WTF? Natural Resources Commission (NRC)… how dare they spread these deliberate lies and total bullshit. I am a koala rescuer and moved to this beautiful region four years ago and have been a wildlife rescuer for 15 years. I’ve also volunteered to plant koala trees since I moved here.
The point being I have seen with my own eyes the increasing risk to koalas, their diminishing habitat and increased cases of chlamydia. This awareness and experience has shocked and angered me for a multiplicity of reasons. The Forestry Industry, NRC (their name says everything) environment departments both at state and federal level, have sold Blinky out and they willingly continue to do this. There is at least 40 years of evidence from NGOs and independent scientists documenting the increasing decline and ill health of koala populations along the east coast. The vested interests who don’t give a crap about Blinky and family continue to ‘research’ populations into extinction. They too are fully aware that koala populations are in sharp decline and have been so way before the unprecedented bushfires of 2019–20. This argument re-deluding the Australian public (smoke and mirrors campaign) is all about providing loggers with unsustainable trees (native forests) – until there is none. It’s also about granting farmers everything they want, as votes are always more important than our endangered and longsuffering wildlife, who unfortunately cannot vote. The mature old gum trees provide the best nutrition for koala populations and also provide tree hollows for a plethora of other species, but unfortunately these take 100 years and more to develop. How many of these giants are left? Bugger all.
We have seen, for decades, that governments cannot be trusted to actually do what most of the citizens want, they are answerable only to the rich and powerful who determine government policy and funding. Our political system has long been broken, and after all it was written by those elite powerful/corrupt white guys, so why would any informed person expect it to work for those at the bottom of the totem pole? Our precious wildlife doesn’t even get a look in at the bottom of that totem pole… this breaks my heart and traumatises many other wildlife carers like myself. We have compassion fatigue and have to witness this carnage and destruction at the frontlines. I can’t see this ongoing tragedy improving anytime soon, but we must continue to do what we can for the diminishing wildlife in our own region. These incredible, vitally important, and beautiful native species deserve our best intentions and are relying on the little we can do for them, until people stop voting for the Liberal National Party (LNP).
Then the next challenge that will evolve is to get the ‘next lot’ to do a lot better than the last lot in government… I often despair, but we cannot give up. We must attempt to save Blinky and family, and by doing this many other native species may just survive too. I have to say I feel ashamed at this point in time to be Australian.
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. 
