Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall happy with outcome of Nationals' koala policy backdown

NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall could have lost his job on Friday, but was unwilling to comment on party politics after his leader's backdown on the threat to abstain from all government legislation.

After threatening to take his party to the crossbench if there was no change to a new planning law designed to protect koalas, NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro agreed the Nationals would remain as junior coalition partners at a crisis meeting with Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday morning.

Ag Minister Adam Marshall remained coy when asked about his thoughts on the political drama on Friday morning, refusing to comment on the issue until the Premier and Deputy Premier had issued a statement.

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Later in the day, the Northern Tablelands MP was willing to speak out in favour of the outcome, which will see the Nationals' concerns over the koala policy dealt with at an upcoming cabinet meeting.

"I support the actions and I support the outcome of getting this debated at cabinet, which is what I've always wanted," he told the Moree Champion.

"On something as important as this that presents such significant concern and risk for people in rural and regional NSW, it's appropriate that this matter be determined by cabinet, not by one individual minister, regardless of who that individual minister is.

"It will provide opportunity for our substantive and very serious concerns with the SEPP [Koala Habitat Protection State Environmental Planning Policy] to be not only raised but hopefully agreed to, so that hopefully we can end up with a SEPP that everyone fully supports."

Mr Marshall said while nobody's arguing about the importance of having a SEPP to protect core koala habitat and ensure the future of koalas, he is concerned about the consequences that these regulations could have on the agricultural sector.

"The fact is, the new SEPP, in its current form, will tie our farmers up in green tape, lock up their productive land and ultimately drive many of them away from farming," he said.

Although he refused to discuss what went on in the Nationals' meeting on Friday morning, Mr Marshall said he believes Mr Barilaro's leadership is safe, despite the stand-off with the Premier.

Meanwhile, Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson told media on Friday morning that the SEPP had already gone to cabinet.

"The Koala SEPP went through the cabinet and it was agreed to on the proviso that the guidelines would be worked up," Mr Anderson said.

"And that's how most things work. You set the framework and then you work on those details and parts of the regulations later.

"The Liberal Party did not do that. They did not come to the table and did not work up the guidelines or the framework or the regulations that they agreed to. That's where the stalemate came from."

The Nationals vowed on Thursday to introduce a repeal bill of the new Koala State Environmental Planning Policy when parliament returns next Tuesday.