Keith Duncan, Pimlico
An excellent letter from Allan Veacock (2 December) praising Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack for her principled stand against Nationals bully-boy John Barilaro and his cohorts for once again trying to trash NSW’s land clearing laws protecting prime koala habitat.
Thank you, Catherine Cusack you have gained the respect of all North Coast environmentalists regardless of politics. Local Nationals MP’s Ben Franklin and Chris Gulaptus should be tarred and feathered for their support of this legislation designed to aid developers.
The Nationals are notorious environmental vandals, and for Gladys Berejiklian to cave in so easily to bullies like John (Pork) Barilaro shows just how weak she is. Is it any wonder she saw or heard no evil (or so she claims) in the years she was intimately involved with corrupt former MP Daryl Maguire?
The Nationals now struggle to hold their once safe regional seats. National MP for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams, defected to the Liberals over koala policy. In our area they lost Ballina to the Greens and Lismore to Labor. In western NSW they’ve lost three once safe seats to the Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers Party. To say the Nationals are in decline is a massive understatement.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
