A former colleague of slain environmental officer Glen Turner has exposed constant attacks, abuse and bullying of frontline workers, saying Mr Turner was "collateral damage to the redneck community" of rural NSW.
Phil Redpath said workers at the Office of Environment and Heritage, whose job it is to investigate and enforce native vegetation legislation, have been subject to "unrelenting vilification" by farmers, right-wing politicians and commentators championing the rights of private property owners.
Years of escalating tensions related to the Native Vegetation Act, which is under review, culminated in the alleged murder of Mr Turner by 79-year-old farmer Ian Turnbull on Tuesday.
Mr Turner was allegedly shot once in the back while serving a notice on Mr Turnbull for illegal vegetation clearing at Croppa Creek, near Moree.
"If his death results in the native vegetation legislation being repealed then what that sends is a clear message that all you have to do is murder a public servant and you get your way," Mr Redpath said.
"The message is ... we can vilify them, we can antagonise them, we can bully them, we can harass them, we can name and shame them."
Mr Redpath, who was made redundant during departmental staff cuts last year, worked alongside Mr Turner investigating illegal clearing at Croppa Creek and other parts of NSW.
He witnessed standover tactics from farmers including being filmed while gathering evidence, verbally threatened and blocked from accessing or leaving properties.
The NSW Nationals have vehemently opposed Labor's land clearing laws and were branded "deranged" by NSW Labor environment spokesman Luke Foley on Friday for seeking to "justify" or "explain away" the alleged murder.
"[It's] the same mindset that led to right-wing American extremists committing the Oklahoma bombing," Mr Foley said.
"For politicians as senior as the Deputy Premier of the state [Andrew Stoner] and the federal Agriculture Minister [Barnaby Joyce] to endorse rage against land-clearing laws is a betrayal of their offices."
Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser, also a member of the Nationals, was quoted on Friday as describing the alleged murder as "a tragic event that I think has been brought about by bad legislation".
Mr Stoner, who is leader of the NSW Nationals, was quoted in the same article as Mr Fraser saying the land clearing laws "have been a sore point in farming communities since they were introduced by a Labor-Greens alliance in 2003". He said Mr Foley's comments were "insensitive, cheap and amount to slanderous lies".
Mr Stoner told Fairfax Media: "This is a tragic crime that cannot be justified on any grounds."
Mr Joyce, who is also deputy leader of the Nationals, told AAP the shooting "is not an isolated incident, this is just the worst of a range of incidents". He clarified his views, saying: "This person was doing no more than his job – no one endorses murder. But people have the right to ask the question: what was this issue about?"
In 2010, talkback host Alan Jones said the behaviour of the department was the type that "led people to murder".
Mr Redpath said he was appalled that the Public Service Association of NSW, the police, senior management of the Office of Environment and Heritage and successive governments had done nothing to address the constant threats and abuse.
PSA assistant general secretary Steve Turner said any conversation about law reform "should be put aside and debated at another day".
A spokesman for the OEH said compliance work "can be stressful for government officers and the community members involved" but there was no evidence of constant threats.
"OEH takes the welfare of its staff seriously and has a support network for employees in these situations. Staff are advised to report assaults, threats of violence and intimidation to police as well as to their supervisors. There is no evidence to support claims of constant or an increasing number of incidents."
A NSW police spokesman said no reports had been made to local police.
