Clearing in Queensland for high value agriculture has effectively been stopped even though the legislation to enable it to go ahead is in place. The Newman legislation was not undone by the Palaszczuk government attempts to do so. However it has been emasculated by a change in the method of the approval process. Where previously an application was made to the SARA department, who then sent the application to DNRM for a 22a approval, now it must first be sent to DNRM outside the umbrella of the SARA application process and is required prior to the application being considered properly made. This landholder now has no right of appeal against unfair DNRM decisions and there are no response time limitations placed on DNRM. So the DNRM process is the stalling method whereby applications can be held up indefinitely unchallenged. In fact, as stated by DNRM to an applicant, there is not even a requirement for them to give reasons for their refusal and therefore no right of appeal against the decision.
We have had our property clearing application declined, despite being in an area which was deemed by CSIRO and State government CYPLUS mapping to be in the top category suitable for cropping in the Cape. Despite there being no endangered flora and fauna, vegetation being “not of concern”, no watershed into the reef, very low erosion risk, very reliable annual rainfall for summer crops assessed as potentially yielding estimates of 6.8t/hectare for sorghum eight years in 10, having almost neutral pH, with a higher than normal phosphorous level for the Cape, good water holding capacity soils as well as having significant high quality water aquifers at shallow depths for potential future winter crop irrigation( not applied for at this stage).
Our frustration, and that of many others, is at the lack of action or response from political parties and farm lobby groups. Action could take the form of a simple amendment to the Act being put into parliament to prevent the unjustifiable stalling tactics and ensure applications for land development projects could be allowed to proceed without unjustifiable decisions that cannot be challenged.
The Federal Coalition is pushing to develop the North with $40 million to be spent on evaluating land for high value and irrigated high value agriculture and a further $5 billion to be allocated for development.
But the State government is preventing clearing and the Federal government seemingly wants it to happen, producing an impass unless there is some mechanism for allowing this to occur. Looking at the options the only one appears to be for a state significant project under the banner of the State government Coordinator General. This process would then be cost prohibitive for the individual landholders as the costs of an EIS and other consultancy required on a broadacre project could run into millions and cost as much as the project itself though with a very uncertain outcome, as any minor issue identified could be used to stop the project (e.g. an endangered frog may be located).
We sent all of the information from our application process including land studies to both Senator Matt Canavan and The Deputy Prime Minister , Barnaby Joyce, who are the key proponents for the development of the North. Whilst apparently sympathetic and understanding the issues there has been no meeting forthcoming and no real strategies suggested to overcome the issues despite the importance of this to Queensland landholders and to the development of the north proposed. It is no wonder there is a significant drift away from the parties to Independents and to parties such as the Katter Party and One Nation.
It seems to me there is a great opportunity for a politician with the courage to champion this cause and present a Bill to the House to make the appropriate amendments to rectify the unfair roadblocks to further development in Queensland, whether an Independent or from the major parties. They would likely get a great deal of political mileage and support from their constituents and probably go down in history as someone who was a real statesman putting the people first. - George Muirhead, Kendall River Station
