OUR SAY: Rogue actions of NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro show a lack of political smarts

As border residents we experienced the government's inability to match two-dimensional charts with three-dimensional life when ludicrous maps were drawn up to cover travel between NSW and Victoria amid the frontier closure.

It took weeks of toing and froing before we reached a reasonable-sized border bubble which bore some resemblance to the interaction we know occurs across the Murray River.

NSW Nationals leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro helped achieve a resolution to that fiasco, but his concern with maps has now driven him to threaten his party's Coalition with Premier Gladys Berejiklian's Liberal Party.

Mr Barilaro argues maps used to create a protection plan for koalas are wrong and need changing along with other aspects of the relevant plan.

His anger saw him last Thursday threaten to take the Nationals to the crossbench before he backed down the next day after a meeting with Ms Berejiklian.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes on Monday conceded there were problems with the mapping but also said there was debate within the government over changing the koala plan before tensions boiled last week.

Mr Barilaro clearly wants to differentiate the Nats from the Libs, but his tactics on this issue were overblown.

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Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Helen Dalton pointed out Mr Barilaro has a history of talking big and then buckling.

We saw it with talk of leaving the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and flip-flopping on a Royal Commission into management of that water system.

To threaten to shift to the crossbench and then retreat after a promise that the koala protection plan will be mentioned at a Cabinet meeting, suggests it was all a stunt.

NSW residents deserve better from their government, given the pandemic and resultant economic crisis.

Such brinkmanship shows Mr Barilaro has got bogged down in Coalition mudslinging and needs to find his political co-ordinates to map out sound governance.