Conservationists frame vege laws
AN EMAIL sent to the Queensland Government before the state election in 2017 has revealed Labor’s vegetation management policy was built off the back of recommendations from the Australian Conservation Foundation, Environmental Defenders Office, Wilderness Society and GetUp.
The email, found via a Right to Information inquiry, sent to the then-Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Steven Miles’ chief of staff Melanie Pilgrim, outlined “priorities for the Queensland Government Climate Change Policy”.
The email dated Wednesday, June 21, 2017, stated “The Australian Conservation Foundation submits the following elements to be adopted as part of a comprehensive climate change policy for announcement prior to the next state election. This document has had significant input from the Environmental Defenders Office – Qld, Solar Citizens, The Wilderness Society and GetUp.” The Australian Conservation Foundation recommended the Queensland Government:
“Protect Queensland’s forests and woodlands with new laws. This includes: preventing land clearing of all remnant vegetation; preventing clearing of high conservation value regrowth vegetation, including in the Murray-Darling Basin and Great Barrier Reef catchments; considering setting a volumetric statewide cap on all other vegetation clearing; removing assessment exemptions for thinning, fodder harvesting and mining activities, and tightening the rules. Legislative protection of native vegetation should be consistent across all sectors that undertake land clearing, including agriculture, mining and urban development.”
Despite enormous backlash from Queensland farmers and agricultural industry bodies, which included rallies in rural towns across the state and at Parliament House in Brisbane, on May 3, 2018, the Queensland Government passed the Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2018, amending the Vegetation Management Act 1999.
AgForce’s CEO Michael Guerin has demanded the State Government come clean on a pre-election deal with activist groups to enact their environmental policies “lock, stock and barrel” if Labor was re-elected.
“If true, the deal was clearly driving the State Government’s procession of ideologically-based environmental laws and their unwillingness to listen to divergent science-based arguments by the agriculture industry,” he said.
“We have suspected for some time that the Government is not interested in the views of farmers, even on legislation that so deeply affects them, their families and their businesses.
“Their pre-election deal with environmental radicals explains our battle to achieve better environmental and biodiversity outcomes so absolutely denied in the current vegetation management legislation.
“This week, we are again asking for sensible changes to the badly-thought-out Reef Protections Bill to make it effective, workable and fair to farmers.
“However, again, our calls are falling on deaf ears; we are struggling to understand why it has been so hard to get a hearing for our rational advice.”
Mr Guerin said because the Greens’ policies were based on emotion and ideology rather than science and practical experience, this legislation actually harmed the environment.
“We have witnessed how selective science misused by radical green ideologists is slowly destroying our environments and biodiversity,” he said.
He said a great example of “ideology over science” was the one-size-fits-all approach to native vegetation legislation that fails to acknowledge that there are 13 distinct bio-regions that require different management techniques.
“Far from supporting strengthened biodiversity and environmental outcomes, this pig-headed approach achieves quite the reverse.”
Queensland Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef Leeanne Enoch said Labor went to the last two state elections with “clear public commitments” to reintroduce strong vegetation management legislation and regulations to protect the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
“The people of Queensland elected Labor to deliver on these promises,” she said.
“These commitments were made in public documents that were widely canvassed during the elections.
“It is absurd to suggest that subsequent legislation is the result of some kind of secret deal.” Ms Enoch said “independent scientific information” showed tree-clearing rates were increasing and remnant vegetation was declining.
“This independent scientific information showed that we needed to act to protect the Great Barrier Reef and meet our national emissions reduction targets.
“As the Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham
❝suspected We have for some time that the Government is not interested in the views of farmers. — Michael Guerin
told Parliament in May during debate on the legislation, consultation on the laws included more than 13,000 submissions and the eight public hearings held across the state with almost 130 witnesses.
“We continue to improve our scientific knowledge on regrowth vegetation and review elements of our framework.
“We are investing $3.9 million over two years to establish a scientific program to support an enhanced Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) to identify and report on the condition and extent of regrowth vegetation and inform habitat conservation. The enhanced study will provide a complete summary for decision makers and stakeholders that shows woody vegetation trends, including clearing and regrowth, woody vegetation extent, its condition, and the purposes for clearing.
“Further, the CSIRO and the independent Queensland Herbarium are reviewing the accepted development codes that give landholders flexibility to manage their properties.
“We value the contribution our $20 billion agricultural industry makes to the Queensland economy and to our rural and regional communities. History shows that Queensland’s farmers can and have flourished under Labor’s sustainable vegetation management laws.”