The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP
Minister for the Environment and Energy
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Minister Frydenberg,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council.

WWF works to conserve Australia’s plants and animals, by ending land clearing, addressing climate change, and preserving and protecting our fresh water, marine and land environments. WWF has over 80,000 supporters, and active projects in Australia and the Oceania region. We are very concerned by the much-loved and recognised koalas, as their numbers are in steep decline.

Koalas are under threat of being wiped out in parts of Queensland and New South Wales, conservation group WWF Australia has warned. (Koalas could soon be wiped out in areas of NSW and Queensland)

Dr Martin Taylor, (protected areas and conservation science manager at WWF Australia) said once the habitat had been redeveloped, that then brought in new threats to the koala, such as more cars, more dogs, “more accidents waiting to happen for koalas.”

Nowhere to go- Save Koalas

Numbers are down 53 per cent on average in Queensland, 26 per cent in NSW and in a pocket known as the Koala Coast, numbers have declined by 80 per cent over the past two decades.

Redeveloped koala habitat is now a euphemism for its vandalisation – environmental destruction of their food sources and life-support. Just how can this legal “redevelopment” be allowed, destroying the fabric our our environment and killing off our iconic native animals?

Tourism is worth a lot of income to Australia, and nobody wants to come to see generic urban sprawl, more and more roads and developments!

The group has warned of “localised extinctions” if more was not done to stop development encroaching on koala habitats. Australia as a leading world economy should be setting environmental and conservation standards, not be worse than a corrupt, out-of-control third world nation wrecking their natural environments and forcing native animals extinctions!

We would like to know exactly what is being done to protect koalas from dying slowly and horribly because of the greed of property developers, and the growth of human numbers in Queensland and NSW?

(Supplied: with permission of WWF Australia/Sue Gedda)

“Government has to bite the bullet and put in strong protections, not just for koalas but for all our wildlife,” Dr Taylor said. Extinction is not an event, but a process. Loss of habitat is a silver bullet for threatening their survival, and their demise.

“Government has to bite the bullet and put in strong protections, not just for koalas but for all our wildlife,” Dr Taylor said.

“The problem is there are so many get out of jail free cards for the all the industries that want to destroy habitats.”

So many permits for “development”, housing growth, etc, aka habitat destruction and violation of the rights of indigenous animals to exist.

Australia already has an abysmal reputation globally as a leading mammal exterminator, due to the ignorance and damage done by Colonialism and our early settlers. They were once paid to “clear the bush”. Haven’t we learned anything from the mistakes of the past – or are we still in a time-warp of the Colonial mentality?

We wait for your response as this is urgent, and we don’t want to be the generation responsible for the extinction and demise of our wonderful and endearing koalas in the wild in NSW and Queensland. Extensive and interconnecting wildlife corridors are urgently needed, before more lethal “developments”, and much better funded responses to emergencies, and support for wildlife carers. Responding in hindsight is just assuming the worst is inevitable!

Thank you and sincerely

AWPC secretary