New laws pushed through parliament by the Palaszczuk Labor Government late last night will boot hard-working grazing families off grazing and pastoral leases in nature conservation areas and parks across Queensland and abolish any right of appeal.
LNP Member for Burnett Steve Bennett said the move by Labor would destroy grazing businesses, while the loss of the right to appeal was an attack on Queenslanders’ basic rights.
Mr Bennett, deputy-chair of the Agriculture and Environment Parliamentary Committee which reviewed the Bill, said Labor’s changes in its Nature Conservation and Other Legislation Amendment (NCOLA) Bill 2015 would deny natural justice to the holders of 78 leases across the state, many held by farming families for generations.
“Labor is deliberately riding roughshod over leaseholders, destroying their grazing businesses and stripping away their appeal rights,” Mr Bennett said.
“Labor wants grazing families out and decisions on renewal of leases vested solely with the department head with no right of appeal. The whole process stinks. The loss of the basic right to appeal is un-Australian.”
Mr Bennett said Labor’s laws also removed recognition of the use of protected areas for education and eco-tourism purposes.
“This is not about looking after the environment. This is about payback to radical greens - paid for by taking rights off hard-working Queensland grazing families and small business tourist operators.
“Many hard-working grazing families have held these leases for a century and more, and they’ve been managed responsibly for generations, keeping them free of weeds and feral animals and reducing dangerous fire loads.”
Further, Mr Bennett said Labor’s reinstatement of ‘conservation of nature’ as the sole objective of the Nature Conservation Act, and the removal of all other references, including community use and enjoyment of protected areas, threatened smaller regional tourism operations and jobs.
“Labor wants more land locked-up without any resources or proper management plans in place,” he said.
“Potentially this will mean an end to management by local families and lead to dangerous and uncontrollable wild fires which will cause far more and permanent damage to pastoral and forest areas than any livestock or eco-tourism business ever would.”
Mr Bennett said only the LNP was committed to commonsense management of protected estates in Queensland, by working closely with local landholders and communities. This will achieve the best outcomes for protecting high-value natural areas, while allowing other uses, including on-going grazing of robust rangeland and forest areas and educational and eco-tourism ventures.
