Showing posts with label flora and fauna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flora and fauna. Show all posts
Wednesday 18 July 2018
NSW Northern Rivers koala deaths continue at an alarming rate in 2018
Echo
NetDaily, 12
July 2018:
Friends of the Koala
reports that despite its campaign to prevent koala extinction on the North
Coast, 12 sick, injured and dead koalas were brought to its Care Centre within
the space of three days this week.
On Sunday and Monday
eight animals were brought to FOK’s East Lismore centre.
Yesterday two more dead
animals came in and another two were brought in on Tuesday.
Only two of the animals
are is still alive.
Two of the dead animals
were at peak breeding age, according to FOK president Ros Irwin.
Two were hit by cars –
one in Wyrallah Road, Lismore, and one on Ewingsdale Road, Byron Bay.
Call-out to contain dogs
Marley, vet nurse at
FOK, said of the remainder most were infected with chlamydia and one adult male
had suffered multiple dog attacks.
Almost all were either
dead on arrival or had to be euthanised.
Just two animals, dubbed
Glow and Eli, are in a condition to be re-released.
‘Glow was found in a
mango tree, with no koala trees around. He’s fine and will probably released
somewhere close,’ Ms Erwin said.
‘Eli was also found “in
the wrong place” here in Lismore,’ she added.
Ms Irwin made a special
call-out to people contain their dogs at night.
‘It’s horrific,
generally there’s not much we can do because they shake them around so much,’
she said.
Horrific car strike
One of the animals
killed was collected by Bangalow Koalas’ president Linda Sparrow from
Ewingsdale Road outside SAE, where it had been the victim of an ‘horrific car
strike’.
Ms Sparrow yesterday
wrote an impassioned letter to Byron Shire councillors demanding action on
koala warning signage that she said has been long promised but not delivered.
‘I have personally
rescued three koalas in Byron in last two months alone(Ewingsdale/
Byron/ Myocum),’ she wrote
‘All three had to be
euthanised and this is the fourth one this morning.
‘The poor boy (very
healthy male) clearly had no chance. Sorry for gruesome images but this is what
it is like on the frontline when you are called to this. Cars and koalas do
not mix.
‘How much are
our koalas worth if not to provide safe passage?
‘I am still waiting
for koala signage on Lismore Road opposite Dudgeons Lane where 11
months ago I had to pick up this other healthy dead male 25 metres down from
201 Lismore Road.....
Labels:
flora and fauna,
Koala,
Northern Rivers
Thursday 28 June 2018
Sunday 10 June 2018
The political endorsements of extinction by Turnbull, Berejiklian and Palaszczuk governments continue
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
5 June 2018:
Wild fish stocks in
Australian waters shrank by about a third in the decade to 2015, declining in
all regions except strictly protected marine zones, according to data collected
by scientists and public divers.
The research, based on
underwater reef monitoring at 533 sites around the nation and published in
the Aquatic Conservation journal, claims to be the first
large-scale independent survey of fisheries. It found declining numbers tracked
the drop in total reported catch for 213 Australian fisheries for the 1992-2014
period.
The biomass of larger
fish fell 36 per cent on fished reefs during 2005-15 and dropped 18 per cent in
marine park zones allowing limited fishing, the researchers said. There was a
small increase in targeted fish species in zones that barred fishing
altogether.
"Most of the
numbers are pretty shocking," said David Booth, a marine ecologist at the
University of Technology Sydney. “This paper really nails down the fact that
fishing or the removal of large fish is one of the causes” of their decline.
Over-fished stocks
include the eastern jackass morwong, eastern gemfish, greenlip abalone, school
shark, warehou and the grey nurse shark. The morwong catch, once as common as
flathead in the trawl fishery, dived about 95 per cent from the 1960s to 109
tonnes in the 2015-16 year to become basically a bycatch species……
…Peter Whish-Wilson, the
Greens ocean spokesman, said the new research was largely based on actual
underwater identification – including the Reef Life Survey using citizen
scientists. It suggests fishing stocks "are not as rosy as the industry or
government would like us all to think".
"This study also
shows that marine parks can be successful fisheries management tools but we
simply don’t have enough of them or enough protection within them to deliver
widespread benefits," he said.
"The new
Commonwealth Marine Reserves are woefully inadequate and won’t do anything to
stop the continuing decline in the health of our oceans."
