BASIN Sustainability Alliance chairman Lee McNicholl says environment minister Steven Miles has purposely reduced the quality of the scientific debate around the extent and environmental consequences of current tree clearing rates.
Speaking from his property at Dulacca, Mr McNicholl said Dr Miles had used every opportunity to blame agriculture for damage to the Great Barrier Reef.
“Dr Miles says he is attempting fixing the cumulative impact of over 150 years of land use change, tree clearing, sugar cane growing and cattle grazing in coastal catchments,” Mr McNicholl said.
“Dr Miles also makes the extraordinary claim that 80 per cent of rehabilitation funds will be needed to address fine sediment run off in the Fitzroy catchment.
“Hypercritically, he has failed to mention the impact of 209 authorized releases of coal mine water since November 2013. Gigalitres of polluted tailings dam water from 42 coal mines have been poured into steams across the Fitzroy catchment.”
Mr McNicholl said Dr Miles should make himself familiar with a recent Griffith University research paper entitled, Land Use and Water Quality Trends of the Fitzroy River.
“The authors analysed these trends from 1964-2008, because the Fitzroy Basin is one of the largest sources of freshwater and sediment for the Great Barrier Reef lagoon,” Mr Nicholl said.
“The basin was largely undisturbed before 1960. Since then about 90pc has been cleared for grazing, cropping and sown pasture. The report’s finding is that there are no significant trends in mean annual sediment concentration nor in the sediment into the GBR lagoon.”
Mr McNicholl said rather than demonising farmers, Dr Miles should be congratulating farmers for achieving such a great sustainability outcome.
“If he was serious about climate change induced Great Barrier Reef damage he would be shutting down coal mines rather than turning a blind eye to their unsustainable activities” Mr McNicholl said.
