LNP outlines sensible amendments to Labor’s disastrous Vegetation Management Laws

Liberal National Party Leader Deb Frecklington today pleaded with Annastacia Palaszczuk to listen to farmers and accept a number of proposed amendments to limit the devastating impact of Labor’s Vegetation Management Laws.

"Make no mistake, these laws are terrible. Labor’s laws are unfair, unjust and are based on ideology not science and should be sent packing," Ms Frecklington said.

"Such is the contempt Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has for our farmers after not bothering to turn up to speak to the hundreds of farmers who left their properties to travel hundreds of kilometres to be heard.

"This situation is extremely desperate for our farmers and we need to use any means necessary to make a bad situation a slightly bit more palatable.

"That’s why we are proposing some common sense amendments that even the most raging greenie would find hard to argue against."

LNP Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said unlike Labor’s farce of a committee process, the LNP has put these amendments together after consultation with farming advocacy groups AgForce and Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF).

"The Liberal National Party is proposing five very simple amendments that will help bring more balance to this incredibly flawed Bill," Mr Last said.

The proposed amendments are:

• Deliver administrative and bureaucratic accountability – if an application to undertake vegetation management practices isn’t dealt within 30 business days it is deemed to be approved.
• Return sensible ‘right to enter’ property rights - remove powers of enforcement officers so they can’t enter a private property without a warrant.
• Return to a sensible definition of High value regrowth vegetation – remove the government’s definition of area that has not been cleared for at least 15 years, to an area that has not been cleared for 29 years.
• Allow considered and economically significant agricultural clearing - return High Value Agriculture (HVA) and Irrigated High Value Agriculture (IHVA) clearing into the Development assessment process.
• Reinstate Mulga and Fodder area management plans - so drought impacted farmers can feed their cattle without being tied up in red tape.

"The Liberal National Party is committed to environmental protection and laws to ensure vegetation management is undertaken in a properly regulated manner. This will ensure biodiversity is protected along with our streams and rivers and particularly in the catchments of the Great Barrier Reef," he said.

"It is important to acknowledge that these five simple and practical amendments do not solve all issues with these flawed laws but they do attempt to bring some administrative and principled balance to the vegetation laws that will offer farmers some reprieve.

"These amendments will make the day to day lives of our farmers a lot easier in what is an already overbearing and restrictive vegetation management system."