Queensland farmers don’t want a Victorian situation of standoffs with foreign power companies destroying their paddocks
When the government tables a bill allowing coal seam gas wells, solar farms and wind turbines to bulldoze their way through prime agriculture land, the red flags must be raised, KAP leader, Robbie Katter has said, ahead of a community forum in Toowoomba on Thursday.
A collective of concerned local lobby groups has called a community forum in Toowoomba on Thursday to hear concerns from a wide spectrum of the community, from landholders, conservationists, and property rights advocates.
“When such a wide range of groups are coming together, you know there’s real concern,” Mr. Katter said.
“LNP backbenchers in the regions, where they won government, must be squirming watching this roll on.
“The government haven’t told Queensland why they need the extra powers (on top of those they already have) to compulsorily acquire private land.
“We shouldn’t stand by and give government a bigger hammer when they haven’t defined the nail.
“The biggest concern for me is these powers aren’t a one-time-use kind of deal; they are permanent.
“What happens in the future when Labor needs the Greens to form government? Will they use these powers to acquire private land for battery factories, or locking up even more land? It’s scary stuff,” Mr. Katter said.
In their submission to the parliamentary committee examining the bill (of which Mr. Katter is a member), AgForce stated, “This legislation undermines integrational landholder investment and planning and puts the resources sector in direct competition with agriculture sector, threatening our core obligation as reliable producer of food and fibre for the nation and for our global trade partners.
“It just doesn’t make sense why we’re putting so much at risk, eroding confidence for farmers to do what they do best, and all for what?” the KAP leader said.
“The only conclusion I can come to is it’s got something to do with building the Olympics. The only submitters to the committee who were really in favour were the quarry operators, needing more aggregate than they currently can get for concrete and the like.
“If that’s the reason, the government should say so and limit the powers for that purpose.
“I’m pretty in tune with the miners in the north west and across the state; it’s our bread and butter. None of them are coming to me saying they’re being held back by land access.
“When I get big graziers calling me scared of new laws, not just farmers on prime ag land, there’s big problems,” he said.