Environmental Defender's Office NSW, July 2017:
Humane Society
International Australia (HSI), represented by EDO NSW, is seeking independent
review of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s (GBRMPA) decision to
approve a lethal shark control program in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
HSI has lodged an appeal
in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which will require a full
reconsideration of the approval of the shark control program. The 10 year
lethal control program targets 26 shark species in the Marine Park, including
threatened and protected species. The appeal is based on the public interest in
protecting the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.....
As apex predators,
sharks play a vital role in maintaining the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
HSI is concerned about the ongoing impacts caused by the use of lethal
drumlines which are known to impact not only on shark species but also
dolphins, turtles and rays. HSI is calling for non-lethal alternatives for
bather protection.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
27 May 2018:
Forest covering an area
more than 50 times the size of the combined central business districts of
Sydney and Melbourne is set to be bulldozed near the Great Barrier Reef,
official data shows, triggering claims the Turnbull government is thwarting its
$500 million reef survival package.
Figures provided to
Fairfax Media by Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
show that 36,600 hectares of land in Great Barrier Reef water catchments has
been approved for tree clearing and is awaiting destruction.
The office of
Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg did not say if his government was
comfortable with the extent of land clearing approved in Queensland, or if it
would use its powers to cancel permits.
The approvals were
granted by the Queensland government over the past five years. About 9000
hectares under those approvals has already been cleared.
Despite the dire
consequences of land clearing for the Great Barrier Reef – and billions of
dollars of public money spent over the years to tackle the problem – neither
Labor nor the government would commit to intervening to stop the mass
deforestation.
Environmental Defender's Office NSW, 25 May 2018:
Freedom of information
laws are an important mechanism for making government decisions transparent and
accountable. But the existence of such laws doesn’t mean access to information
is easy.
It took a three-year legal
process for the Humane Society International (HSI), represented by EDO NSW,
to access
documents about how the Australian Government came to accredit a NSW
biodiversity offsets policy for major projects.
The NSW policy in question
allowed significant biodiversity trade-offs (that is, permitting developers to
clear habitat in return for compensatory actions elsewhere) seemingly
inconsistent with national biodiversity offset standards. HSI wanted to know how
the national government could accredit a policy that didn’t meet its own
standards.
Despite Australia being
a signatory to important international environmental agreements and accepting
international obligations to protect biodiversity, in recent years it has been
proposed that the national government should delegate its environmental
assessment and approval powers to the states, creating a ‘one stop shop’ for
developers.
The original FOI request
in this case was submitted in early 2015, during a time when Federal and State
and Territory Governments were actively in consultation on handing over federal
approval powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This was to be done in the name of
efficiency, with the assurance that national standards would be upheld by the
states.
Over 60 documents
finally accessed by HSI show this was a false promise. The documents reveal
that federal bureaucrats in the environment department identified key areas of
the NSW policy that differed from federal standards.
Despite this, the policy
was accredited.
Accreditation meant that
the NSW policy could be used when approving developments with impacts on
nationally threatened species found in NSW, instead of applying the more
rigorous national offsets policy.
In the time it took to
argue for access to the documents, NSW developed a new biodiversity offsets
policy as part of broader legislative reforms for biodiversity and land
clearing. Unfortunately, the new NSW biodiversity offsets policy continues to
entrench many of the weaker standards. For example, mine site rehabilitation
decades in the future can count as an offset now; offset requirements may be
discounted if other socio-economic factors are considered; and supplementary
measures - such as research or paying cash - are an alternative to finding a
direct offset (that is, protecting the actual plant or animal that has been
impacted by a development).
While there have been
some tweaks to the new policy for nationally listed threatened species, there
is still a clear divergence in standards. The new policy, and the new NSW
biodiversity laws, are now awaiting accreditation by the Australian Government.
How our unique and
irreplaceable biodiversity is managed (and traded off) is clearly a matter of
public interest. And on the eve of a hearing at the Administrative Appeals
Tribunal, the federal environment department agreed and released over 60
documents. While it was a heartening win for transparency and the value of FOI
laws, it was a depressing read when these documents revealed the political
endorsement of extinction.
Thursday 7 June 2018
CONSERVATION GROUP FOUNDED TO COMBAT PULP MILL CELEBRATES ITS HISTORY
"No Pump Mill" memorabilia - image supplied |
The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition celebrated its “almost” thirty years of activity at a Re-Weavers’ Awards Dinner in Grafton on 1st June.
