The government’s tumultuous koala policy has been voted down in a dramatic twist “no one could have imagined”.

Yesterday, Liberal MP Catherine Cusack crossed the floor to vote against the proposed bill, prompting Premier Gladys Berejiklian to sack her as parliamentary secretary.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro told Ray Hadley what Ms Cusack did, “gave us an outcome that we probably didn’t expect”.

“How this has ended, no one could have imagined.

“I believe in her heart, she fought for what she believed in.

“But there are consequences, we were threatened with those consequences; she lives with those this morning.

“Credit to Gladys … we threatened to blow it all up and we were threatened with our jobs, and she followed through on Catherine.”

Click PLAY below to listen to the full interview

Image: Getty