Premier Gladys Berejiklian remained unflappable as she made her only meeting with the press about Covid-19 and the economy

Often, after a turbulent week in New South Wales politics, the resolution is underwhelming, a kind of resigned sigh after a loud shouty argument.
So it was at Macquarie Street on Tuesday when the Coalition met for the first time after a very public spat over koala protections nearly undid the state government.
The leader of the Nationals, John Barilaro, remained the leader of the junior Coalition partner. His party did not move against him, though at least two MPs are still canvassing alternatives. His future is not assured.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, remained her unflappable self, making her only meeting with the press about Covid-19 and the NSW economy.
The joint party room meeting, the first since the near split, had been extremely constructive, she said blandly. The issue of koala protections, at the heart of the near-death ruckus, would be dealt with through the proper processes in October, through cabinet and the party room, the premier said.
Her Liberal ministers, who last week had been unable to contain themselves and had branded Barilaros leadership untenable, backed off from their instinct to kick heads.
The opposition leader, Jodi McKay, introduced as promised a motion of no confidence in Barilaro but did not push for it to be debated immediately. Instead, she asked Liberal MPs whether they stood by their outspoken comments of last week.
Most used fancy footwork to avoid repeating their criticisms of Barilaro in parliament. Except for the transport minister, Andrew Constance.
Asked whether he stood by his comment that leadership is not what we saw on display, Constance surprised by revealing that yes, he did.
Constance and Barilaro have history and Constance, who was deeply affected after he found himself defending his home at Malua Bay during the bushfires, appears to have lost his political filter.
Once friends, Barilaro and Constance fell out earlier this year over competing ambitions to become the federal member for Eden-Monaro. Barilaro had planned to run for the Nationals, to take his take no-prisoners style to Canberra, only to be trumped by Constance, who said he would run as the Liberal candidate.
Barilaro was visibly furious with his friend. In the end, both men withdrew from the race, apparently realising that nuclear war would be mutually destructive.
But Constances remarks on Tuesday were not about scoring points. He actually went to the heart of the issue: that setting the city against the bush, or farmers against the environment, was incredibly damaging, especially in this time of Covid-19, where isolation, border controls and travel restrictions to the regions are driving communities apart.
After the fires, its absolutely appropriate we do everything to protect the koala, Constance said.
But we have to listen to farmers who feed us every day. Yes, there is a dispute that would have been better had at the kitchen table, not in public. But I am particularly upset about the fight being portrayed as between the city and the country. That was not how it was in the old days.
It was a slapdown of Barilaro that trumped the shouting and insults of the past week, hands down. The deputy premier had earlier asserted he was defending farmers property rights and would continue to stand up for the regions.
Most of the leaps forward in environmental protection have been achieved not through culture wars or pitting the interests of farmers against the environment.
Programs such as the commonwealths historic Landcare program of the 1980s were the result of a pact between the Australian Conservation Foundation and the National Farmers Federation. Forest agreements, action on climate change and even the controversial Murray-Darling basin plan have been forged from mutual recognition of common interests in preserving the environment in the interests of both farmers and the broader community.
That might involve putting money on the table where farmers interests are genuinely hurt or to achieve better outcomes, such as preserving high-value areas or creating more national parks. But the options for preserving koala habitat are limited and will inevitably involve slowing or halting the rate of habitat destruction. That is in all our interests.