Chlamydiosis discovered in South West Sydney Koalas with no Government announcement
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 and other developments. No government announcement has been made in relation to the discovery.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said “This is a tragic find in the Koala population of South West Sydney and marks a further challenge for the ongoing survival for koalas in the wild in NSW,”
“It is extremely disappointing that the NSW Government had not made this knowledge public, especially considering the continuing delay in announcing the Great Koala National Park and that this news has broken the day after the Minister for the Environment criticised the Parliament for questioning their commitment to transparency and accountability,”
“While 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 clearing the planning system for new residential development was already placing incredible pressure on this population, and now the community has to discover this new threat through reporting in the media instead of by the Government, that has known about this for 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, and the promises by Premier Minns to reverse that don’t seem to be worth the paper they were written on. 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.