The NSW Government has agreed to new rules for koala protections after a dispute that threatened to split the state’s Coalition.

The changes are in line with demands from the NSW Nationals, including Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who wanted rural farming land exempted from the new koala state environmental planning policy (SEPP). 

This means that most rural land will avoid the more stringent rules in planning processes. About 80 per cent of land in the state is not covered by the koala protection regime.

The Government says new codes that protect koala habitat under the Local Land Services Act will be developed over the next month. The details of these codes are unknown for now, except that they will not apply to vast areas of koala habitat. 

The new rules should put to end an issue that almost tore the Coalition apart in 2020, after Nationals MPs threatened to move to the crossbench if the koala planning policy was not abandoned.

“This is a win for regional NSW and balances the interests of farmers and the protection of koalas and their habitat,” the deputy premier said.

“Land zoned for primary production or forestry in regional NSW will not be subject to the new SEPP, which means farmers will not be strangled by red tape. The intention has always been to find a solution to protect both farmers and koalas.”

One of the major threats to koala populations is the expansion of broad-acre cropping in north-west NSW, which has increased significantly since the NSW government relaxed the laws around land clearing in 2017.

The new land-clearing laws allow self-assessment, wherein farmers must ask permission to clear land if they find threatened species are present. 

It has emerged that NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes wrote to Deputy Premier John Barilaro to warn that the new rules would be “ineffective” if rural areas were excluded.