media release

24 June 2010

NSW Labor supports dismantling our Marine Protected Areas

On the last day of NSW Parliament for the Legislative Council, NSW Labor has joined the Shooters and National Party campaign to dismantle our Marine Protected Areas, delivering a significant blow to our iconic coastline environment and regional tourism. Greens MP Ian Cohen is declaring the Labor Party’s moratorium on Marine Protected Areas an absolute betrayal of our coastline.

“I would have thought NSW Labor was already scaping the bottom of the policy barrel after its campaign to introduce inappropriate, large scale commercial development into our National Parks,” says Greens MP Ian Cohen 

“Having watched the NSW Labor Government indicate this morning that it supported the Shooters and National Party campaigns to place a moratorium on marine protected areas, it is clear NSW Labor has hit rock bottom in managing the NSW environment.   

“NSW Labor’s support for a moratorium of marine protected areas in the International Year of Biodiversity and in the face of recent independent economic modelling of marine protected areas in Western Australia is simply irrational.”

“NSW Labor is supporting a Bill that will actively prevent the protection and conservation of critically endangered and threatened marine species and ecosystems such as grey nurse sharks and sea turtles. For the last 15 years Labor has professed the need to protect our endangered species and coastal ecosystems in Marine Protected Areas and in one foul swoop the Labor Party has abandoned the science of marine protection.”

“The NSW Greens are committed to protecting our endangered marine species and ecosystems for future generations and will fight up and down the NSW coastline against the Labor and Shooters Party campaign to take marine protection back to the dark ages.”