NEFA calls on West to resign

NEFA calls on West to resign

SYDNEY — The North East Forest Alliance has call for the resignation of Garry West, state minister for Conservation and Land Management, in the light of two recent government reports seriously criticising the Forestry Commission.

NEFA says West should resign following the highly critical Conservation and Land Management report on soil erosion in the Oakes State Forest and the Department of Planning's refusal to approve the Forestry Commission's Mt Royal environmental impact statement (EIS).

West personally backed the Forestry Commission over both the Oakes State Forest and the current set of environmental impact statements.

"The minister has shown he has been completely wrong in his support for the Forestry Commission, and as the minister responsible he should take the blame for two more damning reports against the commission", NEFA spokesperson Andrew Steed said on March 23.

"There have been far too many reports and court cases damning the commission since Garry West took up the portfolio for him to continue to claim credibility."

The CALM soil erosion report was initiated in May 1992, when NEFA blockaded Oakes Forest and stopped logging operations. It is the basis of a forthcoming Environmental Protection Authority court case against the commission.

The Department of Planning has out thrown the expensive Mt Royal EIS, calling it "inadequate" and full of "inconsistencies and confused analysis." The EIS was ordered in a 1990 court action by NEFA, and when the commission's EISs were released last year, West called them "state of the art" and "the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken in NSW forest".

From GLW issue 94