Koalas in one of the few chlamydia free populations in NSW have been found with the disease that causes infertility, blindness and increases susceptibility to dog attack and other threats. The South West Sydney Koala population were discovered to be infected with chlamydiosis in September 2024 and marks a serious challenge to the ongoing viability of the population that is under extreme threat from road expansions, urban expansion and other developments. The Government has known this for months but kept the public in the dark.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said:
"I am devastated but not surprised about this tragic find in the Koala population of South West Sydney, this marks a horrid and significant further challenge for the ongoing survival of koalas in the wild in NSW,"
"It is extremely concerning that the NSW Government has not made this tragic news public until now, especially considering the continuing delay in establishing the promised Great Koala National Park. This news has broken the day after the Minister for the Environment criticised the Parliament for questioning the Government's commitment to transparency and their integrity on the promise to do more to stop koalas edging any closer to extinction,"
"While koala habitat is destroyed and logging continues at a higher intensity in the Great Koala National Park than in recent years, the Government should have come clean about this renewed threat to the critical South West Sydney Koala Population. Premier Minns' program of expanded roads and fast tracking approvals through the planning system for new residential development is already placing too much pressure on this koala population, and now the community has to discover this new threat after the Government has kept this from them for some 6 months,"
"This is not the first time in recent months that the NSW Government has not been forthright with the people of NSW on environmental matters. When fecal matter was washing up on Sydney beaches last year, it took several weeks for the presence of human waste to be officially confirmed, despite scientists testing the materials and identifying the human waste quickly,"
"It is frankly disturbing, that the day after going on the defensive for their lack of honesty and transparency, this Labor Government has again been found to be lying by omission and refusing to be truthful about matters that are of significant concern to the State,"
"It is clear that Koalas in NSW are still on the path to extinction here in NSW, and the promises by Premier Minns to stop this don't seem to be worth the paper they were written on. We had a chance to manage koalas to recovery, but the Minns Government continues to manage our poor koala to extinction. The Government must once again be asked, why has this information been kept secret, and why are we still allowing the Great Koala National Park to be industrially logged almost two years after the Government promised it would end," Ms Higginson said.
