Re: Chainsaws back in Qld
Depressing beyond words really that this is even on the table in this day
and age when we're supposed to be enlightened about the impacts of
clearing. Furthermore the way in which the environmental responsibilities
are now split just perpetuates folks' cynicism about the whole process. To
be honest, I for one am just shell shocked at these events and have trouble
comprehending the lack of outrage from the wider public.
Marie Tarrant
Kobble Creek, Qld
On 14 May 2013 10:26, Greg Roberts <> wrote:
> I would hope that as lovers of birds and other wildlife, we should be
> deeply
> concerned about what is happening under the Campbell Newman-led Liberal
> National Party in Queensland. A series of recent moves by the Government
> demonstrates just what is at stake here.
>
> The Government has boasted that it will "take an axe" to state laws
> protecting native vegetation on private and leased lands from being
> cleared.
> The laws were enacted by the previous Labor Government in response to
> revelations that hundreds of thousands of hectares of native vegetation
> were
> being cleared annually, contributing greatly to greenhouse gas emissions
> and
> seriously threatening biodiversity, especially across vulnerable woodlands
> inland. Now, landholders need do nothing more than present a "business
> plan"
> for properties and they can bulldoze what they want.
>
> The former Labor Government in its final years acted to lock up some
> important natural areas as national park, such as the expanded Mapleton
> National Park in the Sunshine Coast hinterland - a lovely, bird-rich area
> of
> rainforest, wet sclerophyll and open forest. The new Government is
> reviewing
> all park declarations made since 2002 and has made it clear that most will
> be revoked. The protection of national parks is supposed to be set in
> stone,
> otherwise there is no point in having them. Queensland already has one of
> the smallest national park estates in the country on a per capita basis -
> it
> is about to shrink further, and in the process the sanctity of national
> parks will be ditched.
>
> Logging and other damaging activities were removed from extensive areas of
> state forest and other forested areas by the former Labor Government. Those
> lands have been reopened to the developers and logging licences are being
> issued to anyone who wants one. One new licence covers one of the few
> remaining areas of rainforest frequented by the Eungella Honeyeater.
>
> The new Government is revoking Labor's historic legislation protecting the
> catchment of pristine wild rivers on Cape York and in the Channel Country
> of
> south-west Queensland. It will move to stymie the planned World Heritage
> declaration of Cape York and has vowed to open up Cape York - one of the
> nation's last great wildernesses - to developers.
>
> This depressing list goes on and on. Funding to help members of the
> community challenge bad environmental planning decisions in the courts has
> been stopped. Environmental responsibilities have been split among three
> departments - with ultra-conservative National Party ministers (in a
> government that is supposedly part-Liberal) running the show. Even the
> former Bjelke-Petersen National Party Government would not tolerate what
> Premier Campbell Newman (who is supposedly a Liberal) is up to. Despite all
> his faults, Joh kept a leash on some of the more rabid environmental
> wreckers in the Nationals' rank. Now it is open slather.
>
> Greg Roberts
>
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--
Marie Tarrant
Kobble Creek, Qld
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