Park to protect 12,000 koalas to go ahead via contentious carbon credit deal by Albanese government

NSW Labor says a koala park will protect old-growth forests, at least 12,000 koalas and more than 100 other threatened species Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

A long-promised New South Wales great koala national park is set to go ahead after the Albanese government greenlit the state to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for protecting native forests previously earmarked for logging.

The assistant climate change minister, Josh Wilson, said the government had approved a regulatory change that allowed state governments to earn carbon credits by storing carbon dioxide in native forests on public land.