Queensland Government to Water Down Farmland Protection

Sources have indicated that the Queensland Government is now considering a plan to restrict the protection of Strategic Cropping Land, buckling under pressure from the Queensland Resources Council to reduce the total area of the State’s landmass to be protected from 4.1% to less than 1.5%. If adopted, the policy would effectively mean that areas such as the Felton Valley and Wandoan have been singled out so they do not qualify as Strategic Cropping Land. This would allow the coal mines proposed by Ambre Energy and Xstrata in both locations to be approved.

According to an article by James Nason published in Queensland Country Life, the Queensland Government is devising criteria for the definition of strategic cropping land, and are considering a plan to restrict Strategic Cropping Land to areas that have a slope of three percent or less. This would limit the strategic cropping land trigger area to floodplain areas only. 

This stands in stark contrast to the policy documents for the Strategic Cropping Land legislative framework released in August. Under this framework, 4.1% of the State’s landmass was defined as a “trigger area” in which all future mining developments would have to pass an additional level of assessment before earning approval to ensure they will not “permanently alienate” the land.

In response to questions about this development, a spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Resource Management said: 

The criteria are still being developed to ensure the best of Queensland's cropping land resources are identified and protected. Work is ongoing to ensure the final criteria accurately and reliably identify the best cropping land resources.

The final criteria would be set out in legislation to be introduced into Parliament early in 2011, but is likely to be considered by the Labor Party Cabinet in the coming weeks. 

Members of the Wandoan Clean Food Alliance have long been warning about the behind-the-scenes pressure from the Queensland Resources Council to change the criteria for defining strategic Cropping Land to specifically allow the Xstrata Mine in Wandoan to go ahead.

As John Erbacher says of Wandoan: 

The brigalow uplands in the Wandoan district have been producing economically viable crops for 40 to 50 years, without the addition of fertiliser, and the limiting factor to cropping is still moisture and rainfall.

If the Queensland government wants the Wandoan mine to go ahead at any cost, then the proposed SCL legislation should not be compromised as the Minister will have the discretion under the legislation to over-ride the SCL.

 To attempt to downgrade the SCL status because the proponent for the mine admits that successful rehabilitation is unlikely to be completed and the state-based community benefit is of far greater importance, defies belief.”

The State Government has already and rightly been accused of making a mockery of its own Strategic Cropping Land legislation by granting approval to Xstrata's Wandoan Coal project before the project could be assessed under the SCL guidelines.

Farmer and fellow member of the Wandoan Clean Food Alliance Pat Devlin has pointed out that the mine was within the SCL maps, and the approval by the Co-ordinator General ignored Lands Department and DPI information dating back to the 1950s: 

How can a government department decide that this land does not qualify for strategic cropping when we don't have the criteria from the government to determine SCL?

Obviously, SCL legislation will be severely watered down and is being offered as a pacifier to quieten the passionate custodians of our food-producing land.

 

Read the original article from Queensland Country Life here.