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A LANDHOLDER action group formed as a direct result of the implementation of the draconian Vegetation Management Act in the 1990s by the former Beattie Government says Queensland is once again painting law abiding farmers as environmental criminals.
Dale Stiller, the chairman of Property Rights Australia, said it was nonsense for Deputy Premier Jackie Trad to suggest that the former LNP government had “scrapped the Beattie Government’s nation leading tree clearing laws.”
“The claim defies credibility as the laws were never repealed rather amended and rather modestly at that,” Mr Stiller said.
“How dare the Palaszczuk government claim to be returning balance when the Beattie legislation defied that definition?
“Is it balanced that agricultural producers are again subjected to an attack on our civil rights such as reversal of the onus of proof, denial of the right to silence and mistake of fact, all were part of the Beattie legislation that Ms Trad praises.
“These rights have long been considered basic principles of the Westminster system and their removal has received criticism from jurists and legal academics.
“The removal of these basic rights means that landowners have less rights than a common criminal.”
Mr Stiller said Ms Trad would be well advised to acknowledge the widespread anger expressed by landholders towards both the Beattie and Bligh governments.
“History is being allowed to be repeated and the lessons have been ignored,” Ms Trad said.
“Ignored is the human cost of the Beattie legislation and the jack-boot enforcement methods, political vilification and outright victimisation of landholders.
“The Palaszczuk Government will be remembered in the same inglorious light.”
Mr Stiller said the established science of thickening of the tree species disrupting the balance with other vegetation types has been ignored,” he said.
“These other vegetation types include grasses which in most ecosystems have a greater ability to prevent erosion. Ignored too is any allowance for less developed regions of the State.”
Mr Stiller said today’s media statement issue by the Palaszczuk Government was laden in a climate of fear along with material taken from the Statewide Landuse and Trees Study (SLATS).
“It is clear the Palaszczuk government withheld the SLATS report on purpose, timed to be released on the weekend of the people’s climate march,” Mr Stiller said.
“This all points to a government that wishes to justify delivering hardship on rural people by placing a false veneer of virtuous urgency.
“A government that is eager to repay the debt of green preferences from last election where it gained a very tenuous grip on power with minority government.”
Mr Stiller said Ms Trad was at pains to highlight the increase of area cleared in recent years.
“It must be remembered that this increase came from a period of near total clamp down under Labor and coincided with a period of drought with mulga fodder harvesting,” Mr Stiller said.
“But the increase is 142,686-hectares in a State that is 172 million hectares which a miserly 0.08pc is and most of this clearing would have been regrowth.”
