Port Stephens Koalas has called on the state government to implement a "top-level working party" involving representatives from both development and environmental groups to look at how habitat can be saved for the sake of the marsupial's survival.
Ron Land, the chief executive of Port Stephens Koalas, said his organisation would be willing to participate in a working party, which he hoped would include members of the Property Council of Australia and government representatives, particularly from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
"We need to develop a system that can bring about sustainable development without the wholesale destruction of native habitat, which is what is happening now," Mr Land said.
Mr Land's comments come a day after the government released its response to an Upper House inquiry into the marsupial's populations and habitat.
The government said it supported 11 of the 42 recommendations, while offering "support in principle" to 17 others. It "noted" the remaining 14.
"Many of the key recommendations, the vast majority of which were supported by all committee members because they are what needs to be done to save koalas from extinction, seem to have been rejected outright," Greens MP and chair of the upper house committee Cate Faehrmann said.
Mr Land said the recent unsuccessful battle to save a parcel of land at Brandy Hill from a quarry expansion was a "case in point" that showed the present system for protecting koala habitat was not working.
He said Port Stephens Koalas had presented "top quality submissions time and again" arguing for the retention of habitat, "for zero effect".
"If change doesn't come about, without a shadow of a doubt, the koala won't survive in meaningful numbers in NSW," he said.
Mr Land said what he was proposing would need "input and acceptance by all the key groups in wildlife and development, but it has to be led by the government".
He proposed working with those groups to develop a template for development that was sustainable, and testing that template with a pilot program at a local council.
Mr Land believed a balance could be found between the needs of development and the conservation requirements in formulating a template.
"We must succeed in doing this, because if we don't, they [koalas] are finished," he said.
Ron Land also said the government should classify koalas as an endangered species in NSW as a matter of priority.
"If [Environment Minister] Matt Kean is serious about saving koalas in the wild in NSW, they have to be declared endangered immediately," Mr Land said.
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