I pity the staff of Department of Environment & Heritage Protection (DEHP) charged with managing wildlife, ecosystems and sustainability, for the conflict the Queensland government has now established in policy with the Mines Minister announcing changes to the Vegetation Management Framework. In the name of ‘greentape reduction’, significant land will be open to wide scale clearing of regrowth and remnant vegetation.
In a 2002 landmark study by the Brisbane Institute, Professor Peter Spearritt laid out the value of greenspace to urban environments, its necessity to biodiversity and sustainability, the rapid rate of removal of greenspace already in Queensland, and the danger of a single city stretching 200 kilometres from the NSW border through to Noosa - a notion that has made quick progress to fruition.
Subsequently, Professor Spearritt and Dr John Nightingale made a submission on behalf of The Brisbane Institute to an Australian Parliament House Committee Sustainable Cities Inquiry. Governance of land, they note, is a critical issue.
Remarkably, Sydney is relatively well served, if we include the national parks and state forests that ring the city from south to west to north. Brisbane, on the other hand, is not so well served. While the area covered by the Brisbane City Council has a respectable proportion of greenspace, much of the remaining area of the so-called ‘200 kilometre city’ – Noosa to the Tweed and beyond down towards Byron Bay – is grossly deficient. Read their submission here: Sustainable Cities
Things have only gotten worse, and the threat to koalas from this state government is real. Some of our most important koala habitat is 20-50-year-old regrowth; some of the most stunning ‘Land for Wildlife’ properties are regrowth or remnant vegetation, and where we are seeing koalas alive, are in areas marked as low value habitat or not suitable habitat - often because they were cleared - but the regrowth is now proving to be the only habitat available.
The Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill, 2013, introduced to Parliament on the 20th of March by the Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, represents one of the largest environmental rollbacks in Australian history. While the government’s rhetoric claims an objective of maintaining protection and management of our native vegetation resources, the governments actions contradict those claims time and again.
Humane Society International (HSI) is of the view that the Bill exposes hundreds of thousands of hectares of currently protected regrowth and remnant vegetation to clearing.
It is a clear breach of an election promise made by Premier Campbell Newman that “The LNP will retain the current level of statutory vegetation protection.” Just over one year on, his government has announced these proposals to remove regrowth regulations on freehold and indigenous land, and Humane Society International is strictly opposed to its fast-tracking.
The Vegetation Management Act, 1999, has played a critical role in protecting remnant vegetation and the clearing of high value regrowth and regrowth around certain watercourses in Queensland, and the proposed Bill will result in a significant weakening of associated laws. The integrity of the legislative scheme is underpinned by the application of detailed regulations and a robust methodology for the assessment of environmental outcomes, and in its current form the Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill undermines that integrity.
URGENT: TAKE ACTION BEFORE MAY 12TH
Click here to send a form letter prepared by HSI (please feel free to add your own comments), or write directly using the following contact details:
The Honourable Campbell Newman MP
Queensland Premier
PO Box 15185
City East QLD 4002
thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au