The land clearing reform Bill, which is before the Queensland Parliament, represents a sensible, conservative approach to regulating the clearing of native woodlands in Queensland. Despite the claims of doomsayers and property rights ideologues, it will not stop all clearing, nor will it negatively impact on overall agricultural productivity.
Controls on broadscale clearing were introduced in the mid-2000s, and were supported by both Labor and the Liberal Party, and by Peter Wellington MP. These changes to the Vegetation Management Act were assisted with rural adjustment packages worth $150 million, including $8 million to AgForce to support the new system.
AgForce said at the time it was “prepared to accept the changes”. When protections were extended to some ecologically significant regrowing woodlands (uncleared since 1989), AgForce recognised that the change “balances productive land management while maintaining biodiversity values”. In the lead up to the 2012 state election, AgForce stated “farmers and graziers have adapted extremely well to landmark Vegetation Management laws introduced in 2009”.
The Newman LNP Government was elected on a platform that included a commitment to “not reduce the statutory level of protection” on native woodlands. However, it broke that promise and amended the Act to reintroduce broadscale clearing through so-called high value agriculture permits, and deregulated high value regrowth clearing. In a historic turnaround, that government was kicked out of office two years later due to this sort of behaviour. But the legacy has been a rapid rise in clearing rates, and associated emissions.
Labor approached the 2015 election with a clear statement of intent to restore land clearing laws to a pre-2012 level, and the issue featured in the election. Labor’s Bill seeks to do nothing more than this. It’s time AgForce and others acknowledged that land clearing makes droughts and erosion worse, and is not the solution to rural pressures.
- Dr Tim Seelig, Wilderness Society Queensland Campaigns Manager