!['Back off our rivers' 'Back off our rivers'](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-agfeed/2011910.jpg/r0_0_600_400_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
AGFORCE'S representative on the Western Rivers Advisory Panel has spoken out against Cooper Creek Protection Group's call for a halt to the Newman government's push to find an alternative to wild river legislation for western areas.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
John Te Kloot, a grazier from Longreach, said "conservation responses" was the overriding feature of a member survey just completed on the levels of protection they desired from the new process.
"People out here overwhelmingly do want to protect their rivers," he said. "People running meetings are just antagonising a great conservation attitude."
The Cooper Creek Protection Group, based at Windorah, recently called a meeting to discuss the proposed State government legislative changes.
Group chair Bob Morrish said it would return the area to the disastrous prospect of an irrigation industry in the Channel Country as well as facilitating potentially destructive coal seam gas and other mining developments in the rivers and floodplains.
Mr Te Kloot said Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps, when in Longreach last November to announce the alternative management plan, was emphatic about not having large scale irrigation.
"He told us to keep an open mind about small scale irrigation."
The man who collated the AgForce survey, Dr Dale Miller, said more than 50 respondents had shown broad support for the replacement of wild river legislation and a desire for a balanced approach.
"Economic viability was important - they see that primary producers that are profitable can lead to better environmental outcomes," he said.
"There was strong support for the prohibition or regulation of large-scale irrigation and mining activities, but they saw day-to-day livestock activities as not impacting on the environment and therefore that led to no strong justification for over-regulation.
"They also said that the Water Resources Plan was the appropriate tool by which tensions could be managed and decisions made."
Mr Morrish said a scientific conference was being organised by Professor Richard Kingsford for Longreach at the end of February to outline and update latest research findings related to Western Queensland's river systems.
"It will bring together the cream of Australia's ecological community and I would suggest an outcome would be a strongly worded communique to the Newman government, telling them to back off our rivers," he said.
He understood their work re-inforced scientific work already done that showed the rivers could not withstand the demands of an irrigation industry. Mr Cripps has urged the Cooper Creek Protection Group to make a submission to the advisory panel.
He said a key responsibility of the WRAP was to listen and consider all views put to them.
"Importantly, this panel includes a mix of committed conservationists, including Richard Kingsford from the Lake Eyre Basin Scientific Advisory Board and a representative of the Cooper Creek Catchment Committee, indigenous representatives, local mayors, primary producers and the resources sector," he said. "We recognise there are a broad range of views about this issue.
"The WRAP is due to report back to me by the end of March and the Newman government will then make an informed decision on a balanced approach to river management that will preserve the environmental values of this unique part of Queensland as well as grow the economy in Western Queensland."