The Palaszczuk government has moved quickly to amend licensing regulations that threatened to strangle large-scale exclusion fencing projects it had invested millions of dollars in.
The Queensland Country Life recently reported that the Queensland Building and Construction Commission had provided advice to the Longreach Regional Council that only licenced contractors had the necessary qualifications to erect exclusion fences.
The red tape rule that saw the type of fence used to keep wild dogs at bay described as a fixed structure and therefore defined as a ‘building’ sent administrators of Longreach’s $18 million loan scheme to a variety of political representatives with concerns for the future of their program.
They identified that only 28 per cent of the people signing up to the scheme were licenced.
The changes, described as expanding present licencing exemptions for farm fencing, were brought in by the government to provide greater clarity to councils and landholders rolling out wild dog fencing programs.
Essentially, they will mean there will be no need to engage a QBCC licensee for large-scale farm fencing projects.
Public Works Minister, Mick de Brenni, said the changes to the regulation would provide more flexibility to farmers and councils.
While there were already licence exemptions for construction of farm fencing and gates, the regulation needed to be changed to make sure that large fencing projects were catered for.
“The changes expand present licensing exemptions for farm fencing, but the public will continue to be protected as building standards will stay the same,” Mr de Brenni said.
“The Longreach council raised issues with licencing requirements changing depending on the products that were being used and the design of the fences being rolled out.
“Given the importance of this project to producers, I wanted to make sure that we make the roll-out as smooth as possible.”
The swift action was applauded by Longreach mayor, Ed Warren.
He said the Premier had listened to concerns about the lack of clarity around licensing requirements and acted within a fortnight.
“It’s given certainty to council and given certainty to landholders and we are thankful for that,” he said.
The change also gave certainty to the wider Queensland Feral Pest Initiative, which Agriculture Minister, Bill Byrne, described as unlocking the potential of the west.
Some 5000 kilometres of exclusion fencing has been constructed to date as a result of the joint federal-state initiative and by the time it’s fully rolled out, more than 420 properties will be protected, from Hughenden to the Queensland border.
Mr de Brenni said his department would make sure all affected councils were notified about the change.