The NSW environment department is doing an abysmal job of protecting the state's 1100 threatened species from extinction, its latest report card shows.
The state auditor-general's report lists many failures, including that the department did nothing to help almost 70 per cent of those species in 2022/23.
It paints a picture of a dramatically underfunded department that cannot afford to help or effectively monitor plants, animals and ecological communities at risk of extinction.
The report follows a grim review in 2023 by former treasury secretary Ken Henry that warned half of the state's imperilled species could vanish within a century without radical action.
The audit found the department did not deliver any conservation activities - including monitoring - for 69 per cent of threatened species and ecological communities in 2022-23.
"This includes some species considered a high priority for intervention, as well as species (the department) has recognised require ongoing monitoring to identify any change to extinction risk," it said.
The report aimed particularly at the government's flagship Saving our Species program, which only delivers help for less than a third of the species in trouble.
"The number of species and ecological communities that (the department) actively manages, or funds other entities to manage, has reduced by 19 per cent since 2018-19," it says.
"This decrease corresponds with a decline in program funding of 25 per cent in 2021-22."
The audit said that performance measures were hard to interpret and failed to provide a full view of how many species had been protected overall, and how many were responding to intervention.
The department was also heavily criticised for failing to consistently engage with other agencies on key threats including land clearing and invasive species.
The result was risky contradictory efforts and duplication.
Greens environment spokeswoman Sue Higginson said the failings meant species could be dangerously close to disaster without anyone knowing it.
She said environmental spending had been falling, including under the current Labor government, and some things could be done tomorrow to improve the situation.
"(Like) ending the industrial logging of our public native forests, which is one of the most serious drivers of extinction of some of our most iconic forest-dependent threatened species," she said.
State Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said the government would implement the audit report's recommendations in full.
They include improving oversight of the Saving Our Species program, addressing risks associated with out-of-date conservation strategies, and publicly reporting outcomes.
"Any policy and program improvements we implement will deliver on the plan’s twin objectives of no new extinctions and restoring threatened species and ecosystems," she said in a statement.
AAP has sought comment from her federal counterpart Tanya Plibersek, who has promised to ward off any new extinctions in Australia.
