government before the pandemic,\u201d Ms Munro said.
The Budget also confirms at least nine conservation projects have been delayed, and almost 40 per cent, $91.3 million, of funding allocated to environment projects in 2025\u201126 left unspent.
\u201cAfter two years of Labor talking up koala protection, there is now no funded Koala Strategy,\u201d Ms Munro said.
\u201cFunding for protecting koalas in southern Sydney is reduced in this year\u2019s budget. Even Beachwatch, a program families rely on to know if it\u2019s safe to swim, is no longer listed.\u201d
People can also expect reduced funding for a range of other projects:
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\u201cLabor loves to talk about accessibility and ecosystems. But you can\u2019t protect biodiversity with a press release, and you can\u2019t build a Great Walk with a slogan,\u201d Ms Munro said.
\u201cThis is a Budget that dresses up cuts as conservation and hopes nobody checks the fine print.\u201d
\u201cThe NSW Liberals and Nationals will keep holding this government to account on every dollar promised, and every dollar that mysteriously goes missing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite Labor\u2019s glossy talk of an ecosystem approach to protecting nature, the 2026\u201127 Budget reveals a government that is quietly gutting the very projects it claims to champion. These cuts will now leave koalas without a dedicated, funded strategy, the critical Beachwatch program without a budget line item and over $90 million in last year\u2019s … Continue reading “Labor\u2019s environment budget fails root and branch: nature funding cut, budget unspent, projects delay”<\/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-39670","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\/39670","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=39670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39671,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39670\/revisions\/39671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}