Maria Paola Torti, Italy
I’m Maria Paola Torti. I live in Italy, and I’m very concerned with the NSW coalition government’s new State Environment Planning Policy Bill 2021. It’s catastrophic, a death blow for koalas!
This new Koala SEPP 2021 announced 9 March 2021 by the deputy premier John Barilaro and the minister for Planning and Public Spaces Robert Stokes is a catastrophic setback for koalas in NSW, which were already on track for extinction by 2050!
They have just announced that farming and forestry zones will be excluded from the koala protection policy, even though these are THE MOST IMPORTANT AREAS of koala habitat under threat!
This means zero protection for 67 per cent of NSW’s koalas that live on private land zoned for farming or forestry!
I’m also very concerned that it removes councils’ ability to regulate logging on private land.
This policy has to be changed!
We across the whole world love your iconic koalas! When the pandemic is over thousands and thousands of tourists from all over the world will come to Australia bringing much money to see your iconic koalas in the wild.
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. 
