Koala chaos ends as Australian state leaders reach truce over habitat law

FILE PHOTO: Orphaned joey koala at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, at the Wildlife Emergency Response Centre in Parndana, Kangaroo Island, Australia January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy/File Photo

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A political crisis in Australia's most populous state ended on Friday as one of the parties in the governing coalition abandoned a threat to leave the alliance over policies designed to protect koalas.

The clash erupted a day earlier when the Nationals party of New South Wales (NSW) state objected to a ban on land-clearing in habitat deemed essential for the marsupials. The law was introduced in December amid ferocious bushfires that reportedly killed thousands of the native animals.