Conservation, resource groups welcome Lake Eyre Basin consultation

Environment Minister Leanne Linard said the consultation process, open for 12 weeks from June 2 to August 25, would ensure all voices, particularly those of traditional owners, could be heard.

Conservation groups and the Queensland Resources Council alike have welcomed the news, with the latter saying it would provide certainty for all industry stakeholders.

It maintained the position that the current regulatory framework was already sufficiently robust to assess all applications and mitigate risks to the basin.

A QRC spokesperson said it expected the options put forward in the consultation materials would be genuine options for the ongoing management of the LEB and not reflective of a predetermined government position to ban any particular industry.

"The region has great potential to deliver economic and social benefits to Queensland from the sustainable development of critical minerals, gas, and conventional minerals," they said. "As is currently the case, both for existing projects in the basin, and resource activities in other parts of Queensland, this potential can be realised without compromising strong environmental management."

Wilderness Society campaign manager Hannah Schuch said the government had promised to protect Channel Country rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin at every election since 2015, and was now one step closer to enacting that.

"Queenslanders do not want to see this incredible landscape deteriorate at the hands of oil and gas giants," she said.

"I really encourage Queenslanders to make their voice heard through the consultation process so that the Palaszczuk government hears loud and clear that oil and gas developments on the sensitive rivers and floodplains are unacceptable to nature, the climate and to our community."

Lock the Gate Alliance congratulated the government for releasing the plan, saying it was good to see there was an option that effectively banned new oil and gas development on the region's floodplains.

It said there were many risks associated with that type of development, including the impact of many hundreds of gas wells and associated infrastructure, which it said would divert the flow of water, plus chemical spills.

It also highlighted a possible loss of organic certification for graziers, and the combined impact that infrastructure and any chemical spills on the floodplains would have on the basin's resilience to existing and anticipated impacts of climate change.

Sunshine Coast hinterland grower and Lock the Gate spokesperson Nick Holliday described it as a once in a generation opportunity for the government to prioritise protection for the floodplains.

"The Queensland Lake Eyre Basin sustains a thriving organic beef industry and incredible ecology. The RIS shows how fracking threatens all this," he said.

"Under Queensland's existing system, the oil and gas industry has been allowed to proliferate across some of Queensland's most fertile farmland and most vital underground water sources across the Western Downs. This must not occur in the Channel Country.

"Anything less than a total ban on new oil and gas development on the floodplains would be an environmental and social catastrophe.

"It would trash the Lake Eyre Basin for generations to come, right at a moment when the world is finally starting to recognise the need to move away from fossil fuels such as oil and gas to mitigate the impacts of climate change."

A similar message came from the Western Rivers Alliance of graziers, traditional owners and conservation organisations.

Coordinator Riley Rocco said they had one clear message, that the rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin was no place for oil and gas fields.

"We encourage people to let the state government know that allowing new oil and gas mining on top of the rivers and floodplains is simply unacceptable," he said.

Birdsville grazier and OBE Organic co-founder David Brook said it was a long-held desire of local pastoralists, traditional owners, townspeople and conservationists to see the very best protection of the floodplains of the Channel Country rivers.

"We look forward to the government acting on their election commitment so that the significant waterways and floodplains will not be subject to unwise resource development that might impede or contaminate the annual flows," he said.

The Pew Charitable Trusts welcomed the release of the draft protection framework, saying it was imperative to protect the rivers at the highest level, including prohibitions on all new oil and gas activity.

Pew spokesman Andrew Picone said safeguards would build on existing bans on large dams, broadacre cropping and open-cut mining in river and floodplain areas.

"While it is welcoming to see the government recognising First Nation People's connection to the region, this should be enacted through formal protections for the significant Aboriginal cultural heritage within the basin," he said.

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