Who’s protecting the endangered staff in our national parks?

There’s a new threatened species in our National Parks and they’re big, friendly and dressed in khaki.

For some months now a new predator in our parks has hunted down the species known to many as the Park Ranger. The carnivorous NSW State Government has been praying on services, stripping them back and shutting down a number of regional offices. It’s a situation that has seen the number of threatened staff, including park rangers, office managers and field staff scaled back.

Disappearing: Where have all the rangers gone?

This destructive force in our National Parks will have an impact on a number of frontline services, including fire and flood management, pest control, aiding stranded whales and the services required to find missing bush walkers.

Regional offices slated for closure or downsizing include those in Hastings, Mount Kosciusko, Dubbo and the greater Sydney area. Closing these offices will put pressure on other resources that are already stretched.

The State Government is saying that with the bushfire season behind us, regional offices won’t be as busy. But there’ll be another bushfire season in just a few months and you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll keep getting worse in years to come, as climate change gets worse.

That’s one reason we should be investing more in our National Parks and Wildlife Service, not taking staff and valuable resources out.

The ridiculous thing is there are already so many unfilled positions in the service, with around 100 positions remaining unfilled. Cutting more staff is only putting more stress on existing staff and resources.

We need more staff, not less, and more resources, not less.