The report found koalas are threatened from human population growth, urban development, forestry, mining and farming. Other factors include chlamydia disease, dog attacks, vehicle collisions and climate change. The primary cause for the decline in koalas is habitat degradation, loss and fragmentation. Indeed, the World Wide Fund for Nature (2018) found Australia is among the worst 11 countries for deforestation, which puts our nation alongside Indonesia, Congo and Brazil. Preservation of wildlife and economic development are not mutually exclusive, they can and should co-exist.

Australia is internationally recognised for its response to COVID-19. A bipartisan alliance of politicians working together to protect its citizens. Ironically COVID-19 has assisted people to recognise their vulnerability, which koalas and other endangered species have long experienced. Federal, state and local governments need to stand with the country and collaboratively implement a best practice policy response, which protects koalas and dozens of local species from their extinction precipice.

GRAEME Kime (To jab or not, that's the question, Letters, 13/11) talks about whether or not to have the vaccine injection. The efficacy of one vaccine being talked about is 90 per cent. The efficacy of the influenza vaccine we have been given in the past years is around 60 per cent. So from these figures you can see that hopefully the COVID-19 vaccine will hopefully prevent most transmission of the virus.

This past year my wife and I were vaccinated against the influenza virus and still ended up getting it. We were both COVID-19 negative. Both of us are in the aged bracket, the vaccine most probably saved us from a heavy response to the virus. The vaccine together with hand sanitation and social distancing and the wearing of masks hopefully will mean only a small amount of COVID-19 will exist worldwide. It also means that those that do not want to be vaccinated can opt out. It would be better if we all vaccinated, but that will never happen due to human nature. We know how it spreads and therefore we have to do everything in our powers to make sure we keep this virus away from all vulnerable people. It can be done if we follow the procedure I have just mentioned. It will always be present somewhere in the world. We just have to learn to live with it.

BARNABY Joyce says Newcastle would be a "pretty miserable sort of town" without coal ("You can't just have an economy that runs along the beach", Letters, 14/11).

While I respect that Mr Joyce is the ultimate arbiter of misery, this hot take from New England should be dismissed. Reducing Newcastle, its people, and its future to coal can no longer be put down to ignorance. Over the past 20 years this city has undergone the most substantial economic, social, and urban transformation of any city in this country.

MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Such is its potential and appeal that during the pandemic you could scarcely find an Airbnb here on account of the many Sydneysiders who relocated when allowed to work from home. With the future of work now completely disrupted, Newcastle stands to be one of the rare beneficiaries of this health and economic crisis.

Its proximity to a capital city, its global gateways in the port and airport, and its amenity and overall 'livability' position it perfectly to capture the benefits of a more dispersed and autonomous workforce. It's encouraging to read that most, although not all, of our federal members share this optimism.

ON climate action, had the dire warning of the supreme, throughout the field, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, been heeded decades ago, there would be no concern about yawning inaction.

Australia's above average temperatures, often well above, outstrip below, mostly barely below. Such a change should only be seen over eons, not 30 years. Average temperatures should be ruled off at 2000AD. Greater dryness is a much longer fire season, and area affected, at any one time. A "catastrophic" warning has been introduced. Fire-free rainforests are now burning. The loss of Arctic Sea ice, now mostly seasonal, over only 60 years, means, as Earth heads into the "midnight sun", massive energy is not reflected, but absorbed.

THE personal aspects of the Premier's relationship with MP Daryl Maguire are not the business of ICAC. But "public" aspects of Gladys Berejiklian's behaviour certainly merit investigation by ICAC. Did Berejiklian turn a blind eye to Maguire's misuse of taxpayer money? Did she order, or was she complicit, in the destruction of evidence in relation to sports rorts?

The fact that NSW ICAC cannot act to protect voters unless the government agrees, is an anomaly that needs correction. Whilst ICAC should not be an undemocratic or extrajudicial body, voters need more protection from corrupt and ineffectual politicians and governments. On the face of it, Premier Berejiklian should go. But who on the Coalition's front bench would replace her? Most of Berejiklian's ministers would, of course, put their hands up for her job. But do any of them have enough leadership talent?

AS the "Committee for the Hunter" correctly points out (Herald, Opinion, 14/11), the development of a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle is contingent on removal of the government penalty on container traffic above a minimal specific cap. But the government strenuously denies that its penalty prevents Port of Newcastle Investments Pty Ltd (PoN) from developing a container terminal. Having agreed to the penalty in 2014, PoN now wants it to be removed.

Parliament authorised the Port of Newcastle to be leased to the private sector by passing the "Ports Assets (Authorised Transactions) Amendment Act 2013". Do the ALP, The Greens, and the Shooters Farmers and Fishers representatives in the NSW Parliament, seriously contend that the government acted lawfully by leasing the port to PoN for the purpose of charging the penalty? For that matter, does the "Committee for the Hunter" claim that the port was lawfully leased?

JOHN Arnold reckons Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon needs to follow the lead of the Greens and design a serious just transition policy now if he wants to bring back hearts, create jobs and serve communities (Letters, 14/11). I can imagine Mr Fitzgibbon reading The Herald over breakfast and taking in Mr Arnold's advice. I'm not sure what he would say, but you probably couldn't print it.

MR Gormly (Short Takes, 14/11), if you spend a little more than 30 seconds reading about the work of Prof Hansen, or Hanson as you misspell it, you will see that in a 2007 paper he says "when temperatures rose by 2-3 degrees 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose 25 metres". I suppose that was caused by burning fossil fuels too?

GREG Hunt, may I bring it to your attention that we are not the only species on this planet. Every species has as much right to exist as the virus that is the human race. We may be able to adapt to rising temperatures and rising sea levels, but the millions of other species we share the planet with will not. Young people should be alarmed; after all it's their future we are destroying today.

THE truth Carl Stevenson (Letters, 14/11) is that the world needs to dramatically stop pouring carbon into the atmosphere, as well as sequestering it into land, seas and vegetation, to be capable of reaching net zero emissions. And net zero is just an important milestone, not the end of the journey. We need to reach a negative balance (the more negative the better) before atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will start to decline, a process likely to take centuries.

THE Coalition's plan for gas supply has already become obsolete. South Australia is about to start supplying hydrogen gas to its domestic consumers, produced from renewable energy. No need to change anything, just pump it in. How good is green hydrogen!

MICHAEL Hinchey is trying to say Trump voters have Shorten syndrome. As for Labor's blue collar supporters that have disappeared the reason is simple; blue collar tradies are earning white collar dollars in many cases more than university educated folk. So they have climbed the corporate ladder so to speak and the view is pretty good from up there.

DONALD Trump urged Republicans to attend his rallies, taking no responsibility for them being super-spreader events. I believe that he did not care if they contracted COVID-19 so long as they voted for him. Would a postal vote lodged by someone you died before election day be ruled illegal? Only if it voted Democrat I suspect.