Government stumbles
on Koala, Bushland and Water Issues as State Election is called
As
The new draft Koala plan
for SEQ failed to fix mapping and provide strength to planning measures to
protect Koalas.
The Government and
opposition remain in denial about the main cause of our water woes the
uncontrolled expansion of unsustainable housing developments.
The government has still
failed to protect threatened urban bushlands and claims to have “protected 70%
of SEQ” where as in reality they only protected what wasn’t threatened and threw
the rest to the development wolves.
In key threatened areas
such as Parkinson, Larapinta and Fitzgibbon the government is still pushing ahead
with unrealistic development plans on State owned bushland and largely ignoring
the ecological significance of these areas.
Both major parties have
ignored the growing scientific advice about looming water shortages to keep
plumping for the development lobby while insisting they can’t do anything to
rein in growth. They both believe that building dams will make more water where
as all dam building can do it take away from environmental flows and destroy
more river systems. Water recycling wont make more water it is only a
conservation measure and it won’t fix the underlying problem,
Both parties still insist
that they can’t control population growth while being propped up by development
interests. By making land available cheaply, by providing infrastructure below
cost and by encouraging interstate advertising for people to “move to
Both parties
should immediately commit to
·
restricting
land supply not the 20 years hand out delivered under the SEQ Plan,
·
implementing
a moratorium on new developments until the drought has eased,
·
charging
developers the full cost of infrastructure and
·
putting
a prohibition on developing our few remaining bushlands.
Both major parties need
to make major financial pledges to bushland and waterways protection rather
than relying on volunteers and local governments to do the job alone.
The awful Integrated
Planning Act needs to be amended in favour of nature and protecting the
lifestyles of local residents both now and for the future. Current reform proposals
for IPA keep us heading backwards into the planning dark ages.
South East Queensland
residents now have the opportunity to make their voices be heard to pressure
both major parties to stop ignoring reality and to take the steps necessary to
protect, preserve and manage SEQ environment better.