THE Palaszczuk Government has been accused of undermining the basic rights and liberties of Queenslanders in its push to remove leaseholders from nature conservation area and national parks.
LNP shadow environment spokesman Steve Bennett said landholders on agricultural, grazing and pastoral land within a nature conservation area or a specified national park were being unfairly targeted under the Nature Conservation and Other Legislation Amendment (NCOLA) Bill 2015.
“Labor wants the deciding power on whether leases are renewed to rest solely with a department head with absolutely night right of appeal,” Mr Bennett said.
“Any legislation that makes rights and liberties, or obligations dependent on administrative power, must be subject to appropriate review, but Labor wants to destroy that principle.”
The proposed changes are will affect 78 leases across Queensland, many of which have been held by grazing families for generations.
Mr Bennett, who is deputy-chair of the parliamentary committee reviewing the proposed Bill has written to the government outlining a long list of concerns, including the loss of management input on traditional lands by local indigenous people.
He said Labor’s proposal to reinstate ‘conservation of nature’ as the sole objective of the Nature Conservation Act and remove all other references, including community use and enjoyment of protected areas, raised major concerns from tourism operators. He said Section 4 of Labor’s NCOLA Bill would also remove reference to Indigenous Queenslanders.
“The committee raised concerns and flagged possible amendments on every recommendation” he said. “Indeed there is so much doubt the proposed Bill, it should not be passed.”
However, Environment Minister Steven Miles hit back saying cattle caused substantial compaction and erosion in native habitats.
“The longer you leave cattle within these areas, the more opportunity there is to do damage to those rare and threatened species populations,” Dr Miles said.
“The LNP’s ill-informed comments about our National Parks show they have learnt nothing since losing government and treat them as play things, giving unfettered access to graziers and businesses, cows and casinos,” Dr Miles said.
“Under the Newman Government, national parks were nothing more than an exploitable resource, that’s why they changed the Nature Conservation Act in Queensland to allow for commercial activities such as resorts and zip-lines.”
Dr Miles said while an automatic roll-over right applies to some rural leases on state land, it has never applied to those on National Parks. He said the government was committed to a consultative approach that would see rolling term leases on national parks reverted back to term leases so that decisions about its future use and management could be determined.