The
Re-Weavers Awards,
which are held annually on the Friday nearest to World Environment Day,
recognise the valuable contribution individuals and groups have made to
environmental protection over many years.
The
Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition was founded almost thirty years ago because
of a proposal for a chemical pulp mill in the Clarence Valley.
On
30th August 1988 The Daily Examiner’s front page headline
shouted: “$450m valley mill planned by Japanese”. Daishowa International had made an
in-principle decision to build a chemical pulp mill on the Clarence River near
Grafton. This, it was claimed, would create about 1200 direct and indirect jobs
in the region.
This fired up the
local community. Some community members welcomed the announcement,
claiming the mill would provide an enormous boost to the local economy.
But not everyone welcomed
it. Many feared the impact such a large
industrial development would have on the local environment – not just of the
Clarence Valley but of the whole North Coast because it was obvious that such a
large mill would be drawing its feedstock from across the region. Concerns included the amount of water this
mill would use, the decimation of the forests, the likelihood of poisonous
effluent being released into either the river or the ocean and air pollution.
On 19 September 1988 concerned people met in Grafton to discuss the
proposal and consider what action should be taken. This meeting resulted in the formation of the
Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC).
Rosie
Richards became its President. She was
an ideal person for the job in many ways.
In the conservative Clarence community she was not publicly associated with
any of the recent or on-going conservation issues. While she was concerned
about environmental impacts, both short and long-term, and made no secret of
the fact, she did not look like a greenie – or the conservative view of what a
greenie looked like. Rosie was 56 years old.
She was a grandmother. Her background was not that of a stereotype greenie
either. She grew up in Pymble and in the early fifties was a member of the
Liberal Party Younger Set. Her other
life experiences included years as a farmer’s wife and the wife of a
professional fisherman. (Her husband
Geoff had been both.)
Rosie’s personality
also qualified her for this leadership role in the pulp mill campaign. She ran both the CVCC committee and general
meetings efficiently. She was calm,
sincere, friendly, articulate and very much “a lady” in old-fashioned
terms. But she was also determined and
possessed a “steel backbone”. This
“steel backbone” and her courage were very necessary in the campaign to obtain
information and disseminate it to the North Coast community.
Courage was
necessary to the campaigners because those promoting the benefits of Daishowa’s
plans attacked the CVCC, referring to its spokespersons as scaremongers and “a
benighted group who distort the facts.” Those in power locally and at the state
level weren’t in any hurry to provide
facts but they decried the efforts of community members who were trying to find
information on pulp mill operations.
However, this did not deter the CVCC.
It sought information on pulp mills and pulping processes from around
the world, asked questions of those in power and disseminated information to
the community.
Other
important campaigners included media spokesperson Martin Frohlich and Bruce
Tucker whose time in Gippsland had shown him what it was like to live near the
Maryvale Pulp Mill. Others who played vital roles were John Kelemec, Rob Lans,
Geoff Richards and Bill Noonan as well as core members of the Clarence Valley
Branch of the National Parks Association. These included Peter Morgan, Stan
Mussared, Celia Smith and Greg Clancy.
Public meetings were held in Grafton, Iluka, Maclean and Minnie Water as
well as in other North Coast towns. In
addition the group produced information sheets, issued many media releases,
participated in media interviews, distributed bumper stickers, circulated a
petition, met with politicians both in the local area and beyond, and wrote
letters to politicians and The Daily Examiner.
And there were many others who wrote letters of concern to the paper as
well as some who wrote supporting the proposal.
It was an amazing time as there was a deluge of letters to the Examiner.
There has been nothing like it since!!
One of my
memories is taking part in a Jacaranda procession, probably in 1989. We used Geoff Welham’s truck which was
decorated with eucalypt branches, and driven by Rob Lans with Bill Noonan
beside him. Others of us, wearing koala masks, were on the back. As we drove down Prince Street, Bill had his
ghetto blaster on full volume blaring out John Williamson singing “Rip, rip
woodchip.” I think we drowned out music of the marching bands.
Following
Daishowa’s announcement that it would not be proceeding with its pulp mill
proposal, CVCC President Rosie wrote to the Examiner (4 April 1990)
praising the efforts of the community in defeating the proposal:
“It has been an interesting nineteen months; a period
that has seen the resolve of north coast people come to the fore; we have seen
People Power used in a democratic way to say ‘No’ to something that we knew would harm our
existing industries and our air and water.
