Queensland government moves to save trees

By Boyd Champness

QUEENSLAND farmers have warned that controversial legislation rushed through parliament last week to control tree clearing in that state may be ignored.

The Queensland State Government, under pressure from the Federal Government, rushed through legislation last week that provides fines of up to A$125,000 (£49,000) for farmers caught clearing freehold property without permits.

While farmers in other states now recognise the foolishness of cutting down great swathes of trees to run more cattle, this is not so for Queensland farmers.

Land-clearing rates in Queensland have outstripped rates in the Amazon basin at the height of international condemnation a decade ago.

Queensland has one of the highest rates of land clearing in the world, with the equivalent of two football fields of native vegetation bulldozed every minute, 24 hours a day.

The Federal Governments Statewide Landcover and Trees Study, based on satellite imagery, reveals that trees are being felled at a rate of more than a million a week.

President of the farmers group Agforce, Mr Larry Acton, told The Age newspaper that some farmers would defy the law and it would be hard to police.

Mr Tom Nicholas, who is clearing woodland on his property, Solferino, near Emerald in central Queensland, also believed some farmers would flout the law and that it would be difficult to enforce.

“There is a limit to what they can do with satellites and they cant have police all over the place keeping an eye on what everybodys up to,” he told The Age newspaper.

Mr Nicholas said controls on clearing would make it difficult for many farmers to remain viable. “Wed be paying rates and rents and the rest of it on land we couldnt use.”

Queensland Premier, Mr Peter Beattie, has also attacked the Federal Government over its refusal to provide A$100 million in compensation to farmers disadvantaged by the legislation.

Mr Beattie said the money could be paid from A$600 million in environmental funds.

But Federal Agriculture Minister, Warren Truss, described the “anti-farmer” controls as inflexible and illogical and said the Queensland Government was responsible for the climate that resulted in panic clearing.

He said the Federal Government should not have to foot the bill. “The states have the responsibility for land management issues,” he said.

Australia now has the dubious distinction of being the worlds worst per capita producer of greenhouse gases.

Australia, at the Kyoto climate summit in 1997, was the only developed country allowed to increase its greenhouse emissions to 8% because it had given an undertaking that land clearing had slowed and trees were being planted to absorb the gases.

With over a million trees cleared in Queensland alone each week, it appears Australia has broken its promise.