NSW Nationals Leader To Take Mental Health Leave Immediately, One Week After The Koala Fiasco

NSW Nationals Leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro will be taking four weeks mental health leave, effectively immediately.

“This afternoon Deputy Premier John Barilaro advised me he would take four weeks of personal leave,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement this afternoon.

“I have offered him any support he may need.

“I wish John and his family all the best during this time.”

A spokesperson for Barilaro’s office said he would be taking a month of leave to “focus on his mental health and wellbeing”.

Deputy Leader Paul Toole will be acting leader over this period.

It comes a week after Barilaro threatened to split with the NSW Government over proposed planning regulations that would see farmers responsible for koalas on their own properties. The proposed policy would ensure koalas were not at risk if the land were to be cleared for development.

However, Barilaro contested Berejiklian’s koala protection policy, which Mr Barilaro described as a “nail in the coffin for farmers”. He then threatened to take his Nationals team to the crossbench and potentially destroy the Coalition between the Liberals and Nationals.

Berejiklian called their bluff and gave the Nationals an ultimatum last Friday, warning that if they split the Coalition that they would effectively lose their jobs and she would swear in an all Liberal ministry.

“They cannot do both,” she said in a statement.

Even after the threat from Berejiklian, Barilaro still refused to guarantee that he would not again threaten to to take the Nationals to the crossbench, causing further upheaval in the NSW parliament.

This week after immense backlash from politicians and the public, Barilaro promised to adhere to this agreement.

“I have no intentions to blow up the Coalition or create instability,” Mr Barilaro said yesterday.

Some of this backlash came from online personalities like Friendlyjordies, who targeted Barilaro in a number of videos and poked fun at Barilaro’s Italian heritage by mocking him in an exaggerated accent. He also claimed to have had sex in an AirBnb owned by Barilaro, and said he was given written permission to film in the house for his “birthday”.

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