If it had not been for the people of the Clarence Valley and their
attendance at public meetings, their letters to politicians, to newspapers in
Tokyo and our own Daily Examiner, and their strong support of the Clarence
Valley Conservation Coalition, we may have had a huge polluting industrial
complex set down in our midst, without a whimper.”
People Power
did do the job – but Rosie Richards and the others on the Coalition Committee
played a very important part in organizing and channelling that people power.
The lessons
of history never seem to be learned. Those
campaigning to protect the environment from the greed of pillagers face the
same problem today.
What Rosie
wrote in a letter to The Daily Examiner in November 1990 still applies
today:
“It seems that every time we stop for breath another
issue crops up that summons us to speak up for common sense and common
interest. Most of us would much rather
be doing other things besides acting as watchdogs for what we see as poor
bureaucratic decisions and flawed advice to governments.”
In the same
letter she answered a criticism that conservationists were “greedy”:
“We speak out as we do because we believe that the
people of today’s and tomorrow’s Australia will not be well served by a country
whose finite resources have been exhausted by sectional interests that have
until now not had to make long term plans for the sustainability of their
industries.”
The pulp
mill campaign was significant both in the Clarence and further afield. It reinforced the message of the other earlier
environmental victory – the success of the Clarence Valley Branch of the
National Parks Association in campaigning to save the Washpool Rainforest. Both of these campaigns showed the state
government and local councils as well as the North Coast community in general
that there were people who were prepared to campaign strongly for effective
protection of the natural environment.
Monday 14 May 2018
Here we are on the NSW North Coast living amid remnants of the splendor that was Australia in 1788.....
....and it is fading and dying before our very eyes, while the Turnbull Coalition Government follows in the footsteps of the Abbott Coalition Government by turning its back on us and our concerns.
North Coast Environment Council, media
release, 7 May 2018:
… SCIENTISTS ARE
THE NEXT CASUALTIES …
Malcolm Turnbull's
Government has launched yet another offensive on the environment, with the
announcement it was sacking dozens of scientists.
“The rivers of cash that
the government has to splash around don't extend to environmental protection,”
said Susie Russell, North Coast Environment Council Vice-President.
“This will have a
significant impact on north coast forests. We have been relying on the Recovery
Planning process to guarantee some protection for nationally endangered
species. Only last month, NCEC was a signatory (with NEFA, the National Parks
Association and the South East Region Conservation Alliance) to a letter to
federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg. We pleaded for Canberra to take
its environmental responsibilities seriously. We pointed out that the NSW
Government was not abiding by Federal Recovery Plans for threatened species.
The Greater Glider is one of the species where a Recovery Plan is required,
but nothing gets produced.
Photo by Jasmine Zeleny.
Saturday 28 April 2018
Just because it is beautiful.....(36)
Red-winged parrot
Aprosmictus erythropterus
Male
Male
Native to northern Australia and New Guinea
The male is bright lime green with black back,deep blue rump & yellow tipped green tail
Female .has a smaller wing patch, dark green back and a paler rump
Photograph by David Marle
via @ParrotOfTheDay
Labels:
Australia,
birds,
flora and fauna
Sunday 11 March 2018
A brief respite in the NSW Berejiklian Government's war on the natural world
"Clearing under the Code may threaten the viability of certain threatened species at property and local landscape scale. The risk highest in overcleared landscapes where most clearing is likely to occur under the Code." [NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, "Concurrene on Land Management (Native Vegetation) Code", August 2017, p. 3]
Sometime in 2017 a document was prepared for the NSW Minister for Environment & Heritage and Liberal MP for Vaucluse Gabrielle Upton to sign in order for increased clearing of native vegetation across New South Wales to occur.
This new land clearing policy came into effect in August of that year but faced a legal challenge.
The
Coffs Coast Advocate,
9 March 2018:
THE Land and Environment
Court has delivered a massive blow to the NSW Government by ruling its land
clearing laws invalid because they were made unlawfully.
The Nature Conservation
Council (NCC) launched a legal challenge to the codes last November arguing
Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair failed to obtain concurrence from
Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton before making the codes, as is required by
law.
This morning the
government conceded this was the case and NCC chief executive Kate Smolski was
was quick to pounce.
