{"id":762101,"date":"2026-06-26T18:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762101\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:35:21","slug":"park-to-protect-12000-koalas-to-go-ahead-via-contentious-carbon-credit-deal-by-albanese-government-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762101\/","title":{"rendered":"Park to protect 12,000 koalas to go ahead via contentious carbon credit deal by Albanese government | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long-promised New South Wales great koala national park<\/a>is set to go ahead after the Albanese government greenlit the state to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for protecting native forests previously earmarked for logging.<\/p>\n

The assistant climate change minister, Josh Wilson, said the government had approved a regulatory change that allowed state governments to earn carbon credits by storing carbon dioxide in native forests on public land.<\/p>\n

Each carbon credit is said to represent one kilogram of emissions that has been prevented or sucked from the atmosphere \u2013 most often in trees or the landscape \u2013 rather than released to contribute to global heating.<\/p>\n

Their use is contentious, partly because polluting companies are allowed to buy an unlimited number of credits \u2013 also known as offsets \u2013 to count as their own cuts while continuing to pollute. Scientists have warned limiting the climate crisis requires rapid direct cuts in emissions and that carbon offsets should be used sparingly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The NSW government, which proposed the new method to create carbon credits, had been waiting on federal approval of the new carbon credit before delivering an election commitment to add 176,000 hectares of national park near Coffs Harbour.<\/p>\n

The method could be used across the country, but the conservative governments in other states with native forest industries \u2013 Tasmania and Queensland \u2013 have rejected using carbon credits to reduce logging, arguing it would cost regional jobs.<\/p>\n

NSW Labor first promised a koala park while in opposition more than a decade ago. It confirmed its commitment in September, saying it would protect old-growth forests, at least 12,000 koalas and more than 100 other threatened species.<\/p>\n

Campaigners were concerned authorities may respond to the creation of the park by ramping up forestry elsewhere, but the final design<\/a> of the carbon credit method aims to prevent this by reducing and capping the amount of logging allowed, as carbon credits are issued.<\/p>\n

The state environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said the carbon credit revenue would benefit regional communities by creating diversified revenue streams and 100 new jobs in the national park. She said the government would now register its carbon project plan with the federal Clean Energy Regulator.<\/p>\n

Conservation organisations were split in their response to the announcement.<\/p>\n

Dailan Pugh, from the North East Forrest Alliance, said it was a \u201cgamechanger\u201d that could allow the recovery of an area that had lost half its stored carbon as big trees were removed.<\/p>\n

The Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, led by former federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry, said the method was a \u201conce-in-a-generation opportunity to drive down greenhouse gas emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Nature Conservation Council said it put a financial value on the carbon stored in the forests, strengthening the case for stopping native forest logging completely. Campaigner Clancy Barnard said the council welcomed the inclusion of strong safeguards to prevent logging and clearing \u201csimply shifting elsewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Wilderness Society opposed the change, arguing it would allow big emitters to continue polluting, and called for native forests to be protected without offsetting. Its Tasmanian forest campaigner, Hughie Nicklason, said carbon credit schemes had \u201crepeatedly been decried as a sham\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Labor Party bastardry\u2019<\/p>\n

Some critics challenged the justification for the new method. Under carbon accounting rules, credits can only be created if they represent an \u201cadditional\u201d emissions reduction \u2013 that is, the project delivering the reduction would not have happened otherwise.<\/p>\n

NSW Labor\u2019s public position has been that the koala park depended on carbon credits. But government sources have also indicated<\/a> it intended to create it with or without that revenue.<\/p>\n

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said the logging industry was unprofitable and the government should end it regardless of carbon credit revenue. \u201cReducing our forests in NSW to cash cows and offsets for climate polluters \u2026 sends a signal across the country that governments can disregard the intrinsic value of nature in favour of the latest get-out-of-jail-free card for climate polluters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Bob Brown Foundation\u2019s patron, former Australian Greens leader Christine Milne, said NSW Labor had retrofitted an election promise by making it conditional on creating offsets for polluting industry. \u201cIt is typical Labor party bastardry,\u201d she said. \u201cCarbon credits are shonky and lack integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian Forest Products Association accused the government of prioritising politics over science, and said the method did not meet requirements for \u201cintegrity, transparency or additionality\u201d. Its acting chief executive, Richard Hyett, said he was \u201cgutted by this controversial decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wilson told Nine newspapers the Albanese government had \u201cno plans to end logging\u201d and using carbon credit revenue to protect forests was \u201ca voluntary option for state governments to diversify their regional economies\u201d. He said the revenue could be spent in areas including ecotourism and carbon land management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-promised New South Wales great koala national parkis set to go ahead after the Albanese government greenlit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-762101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}