Lismore’s Friends of the Koala says it’s not too late to prevent koalas going extinct in the wild on the North Coast – but our window of opportunity is rapidly closing.

An animal activist has accused two National Party MPs of ‘misleading the public’ over claims the RMS has revegetated more than a hundred hectares of land along the Pacific Highway Ballina upgrade route with tens of thousands of koala feed trees.

The Ballina Pacific Highway Upgrade is a disaster waiting to happen. A major bushfire of over 300 hectares two weeks ago has left important areas of koala and long-nosed potoroo habitat burned to the ground, writes Sue Arnold.

With the Ballina Pacific Highway Upgrade poised to begin operations, scientists, community organisations, and environmental groups are horrified by the devices put in place by the RMS to change wildlife behaviour.

Backed up by a renowned koala expert, local, national and international conservation groups are accusing the Roads, Maritime Services (RMS) agency of submitting inaccurate and misleading information in the Ballina Koala plan.

In the clearest show yet that the state government is unmoved about the plight of the north coast’s last intact koala colony, it indicated in parliament yesterday that it still intends to plough through it when it builds the new Pacific Highway south of Ballina.

NSW shadow environment minister Penny Sharpe has accepted a petition of more than 17,000 signatures aimed at highlighting the plight of one of the last intact koala colonies on the north coast.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW has accused state government bodies of potentially overseeing the localised extinction of koalas in two sites on the north coast.

Lismore Labor candidate Isaac Smith has defended his decision to vote against a motion to express concern about the Pacific Highway upgrade between Ballina and Broadwater, which critics say will decimate the northern rivers koala population.

The Greens have lashed out at comments by retiring National Party Ballina MP Don Page that moving the route of the Pacific Highway away from an endangered koala colony would cost human lives.