Dear Koala Lovers,

Firstly, I must apologise for the fact that Deborah’s Diary about the culling of Koalas in Victoria was not posted on our website – just on our socials. We had a glitch and it has now been rectified. You can read it here .

I am certainly watching what has happened and of course the first thing is the welfare of the Koalas. It is a complex issue and many groups are calling for the Victorian Government to be accountable for their actions.

I will focus on the new Environment Minister in Canberra. As you know I believe all Koalas in Australia should be treated equally and I will focus on ensuring that the new Minister will understand AKF’s position. I do not believe the South Australian and Victorian Koalas should not have missed out on the listing both in 2012 and 2022 . Because of the complication of the blue gum plantations where everyone seems to think that there are tens of thousands of Koalas in residence, everything is now grey and no black and white solutions are to be found.

I see the Victorian issue as a management issue and why there is not enough oversight on their activities. When a government “manages” , they feel that outside oversight is not needed.

With our new federal government with a very healthy majority and our Upper House still to be decided, I am going to wait to see what politics will have to be dealt with before I go to Canberra.

What I do know is the Koala Recovery process is glacial and let us hope they get on with it now there is a new government – what that means is anyone’s guess, but to me it is “don’t cut the trees down” . It is a simple as that and their focus seems to be everywhere but there because it will upset industry.

As always, I will focus on the Koala Protection Act – that is the only thing that will save the Koala.

Regards, Deborah