"Today's ruling is
an embarrassing admission of failure by the government and a great victory for
the rule of law and the thousands of people who have supported us in taking
this action,” she said.
"It is
deeply troubling that the government disregarded the important oversight role
of the Environment Minister when making environmental laws but we are even more
concerned about the harmful content of the laws themselves.
"By
the government's own assessment they will lead to a spike in clearing of up to
45 per cent and expose threatened wildlife habitat to destruction including 99
per cent of identified koala habitat on private land.
"Premier Berejiklian
must act now to prevent further plundering of our forests, woodlands and water
supplies by scrapping these laws and making new ones that actually protect the
environment.”…..
The NSW Government is
yet to issue a statement on the decision.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nature Conservation Council (NCC)
Media Release, 9 March 2017:
Media Release, 2 March 2018:
Media Release, 9 March 2017:
Court finds NSW
Government land-clearing laws invalid
The Land and Environment
Court today ruled the NSW Government’s land-clearing laws invalid because they
were made unlawfully.
“The government has
bungled the introduction of one of its signature pieces of legislation, and in
the process demonstrates its careless disregard for nature in NSW,” Nature
Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolski said.
“Today’s ruling is an
embarrassing admission of failure by the Berejiklian government and a great
victory for the rule of law and the thousands of people who have supported us
in taking this action.”
The Nature Conservation
Council, represented by public interest environmental lawyers EDO NSW, launched
legal challenge against the government’s land-clearing codes last November.
NCC had argued through
its barristers Jeremy Kirk SC and David Hume the codes were invalid because the
Primary Industries Minister failed to obtain concurrence of the Environment
Minister before making the codes, as is required by law. The government today
has conceded this was indeed the case.
“It is deeply troubling
that the government disregarded the important oversight role of the Environment
Minister when making environmental laws, but we are even more concerned about
the harmful content of the laws themselves,” Ms Smolski said.
“By the government’s own
assessment, they will lead to a spike in clearing of up to 45% and expose
threaten wildlife habitat to destruction, including 99% of identified koala
habitat on private land.
“These laws were made
against the advice of the scientific community and against the wishes of the
vast majority of the many thousands of people who made submissions.
“It would
be completely cynical for the government to immediately remake these laws
without first correcting their many flaws and including environmental
protections the community wants and the science says we need.
“Premier Berejiklian
must act now to prevent further plundering of our forests, woodlands and water
supplies by scrapping these laws and making new ones that actually protect the
environment.”
Ms Smolski pledged to
continue the campaign to overturn weak land-clearing laws.
“As the state’s peak
environment organization, we will do everything we can to expose the damage of
land clearing and will not stop until we have laws that protect nature,” she
said.
“These laws are a matter
of life or death for wildlife. More than 1000 plant and animal species are at
risk of extinction in this state, including the koala and 60 per cent of all
our native mammals.
“Land clearing is the
main threat to many of these animals, and the laws this government introduced
unlawfully are pushing them closer to the brink.
“It is regrettable that
we had to take the government to court to make it abide by its own laws, but it
demonstrates the critical role organisations like ours play in our democracy.”
Environment Minister
knew 99% of koala habitat would be exposed to land clearing by contentious new
laws, FIO document shows
A document obtained
under freedom of information laws shows the Berejiklian government knew its new
land clearing laws would cause extensive harm to wildlife habitat but pressed
ahead with the changes anyway.
“This is damning
evidence that the Environment Minister approved these new laws knowing they
would expose 99% of identified koala habitat on private land to clearing,” NCC
CEO Kate Smolski said.
“The document also shows
the Minister was warned the laws could cause a 45% spike in land clearing and
that they would mostly benefit very large agribusinesses that could clear land
on a massive scale, not smaller enterprises and farming communities across the
state.
“It shows what we have
suspected all along – environment policy in NSW is being dictated by the
National Party and the powerful agribusiness interests the party represents.
“Minister Upton knew
these laws were very bad for threatened species and bushland, yet she approved
them anyway. This is a disgrace.”
The document, obtained
by EDO NSW for the Nature Conservation Council, was prepared by the Office of
Environment and Heritage for the Environment Minister and outlined the
consequences of Ms Upton agreeing to land-clearing codes proposed by Primary
Industries Minister Niall Blair.
