The 2025 NSW State of the Environment Report has revealed the true extent of inaction and recklessness of the Minns Labor Government when it comes to protecting NSW’s environment.
The independently written Report card is a damning indictment of NSW Labor’s inability to deliver any meaningful environment support or reforms, with 71 of the environmental indicators assessed by the independent Environment Protection Authority, only 8 are improving. 23 are getting worse, and 5 remain unknown.
The Shadow Minister for the Environment, James Griffin has joined peak conservation groups who have called the report “truly alarming”.
Tanya Davies MP, Member for Badgerys Creek, criticised the NSW Labor Government, stating “The previous Coalition Government increased the size of National Parks in NSW by nearly 10%, banned problem plastics and gave the EPA even stronger powers. In contrast, the NSW Labor Government are overseeing an environmental disaster.”
The previous Liberal Government had a proud record on protecting the state’s environment:
• Invested more than $2 billion through the NSW Budget in programs focusing on environment and heritage protection and conservation.
• Increased the size of national parks in NSW, which since 2019, has expanded by more than 600,000 hectares of land for protection in perpetuity – an increase of 8.4 per cent.
• Banned problematic single-use plastics such as plastic bags, cutlery, plates, bowls and polystyrene food ware, removing more than 2.7 billion items of plastic from our environment in the next 20 years.
• Delivered $9 million in funding through the Circular Plastics Program to turbocharge plastic recycling, helping businesses transform their operations and access the latest plastic recycling technology.
• Purchased Fernhill Estate in Mulgoa as the people’s park for Western Sydney, with a $65 million vision to increase access and utilisation which the Minns Labor Government cancelled funding for.
In contrast the Minns Labor Government has demonstrated all their talk prior to the state election in 2023 was nothing more than hot air to win votes.
“Chris Minns’ promised environmental leadership, instead he’s overseen one of the most damning reports on the environment in nearly 50 years. Things aren’t getting better, they’re going backwards” said Mr Griffin.
Under Labor, land management and conservation efforts have stalled. Growth in both public and private conservation reserves which was trending upward under the former Coalition Government, has now tanked, with the amount of public land formally protected in NSW increasing by just 0.1% since Minns came to power.
The Report also indicates that the state’s ecological carrying capacity, or the ability of our vegetation to support native species, has dropped from 31% in 2021 to just 29%, while marine and coastal indicators also reflect worsening conditions:
• Swimming sites rated ‘good’ or ‘very good’ have dropped by 7% since 2021–22
• Kelp forests declined by up to 62% at all monitored sites between 2019 and 2023
• Fish deaths have spiked by 48% since the last State of the Environment report, with 190 death events recorded since 2021
“Chris Minns and his Labor Government should hang their heads in shame with this report. People across NSW want to conserve our beautiful environment, not wreck it. Minns needs to explain how his government is going to fix this, they’ve had two years to think of some ideas” said Mr Griffin.
The State of the Environment Report can be found here: NSW State of the Environment | NSW State of the Environment