The announcement by Pentarch Forestry that it has stood down 38 employees at its Koolkhan sawmill due to a “critical” timber shortage is something that was entirely predictable. The crisis was triggered by Forestry Corporation only delivering 63% of the contracted log volume, and prompted the Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson, to blame policies introduced by the Minns government, specifically the protection of Koala hubs. Koala hubs are areas identified as having high-density, multi-generational koala populations, where logging has been suspended as part of plans for the Great Koala National Park (GKNP). However, these currently protected hubs have mostly been heavily logged at least once since 2000, and many suffered serious damage during the 2019-20 bushfires, leaving minimal available timber. Unfortunately, that’s the situation across the entire forest estate, a condition entirely the result of government decisions, both Labor and the Coalition, over the past 20 years. In fact, conservationists have been warning that logging regimes are unsustainable over that entire period. The 2000 Regional Forest Agreements allowed logging of state forests to continue until 2020, later extended to 2023, and then to 2028. However, only 9 years into the agreement things began to fall apart, as described by The Institute of Foresters of Australia, explaining that, “In NSW the adopted forest strategy is to unsustainably cut the available public native forest through to 2023 at which point hardwood plantations are proposed to be available to make up the very significant shortfall in logs”. So, 23 years of unsustainable logging was the official timber industry policy, and now the entirely predictable timber shortfall is being blamed on the protection of a few koala hubs. Really? The proposed plantation expansion collapsed in 2008, also a result of government mismanagement, further compounding the problem. Mr. Williamson, who supports Koala protection, a sentiment that aligns with 70% of residents within the proposed GKNP who recently expressed support for the park, states that “a sustainable approach must ensure the preservation of wildlife while supporting jobs”. It’s a shame that politicians didn’t adopt that policy 25 years ago. -John Edwards