A PARROT is about to cost 1000 workers their jobs because the Federal Government has ordered a timber industry to shut to protect the bird.
The unprecedented government intervention will see the NSW families out of a job within days.
The Daily Telegraph has learned Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's department issued a stop-work order to the State Government 10 days ago, a move the industry claims could wipe out the entire southern NSW town of Deniliquin.
It ordered it cease all clear felling of red gum in the Central Murray Darling region - timber used mainly for firewood and railway sleepers - due to concerns over the future of the superb parrot.
Sometimes referred to as the green leek parrot, the social bird nests in the hollows of the red gums and is nationally listed as vulnerable.
Conservationists claim the flight patterns of the bird, which lives for up to 25 years, are being disrupted as it does not like flying over open spaces.
Read more at The Daily Telegraph
