‘A drop in the ocean’: government’s $50m koala pledge won’t tackle root cause of decline

The announcement took place in a fashion Australians have come to expect in election years, with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, cuddling up to a furry marsupial while promising record investment.

This time it was a plan for the Australian government to spend $50m to improve the protection and recovery of one of the nation's most-loved animals, the koala.

Fifty million for a single species is certainly significant, particularly when you consider $10m in grants is to be shared between 100 animals and plants the government identified last year as priorities in a new threatened species strategy.

But whether or not it makes a difference in turning around the fortunes of an animal - that a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry found could be extinct in that state by 2050 - could depend on multiple outstanding policies and decisions that are due to be settled in 2022.

"Money alone isn't the issue to save the koala," says Alexia Wellbelove, a senior campaign manager at Humane Society International (HSI).

"You need a strong conservation framework."

Much has been said about koala recovery since bushfires burned millions of hectares of land in Australia's black summer fires in 2019-20.

Already a prominent species in campaigns run by conservation organisations for stronger environmental protections, the koala's plight was met with new urgency after images of burnt and starving animals were seen around the world.

HSI, WWF Australia and the International Fund for Animal Welfare argue that the combined effects of multiple, ongoing threats - global heating, disease and habitat destruction - mean the species is on an accelerated track toward extinction.

They submitted a nomination to the federal government calling on it to urgently assess the koala populations of Queensland, NSW and the Australian Capital Territory for an upgraded listing under national environmental laws.

Listed as "vulnerable" since 2012, the koala now requires the more serious status of "endangered" due to continued declines in population numbers and habitat, they said.

They also called on the Morrison government to finally develop a recovery plan that had been identified under national laws as a requirement for the species since 2012, but which successive Australian governments have failed to deliver.

The nomination was accepted for assessment and the threatened species scientific committee - an independent body that advises the government on conservation listings - handed its recommendation that the koala be officially listed as endangered to the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, late last year.

A final version of a proposed recovery plan was handed to Ley for ministerial signoff around the same time.

Unlike some past ministers in the portfolio, Ley has shown willingness to accept the deadlines and recommendations of the scientific body and her decision about the endangered listing - which must be made by mid-March - is expected imminently.

A spokesperson said Ley is reviewing the committee's advice and would make her decision in accordance with her statutory obligations. They said the minister was reviewing the final draft of the recovery plan at the same time.

IFAW's regional director, Rebecca Keeble, says patience has worn thin among conservationists almost 10 years after a national strategy to save the koala expired.

"We need to understand what the strategy is to save this species and what that's going to cost because $50m is just a drop in the ocean," she says.

"Without addressing the root cause of their decline, which is habitat loss and climate change, we're just plugging holes in a sinking ship."

Australian governments of all levels have acknowledged the koala's trajectory needs to change.

But destruction of koala habitat continues and development in important areas, such as Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west, continues to be approved.

Data from the Queensland and NSW governments, shows that land-clearing in both states continues to rise.

The former NSW environment minister, Matt Kean, declared he wanted to double the number of koalas in the state by 2050, shortly after a parliamentary inquiry found they were on track for extinction.

He also announced last year the government would spend $193m over a five-year period on a statewide plan for koala conservation.

But that plan, known as the NSW koala strategy, is yet to be seen despite a previous strategy having expired in the middle of 2021.

Promised new codes for land management and private native forestry, as well as an updated koala planning policy are also outstanding almost 18 months after koala habitat management nearly split the NSW Coalition.

The policies are all issues to be resolved this year by a new ministerial team of James Griffin in environment, the agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, and the deputy premier, Paul Toole.

"The NSW government has taken no real steps to protect koala habitat," says Jacqui Mumford, the acting chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.

Last year, the council brought together a group of wildlife carers who called on the Perrottet government to increase habitat protections to reduce the number of animals that were ending up in hospital care, sometimes for repeat visits.

"What we really want to see is the release of the overdue koala strategy," Jacqui says.

A spokesperson for Griffin said detailed targets for koala populations and expenditure would form part of a new koala strategy but gave no date for its release.

They said the government was also "reviewing the PNF (private native forestry) codes of practice to ensure robust protection for koalas."

The $50m announced by the Morrison government last week includes $20m for health and habitat protection projects, $10m for community activities such as habitat restoration, $2m to improve koala health, $1m for koala care and treatment and $10m for a national koala monitoring program.

That monitoring program is an extension of a koala audit it announced in 2020 with an initial $2m in funding.

The surveys for that koala count have faced delays due to Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns, and the government handed carriage of the program to the CSIRO last year.

It expects the audit will be finalised late in 2022.

But still to be resolved are the overarching protections not just for koalas but for all of Australia's wildlife at a national level.

A once-in-a-decade review of federal environment laws by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel in 2020 found successive Australian governments had comprehensively failed in their duty to protect Australia's environment.

Samuel made 38 recommendations to transform the act, including a proposal for new national environmental standards that require clear outcomes for Australia's plants and animals.

The government has never issued a response to any of those recommendations, instead drafting a bill that would reduce its role in environmental decision making by giving state governments carriage of decisions under the national act - that bill has stalled in the Senate.

A draft set of national standards put forward by the government last year does not contain the improved protections Samuel had in mind.

"If we had really good national environmental standards that were focused on environmental outcomes we could actually prevent the destruction of koala habitat," Wellbelove says.

Jess Abrahams, national nature campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, says the $50m was welcome and a sign the government understood the decline of koalas was a serious issue for the Australian public.

But he says the task for all of Australia's threatened wildlife is far greater.

In December, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature added 124 new Australian entries to its red list of threatened species, including spiders and insects on Kangaroo Island that were badly affected by the black summer fires.

Almost 2,000 species and habitats are listed as threatened under Australian environmental laws.

The state of the environment report, produced by the government every five years, is due early this year and is expected to show declines have continued.

"It's obvious the koala is an iconic and cute and cuddly creature and the PM had his photo opportunity with a koala," Abrahams says.

"But there's a ton of species that aren't charismatic - like the spiders on Kangaroo Island - and I sadly can't see that kind of money coming to those and all the other species on our threatened species list.

"We need to do a whole lot more."