Mark Selmes is much more at home in the quiet forest at Mount Rae near Taralga.
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But on Tuesday he put on his cranky pants, donned his 'Cranky Koala' suit and went off to 'the big smoke.'
Heads turned as he boarded Sydney public transport, armed with his sign - 'Stop logging our home: Save our forests.' Working up a sweat, he marched up to Parliament House where the Libs and Nats were meeting over the controversial Koala State Environmental Planning Policy.
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"Would the laws finally give meaningful protection for koalas?" he wondered.
"Or once again, would they be no more than green wash, full of exemptions for vested interests?"
As a key stakeholder in the environment Cranky Koala wanted to be heard. After all, it was Australian Wildlife Week. Who better to represent their views?
Cranky Koala said he was concerned that the National Party seemed not to understand that to save koalas, people needed to save their homes and food - the trees.
Past laws had seemed to protect mining, logging, industrial scale agriculture and urban development - all at the expense of the koala, he told The Post.
As if that wasn't bad enough, along came prolonged drought and severe bushfires with estimates of over 5,000 koalas dead, alongside millions of Australia's unique wildlife.
A year-long government inquiry had also finally published its results. Cranky said it showed what everyone always knew, "that the much vaunted LNP Koala protections were totally inadequate, and if some meaningful actions weren't taken, koalas would go extinct in the wild."
"Since these findings we've seen koalas once again used as political footballs and public relations stunts," Cranky said.
"Everybody supposedly loves us and wants a picture taken, but will any meaningful actions follow? Governments in the past seemed more intent on finding ways to increase logging, coal seam gas and coal mining in our forests and woodlands, not increasing biodiversity.
"What will the ultimate fate of our koalas be? Will it be the continuation of a slow death by a thousand cuts leading to functional extinction in the wild?
"Will the government adopt all the recommendations of the inquiry? Or will legislation continue to be full of exemptions, guidelines, and offsets for development? Will there be meaningful compliance or will it be a combination of bluff and voluntary codes?"
Outside, as Channel Seven filmed him for a news grab, Cranky wondered about the outcome.
Despite Parliament being known as the bear pit, this koala wasn't allowed inside.
"As he has done so often in the past, he had to content himself with standing outside," Mr Selmes said.
"The tree he had once climbed to protest weak logging laws had been removed. Let's hope that's not symbolic of what will happen to our trees.
"Our koalas will quietly await their fate. They have no choice. Only time will tell whether any meaningful actions back up the rhetoric.
"Unfortunately time is not on the side of the koala."
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