First time Campbelltown councillor Matt Stellino left school at 17 and was an infantry soldier in the army for four years.
“My mind still works the same way as it did then. I love to look at things objectively and tactically to find the best route of action, and I don’t mind a combative situation if it comes to it,” he says.
This former soldier has now been voted in by the people of Campbelltown to fight for animals and is the first Animal Justice Party councillor in NSW.
“I’m very excited,” he said, “but a realisation of the weight of it set in very quickly.
“There are plenty of issues I want to work on as a councillor, but my greatest hope is that I’m able to affect the current koala situation.
“I think it is going to be the biggest metric against which I’m measured. I could have success in every other category, but if I fail Campbelltown’s koalas, my voters will be disappointed.”
Cr Stellino’s election success is evidence of how much the people of South Western Sydney care about their local wildlife.
In particular, locals care deeply about Campbelltown’s koalas.
They’re one of the last healthy koala populations in NSW, and are under threat from development.
“In the Figtree Hill development there are now no wildlife corridors and the koalas are getting displaced,’’ Cr Stellino said.
“It’s all because the koala passes were not made a mandatory condition of the building agreement, as they should have been.”
Months ago, during the election campaign, Cr Stellino shared his reason for running.
“The ecosystem out here is one of the last green sprawls of Sydney,’’ he says.
“This area out here that hosts the koala and the platypus needs someone who will fight for them, as opposed to just outright property development flattening every green space.”
I’m sorry, but newly elected Cr Stellino is incorrect in stating there are no wildlife corridors in the Figtree Hill development. The corridors are in fact in Noorumbah and Beulah reserves. The problem is the State Liberal government sitting on its hands and doing nothing to support the installation of underpasses to enable our koalas to travel safely from east to west to the Nepean River through those very corridors. Every year since I was elected in 2016 I have called on the State Liberal government to provide the means to protect our koala colony as has been done in the north of our State. I was instrumental in Campbelltown Council holding the first and only koala forum attended by government representatives where everything was discussed to protect and care for koalas. Yet still NOTHING has come from this state government. I will be extremely happy to work with Cr Stellino to get this Liberal State government to do what it’s supposed to do. Campbelltown City Council has worked tirelessly to protect our koalas and has achieved outstanding milestones to that end.
The koalas don’t care about petty politics between the two big parties, they just want to live.
Then Cr Karen Hunt say no to developers on Mount Gilead, cross the floor.
Absolutely.
There are no wildlife corridors on Stage One of the Mount Gilead development despite NPWS requesting them and at this point no guaranteed corridors from the eastern side of Appin Road through Noorumba Reserve but as development has commenced and no corridors in place the council has let us down despite being the consent authority for Stage One
To Councillor Stellino, Cr Karen Hunt, Councillors and all of Campbelltown Council: In 2022 we look forward to Campbelltown Council, NSW and Federal Governments working together to save our koalas in southern and south -west Sydney. Thank you.