Key warnings in the
document include:
*
“The regulatory changes will further increase agricultural clearing by between
8% and 45% annually.” (Page 3)
*
Clearing under the code risks: “Removing key habitat for threatened species,
including koala habitat (less than 1% of identified koala habitat in NSW is
protected from clearing under the Code)” and “Increasing vulnerability of
threatened ecological communities”. (Page 6)
*
If unchecked “such clearing could destroy habitats, cause soil and water
quality impacts”. (Page 5)
*
“The main benefits are likely to be private benefits for large farming
operations which broadscale clear under the Code.” (Page 6)
“These are terrible laws
that put our wildlife at risk,” Ms Smolski said. “Premier Berejiklian should
act immediately to protect the thousands of hectares of koala habitat at risk
by exempting sensitive areas from code-based clearing. “In the longer term, she
should go back to the drawing board and draft new laws that protect our
precious wildlife and bushland.”
Snapshots from NSW Office of
Environment & Heritage, "Concurrence
on Land Management (Native Vegetation) Code", August 2017:
UPDATE
The respite
ended before it really began………
The
Guardian, 11
March 2018:
But the government made
no delay remaking the laws, announcing
on Saturday it had been completed.
“The remade code is
identical to the previous one and is an integral part of the new land
management framework which gives landowners the tools and certainty they need,”
said David Witherdin, the CEO of Local Land Services, which oversees clearing
under the codes.
The move was condemned
by the NCC.
Sometimes it’s hard not to despair when faced with evidence of the wilful, destructive ignorance of Liberal and Nationals politicians
Attempts by the federal
government to stop potentially unlawful clearing in Queensland were reversed
after political intervention, with a highly unusual apology letter sent to
every landholder suspected of planning unlawful clearing at the direct request
of the minister, documents obtained by the Guardian under FOI laws reveal.
In December 2015 and
January 2016, the federal department of environment took the exceptional
step of asking 51 landholders with approval from the Queensland government to
clear their land, to explain why the clearing wasn’t unlawful under federal
environmental law.
But within two months,
the department issued the unusual apology letter to every recipient of the
initial letter, Guardian Australia can reveal.
In the letter Shane
Gaddes, then assistant secretary for the environment standards division, said
the department “deeply” regretted any distress caused, backflipped on demands
for information, and indicated the letter wasn’t part of any compliance action,
but rather an attempt to help the landholders avoid legal action by activists.
Internal correspondence
obtained by Guardian Australia shows the apology letter was motivated by
lobbying from National and Liberal MPs from Queensland electorates, as well as
the pro-land clearing lobby group Property Rights Australia.
More land is cleared of
trees in Queensland than the rest of the country combined – with the latest
figures showing 395,000 hectares were cleared in a single year – amounting to
about a football stadium of clearing every three minutes.
Clearing skyrocketed in
Queensland after the former Liberal National party government under the premier
Campbell Newman broke an election promise and scrapped clearing controls, introducing
several ways for farmers to more easily clear trees.
But regardless of state
approvals, if a development is likely to impact a “matter of national
environmental significance”, then it must also be approved by the federal
government under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Matters of national
environmental significance include important populations of threatened species,
the Great Barrier Reef and some migratory species.
In the initial letter
the federal department of environment said it had examined the proposal and
concluded that it “may be necessary” for the 51 landholders to seek formal
approval under federal laws. The distribution of the letter sparked outrage
among landholders.
The Queensland Nationals
senator Barry O’Sullivan said
at the time that “activist public servants” were “looking for ways to
circumvent the intentions” of Queensland and federal governments…..
The then minister for
the environment, Greg Hunt, publicly defended the action, saying: “The
department must implement the law.”
But correspondence
obtained by Guardian Australia under FoI laws reveals the cause of Hunt’s
change of heart, leading to the apology letter.
In a letter to the
then-chairman of the pro-land clearing group Property Rights Australia, Hunt
said: “In response to concerns raised by you, Senator O’Sullivan, Senator
Canavan and the Hon Warren Entsch MP, the department of environment has written
to affected landholders clarifying their obligations and the intent of the
first letter.”......
https://www.scribd.com/document/372386311/Department-of-Environment-letter-to-HVA-Permit-Holders-2Letter from Greg Hunt to Dale Stiller by The Guardian on Scribd https://www.scribd.com/document/372762129/Letter-from-Greg-Hunt-to-Dale-Stiller
Labels:
environmental vandalism,
flora and fauna,
forests,
Queensland LNP,
trees
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