I would hope that as lovers of birds and other wildlife, we should be deeply concerned about what is happening under the Campbell Newman-led Liberal National Party in Queensland. A series of recent moves by the Government demonstrates just what is at stake here.
The Government has boasted that it will “take an axe” to state laws protecting native vegetation on private and leased lands from being cleared. The laws were enacted by the previous Labor Government in response to revelations that hundreds of thousands of hectares of native vegetation were being cleared annually, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions and seriously threatening biodiversity, especially across vulnerable woodlands inland. Now, landholders need do nothing more than present a “business plan” for properties and they can bulldoze what they want.
The former Labor Government in its final years acted to lock up some important natural areas as national park, such as the expanded Mapleton National Park in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – a lovely, bird-rich area of rainforest, wet sclerophyll and open forest. The new Government is reviewing all park declarations made since 2002 and has made it clear that most will be revoked. The protection of national parks is supposed to be set in stone, otherwise there is no point in having them. Queensland already has one of the smallest national park estates in the country on a per capita basis – it is about to shrink further, and in the process the sanctity of national parks will be ditched.
Logging and other damaging activities were removed from extensive areas of state forest and other forested areas by the former Labor Government. Those lands have been reopened to the developers and logging licences are being issued to anyone who wants one. One new licence covers one of the few remaining areas of rainforest frequented by the Eungella Honeyeater.
The new Government is revoking Labor’s historic legislation protecting the catchment of pristine wild rivers on Cape York and in the Channel Country of south-west Queensland. It will move to stymie the planned World Heritage declaration of Cape York and has vowed to open up Cape York – one of the nation’s last great wildernesses – to developers.
This depressing list goes on and on. Funding to help members of the community challenge bad environmental planning decisions in the courts has been stopped. Environmental responsibilities have been split among three departments – with ultra-conservative National Party ministers (in a government that is supposedly part-Liberal) running the show. Even the former Bjelke-Petersen National Party Government would not tolerate what Premier Campbell Newman (who is supposedly a Liberal) is up to. Despite all his faults, Joh kept a leash on some of the more rabid environmental wreckers in the Nationals’ rank. Now it is open slather.
Greg Roberts
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Spot on Euan,
Peter Valentine
0427 634 136 peter.valentine@jcu.edu.au
On 14/05/2013, at 1:10 PM, Euan Moore wrote:
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From an earlier post….
“The former Labor Government in its final years acted to lock up some important natural areas as national park, such as the expanded Mapleton National Park in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – a lovely, bird-rich area of rainforest, wet sclerophyll and open forest.”
Please don’t use the words “lock up” or similar when referring to national parks. This just plays into the hands of those who are opposed to national parks. Their standard argument is that national parks “lock up the park” or “lock out the public” when nothing is further from the truth. Only in exceptional circumstances is the public excluded from national parks. The great majority of national parks allow free and open access to anyone. We can all visit our national parks whenever we wish.
Contrast this to private land, logging areas and mine sites where it is usually extremely difficult to obtain access. The use of the terms “lock up” and “lock out” by opponents of national parks is a form of newspeak used to denigrate the whole national park concept and all activities aimed at protecting the natural environment. The proponents of development wish to turn our national parks into areas where only they have access to do whatever they wish, i.e. lock up the area.
Perhaps the sentence could have read “The former Labor Government in its final years acted to permanently protect some important natural areas as national park….”.
Regards,
Euan
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You are certainly an inspiration to me Greg, your journalistic experience is going to be very valuable in the coming months. We have to create a voter-backlash before September….
Tom
I am doing various things about this problem John. The idea of my post was to try to inspire others to do something too. Greg Roberts
Hi Storm,
I wasn’t meaning to criticise the “Places we love” campaign which I supported, but critical of governments.
Since it has been successful and has involved so many groups, would there be a way to broaden it to include state issues since it is obvious that Queensland is not the only state where there are problems?
Sonja
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Hi Greg and others, It is easy to be concerned and, believe me, I’m concerned enough about the political situation in Queensland enough to constantly find myself whimpering while in the foeltal position; however – “what to do?’
