a lot to walk out for and digest, even outside the competition venues. michael? nothing complex than situation. steven, thanks. steven jiang there in beijing. well, portugal center left socialists have pulled off a stunner, winning an outright sunday majority in sunday s snap election. the socialists took more than 41% of the vote and will have at least 117 of the 230 seats in parliament. the incumbent prime minister antonio costa called the result a vote of confidence in his government and his party. he said an outright majority is not absolute power, and he vowed not to govern alone. well, they are an iconic symbol of australia, but koalas numbers are dropping off for a number of reasons. coming up, what the government is doing to try to protect them. we ll be right back.
important thing. koalas face that health challenge we mentioned too in recent years. tell us about the impact of chlamydia. well, chlamydia is a really serious issue for koalas. it s a painful, often fatal disease that s leading to population declines. like with so many diseases, it s linked to stress. we know from research that land clearing is the number one cause of stress in koalas. again, it all really leads back to the root cause which is habitat loss. and real quickly opposition leader said if the federal government really wanted to protect koalas, it would take greater action on climate change. climate change also can t be forgotten in this. you can give money, but if you don t change the fundamentals of how the planet is changing, then they could be doomed. absolutely. and sadly, koala is one of the most vulnerable species to climate change. they don t do well with heat. we re seeing an increase in
furs. it s so soft and waterproof. we used to make gloves and hats out of them. and millions were slaughtered and their pelts exported to the u.s. and europe. many banned the import stopped that slaughter, literally saving their skins. now we see koala numbers starting to slowly recover, and that s been replaced by a new threat which is habitat loss, i m afraid. so the government is going to spend $50 million over four years to try to help the population recover. for a start, is that nearly enough of an investment? and as you were talking about there, how effective are these plans going to be? there is some fundamental things that need to change. yeah. the international fund animal welfare, any funding towards the protection and recovery of the species. but i m afraid all the money in the world won t save koalas, unless we address the root cause of habitat change and climate
change. stop cutting down their trees and stop trashing the place they call home. anything else is an expensive band-aid, i m afraid. to that point, one of the biggest issues for koalas, there is drought. there has been the fires and so on. but it s this loss of habitat from human development. humans taking habitat for their own use, cutting off corridors that koalas need. there a compromise that would work when it comes to that human aspect? i think there is always a solution. i think that humans can co-exist with koalas and wildlife. koalas can survive and thrive alongside humans. they just need trees, safe spaces and corridors to move freely, just like we do. there is such a thing as koala friendly development. we just need to consider them in our planning. and try and save the trees that they need to survive. and the other important issue too, climate change. i did want to say, ask you about this too, because it is an