Newman Government: the new National Parks cash converters

Little Ramsay Bay - Hinchinbrook Island. Photo Mission Beach Charters

Media release - 16th October 2013
To the residents of the Cassowary Coast Region,  tourists and all those who value Queensland's biodiversity: join us in opposing the Newman Government's predation of National Parks and the rush to convert priceless wildlife reserves into lifeless cash.

Queensland has a miniscule percentage (4.8%) of land historically protected   as national park, less than any other state. Nevertheless, the State government intends to sacrifice even this last tiny bastion of nature protection, our state's last public good, on the altar of profit-taking.

Everything else is already up for grabs, and they want  this bit too.  The Queensland  government recently made sweeping changes to  the Nature Conservation Act which governs national parks, crucially including changing the
sole object of the Act (conservation) to include recreation and development.  These changes were criticised by the government's own Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel (OQPC) on seven grounds  related  to fundamental legislative principles
(FLPs), advice which the government has  brazenly ignored.

At meetings with the conservation sector last week in Brisbane, the  government advised that a review of national parks will now proceed in-house against a new set of guidelines based on a meld of biodiversity, economic and cultural values.  An important consideration will be the cost of maintaining the biodiversity values of a  national park. Parks which are costly to maintain because of weed invasion and other introduced degradation are likely to be de-gazetted,  developed, or grazed.

Neither scientific nor conservation sector  experts will be consulted; nor will there be any public consultation over the fate of these lands which were originally gazetted to be protected, for  the public good, in perpetuity.

The state government recognises that climate change is a reality, talks about resilience and adaptation, but refuses to face up to its contributions to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon (such as its dependency on coal mining) and its intended huge inroads on Queensland's natural biodiversity. 

Common sense dictates that now is the time to increase, not reduce, public investment in the protection of our remaining biodiversity. The real cost of the proposed cash conversion will be the permanent loss of priceless wildlife and wild habitat.

Once developed, these areas will never be returned to a natural state, they will be lost forever.

You can let our ministers know you do not accept changes that will allow permanent loss of priceless wildlife and wild habitat.  Email or call;

The Hon Andrew Powell, 
Minister for Environment, 
Email: environment@ministerial.qld.gov.au  
Phone: 07 3239  0844
 
The Hon Steven Dickson,  
Minister for National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing  
Email:  nprsr@ministerial.qld.gov.au   
Phone:  07 3224 7477  

For more information contact: 
Margaret Moorhouse; (Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc.) 0427 724052
Yvonne Cunningham; 0419 433379
Liz  Gallie; (Mission  Beach Cassowaries) 0414  40315