In Queensland the opposition [to anything] is invisible, voiceless or plain embarrassing.
The general public need to try to hold our Qld government responsible for its terrible environmental policies. Hopefully most people recognise that ‘common sense’ tree clearing laws is anything but. Hopefully most people would be sympathetic to the threats to our National Park estate.
We need to keep writing the letters and remind Qld folk that although the numbers in Parliament are formidable, the swing needed to de-seat them, in may instances, is not that great.
I welcome more specific, positive suggestions. And like others, [perhaps] I look with some dread to the future when we realise the answer to the question; ‘Could anything be worse than a Gilliard Government?’
Ken Cross
Thanks for posting Greg – it is a serious matter for all of us. A group of senior Queensland scientists first wrote to the Premier but then made a public statement of concern yesterday. You can see the text and other material here:
http://concernedqldscientists.wordpress.com/
In northern Queensland we are urging our Birdlife members to write to their own State member of Parliament to draw attention to the concerns. WWF scientist Martin Taylor has estimated the possible outcomes of this proposed amendment of existing legislation and he indicates as much as 2 million ha of bushland could be affected as well as potentially 85,000 km of riparian vegetation that will lose its protection through changes in the Water Act. You can see the report here:
http://www.wwf.org.au/?6801/Study-refutes-claims-of-no-broadscale-tree-clearing-rollback
Dr Taylor estimated 31 species of threatened bird species would have habitat affected. It is telling that the Queensland Government has allowed so little time for comment and community engagement on this matter along with rushed processes on a number of other environmental concerns (getting rid of “red tape” which means rolling back environmental protection).
It is suspected this environmental vandalism is being driven by a few throwbacks to the Joh era and perhaps if those of us concerned could lobby more enlightened members of the Government to put a halt to these proposals it may be effective. It may also be time for the Federal Government to consider stepping in. Unfortunately there are limited grounds for this to happen.
It is very sad that Queensland, the State with our greatest biodiversity, has less land than any other state in protected areas (Qld has 5%of the states area and shrinking while the average across Australia is 12% and the target for 2020 is 17% of terrestrial habitat – under the Convention on Biodiversity). Admittedly a simple percentage in protected areas is not necessarily an adequate measure, but the extent to which habitat variation is protected is a good indicator of likely biodiversity conservation.
I am afraid I can find no good news to end this post.
Peter Valentine (Conservation Officer, Birdlife Townsville)
0427 634 136 peter.valentine@jcu.edu.au
On 14/05/2013, at 10:26 AM, Greg Roberts wrote:
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“Places we love” is/was solely aimed at the planned dismantling of the EPBC. In that it succeeded as the current government has put on hold almost all of its proposed actions. The devolution of powers relating to flying-foxes continue.
“Places you love” never tried to address the state based issues that are becoming increasingly urgent.
Clearly this is a political issue however, neither of the major parties present a credible plan for the environment that doesn’t put “business” first and the environment a long way back.
The posts concerning what our governments are doing and allowing to happen to our country is utterly depressing.
Obviously the “Places we love” campaign is not touching governments.
Maybe all the environmental groups need to combine and work together more to make people aware of what is happening, and the future costs of all this, maybe even have a nationwide rally day to make governments aware that there a lot of people, voters, who want National Parks etc and wildlife protected.
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Why don’t you send this email for publication in the Courier Mail ‘letters to the editor’ section under the heading ‘you get what you vote for’.
John Rose
Re: Chainsaws back in Qld
Depressing beyond words really that this is even on the table in this day and age when we’re supposed to be enlightened about the impacts of clearing. Furthermore the way in which the environmental responsibilities are now split just perpetuates folks’ cynicism about the whole process. To be honest, I for one am just shell shocked at these events and have trouble comprehending the lack of outrage from the wider public.
Marie Tarrant Kobble Creek, Qld
Without wishing to be political, this sends a fairly clear message about the likely outcomes of certain voting choices in the September federal election.
John Leonard