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| Part of the area added by Labor to Mapleton National Park on the Sunshine Coast - Campbell Newman may revoke Labor's park declarations |
This article was published in The Weekend Australian of 1-2 June, 2013
Measures being implemented
in Queensland by Premier Campbell Newman amount to the greatest rollback of
environmental protection in Australian political history.
A small coterie of Nationals
in the Liberal National Party Government ministry, backed by the LNP’s Nationals-dominated
organisational wing, is overseeing the systematic dismantling of key
environmental laws. Newman, supposedly a Liberal moderate, is turning a blind
eye to the Nationals’ escapades in the interests of maintaining LNP unity.
The passage of the
Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill undermines Labor’s tree-clearing
laws, opening up two million hectares of bushland to the bulldozers. The
consequences will include loss of biodiversity across the state, further shrinkage
of remnant areas of native vegetation and increased levels of greenhouse gas
emissions.
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| Queensland is set to return to the days of having one of the world's highest tree-clearing rates |
Newman broke a pre-election
promise to keep the laws. Vegetation once protected can now be cleared if land
is deemed of “high agricultural value” - an open-ended definition. The
protection of regrowth vegetation has been dispensed with. It is easier to
bulldoze bushland along watercourses. If land-holders clear specially protected
vegetation, the onus of proof is reversed so they can merely plead ignorance to
avoid prosecution.
Before Labor’s laws were
enacted in 2006, Queensland had one of the world’s highest land-clearing rates;
those days are returning although there is less bushland left to clear. Natural
Resources Minister Andrew Cripps boasted when foreshadowing the move that he was
“taking an axe” to the laws. And so he did: most bushland remaining on private
and leased land is up for grabs. Cripps is one of three right-wing Nationals in
the ministry – along with Agriculture Minister John McVeigh and State
Development Minister and Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney - who have Newman’s
blessing for the new environmental agenda.
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| Eungella Honeyeater - under threat from a new logging licence. Picture by Trevor Quested |
McVeigh opened up to 30,000
hectares a year of state forest for logging.
Logging was stopped by Labor as part of a shift to greater use of
plantation timber. The “forest wars” that were once a feature of the political
landscape are returning: conservationists are outraged by a logging licence
granted over rainforest in Crediton State Forest near Mackay - the habitat of the
endangered eungella honeyeater.
Seeney is implementing a
development blueprint that includes the scrapping of wild river declarations on
Cape York. The Government aims to scuttle the proposed World Heritage Listing
of Cape York, one of Australia’s outstanding wilderness areas. Seeney has
declared that Cape York is open for mining and agricultural expansion.
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| Mulga woodlands in western Queensland - among the habitats threatened by new tree-clearing laws |
Seeney’s plans mirror those
of Cape York Aboriginal powerbroker Noel Pearson, who argues that environmental
protections stymie indigenous economic opportunities. His opponents say
preserving wilderness affords greater opportunities. They point to benefits for
indigenous communities that result from protecting World Heritage-listed Kakadu
and Uluru-Kata Tujta in the Northern Territory. Wild river declarations were intended to
protect the few watercourses that remain in pristine condition. Murrandoo
Yanner is among many indigenous leaders who back wild rivers; they are angered
by Pearson’s presumption to speak on their behalf.
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| Campbell Newman has thrown open two million hectares of bushland to the bulldozers |
Cape York aside, declarations
of three south-west Queensland rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin are being amended to
facilitate mining and agricultural development: guidelines provide “greater
efficiencies for petroleum and gas companies”. The move is opposed by an alliance
of Aboriginal leaders and farmers. They fear the expansion of controversial
coal-seam gas projects and cotton-farming in a region that is too arid to
sustain it, and that Lake Eyre will suffer from the diversion of water that in
good years would flow to it.
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| The Wenlock River on Cape York - one of several wild river declarations ditched by Campbell Newman |
Newman is reviewing Labor’s
national park declarations, signalling that many will be revoked. The protection of national parks is supposed to be set in
stone, otherwise there is no point in having them. Queensland’s already small
national park estate will contract, and in the process the sanctity of national
parks is ditched. Newman has bowed to the Nationals’ demands to allow
grazing in national parks - a move with potentially serious consequences for the
fragile ecology of arid zone parks. Newman insists this will save the lives of
starving cattle but they will be slaughtered soon in abattoirs anyway; the objective
of graziers is to fatten cattle to boost financial returns, not to save their
lives.
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| Wongi State Forest - one of many formerly protected state forest opened up for logging |
A handful of Liberal moderates
in the LNP Cabinet harbour reservations about the rollback. However, LNP unity
is Newman’s paramount concern, at the price of caving into the Nationals on environmental
(and a raft of social) policies. History repeats itself: as with former state
coalition governments before the Liberals and Nationals merged in 2008, weak-kneed
Liberals are browbeaten into submission by Nationals.
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| Wallum heath - fewer protections now for coastal vegetation |
Newman’s environmental
agenda is more destructive than that of former National Party Premier Joh
Bjelke-Petersen, who at least protected national parks and launched initiatives
to preserve the wilderness values of Cape York. Newman has signalled that 12.5
million hectares of land under government control is under review, with
assurances only that “pristine” areas will be protected.
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| Cooper Creek - one of several south-west Queensland wild river declarations being watered down |
For all his defects, Bjelke-Petersen
kept an environmental leash on extremists in
the Nationals' ranks. Not so Newman. Now it is open slather.
This article was published in The Weekend Australian of 1-2 June, 2013
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