Rockhampton Mayor turned wannabe state MP, Margaret Strelow, says she would back a vegetation management framework that offered greater self-regulation but wouldn't support broadscale tree clearing.
“We have self-regulation in so many industries but this is one where the passion and commitment of the producers for their land as well as the easy opportunity for photographic evidence should make a greater degree of self-regulation commonsense,” she said.
“I’m not going to go down the path of saying that we should clear what we like. Clearly there needs to be a balance... but we have a nation to feed as well.”
Ms Strelow said producers and conservationists both had the same end goal; to protect the environment in a sustainable way.
“The trouble is that there is an assumption on the part of government that all of the answers should come from outside of the industry,” she said.
“And from my experience as Mayor I have seen that government departments are not infallible in their mapping.”