Queensland Vegetation Management and Land Clearing Bill Reintroduced

On Thursday (8 March 2018) the Queensland Minister for Natural Resources reintroduced the Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 (the Bill) into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was originally introduced in 2017, but had lapsed as a result of the Queensland State election. The Government had promised to reintroduce the Bill if elected to a second term in power.

The Bill is said to be required as a result of rates of land clearing having surged under Queensland's former Newman Government, which scrapped previously existing restrictions in December 2013. This measure saw vegetation clearing rates reach a plateau of about 300,000 hectares over a period of several years. According to The Guardian:

What the Bill Does

The Bill amends the Vegetation Management Act 1999 (Qld), the Planning Act 2016 (Qld) and Planning Regulation 2017(Qld) and the Water Act 2000 (Qld) to reinstate what the government describes as "responsible clearing laws". In terms of policy it seeks to:

• protect the Great Barrier Reef by strengthening vegetation management laws to protect remnant and high value regrowth native vegetation (including in riparian zones);
• reduce Queensland’s carbon emissions by re-instating vegetation protection laws repealed by the previous Queensland government;
• retain existing self-assessable codes as long as they provide appropriate protection; and
• re-introduce riverine protection permits to guard against excessive clearing of riparian vegetation.

To achieve its objectives, the Bill will, according to the Explanatory Materials:

• extend the protection of high value regrowth vegetation to align with High Conservation Values by:
• increasing the land types on which high value regrowth is regulated (as category C) to include freehold land, indigenous land and occupational licences; and
• amending the definition of "high value regrowth" to be vegetation that has not been cleared for 15 years;
• remove"high value agriculture" and "irrigated high value agriculture" as a relevant purpose under the Vegetation Management Act 1999 - removing the ability to apply for a development approval for clearing for high value and irrigated high value agriculture, and removing supporting provisions such as relevant purpose decision making criteria;
• providing consistent protection to regrowth vegetation near watercourses in all Great Barrier Reef catchments, by extending category R to include regrowth vegetation in watercourse and drainage feature areas in three additional Great Barrier Reef catchments, namely, the Eastern Cape York, Fitzroy and Burnett-Mary catchments;
• reintroducing provisions in the Water Act 2000 to require landholders to obtain riverine protection permits for clearing vegetation in a watercourse;
• providing enhanced compliance measures that will assist with enforcement of vegetation management laws consistent with other similar contemporary natural resource legislation;
• providing an option to landholders to request an area mapped as a category X area to be converted to a category A  area, where the area contains remnant vegetation or high value regrowth vegetation on the ground; and
• supporting the implementation of the revised accepted development vegetation clearing codes (accepted development codes) including changes to area management plans.

Differences from 2016 Bill

The reintroduced Bill unlike the Bill introduced in 2016 does not propose to: 

• reinstate the reverse onus of proof offence provision, or
• remove the application of the mistake of fact defence provisions under the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld) from the Vegetation Management Act 1999.

Reaction and Comment

The Queensland Government is reported as saying that "the new laws would put back in place a framework for the protection of native vegetation in Queensland . . . the policy will reduce land degradation, protect water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sustain biodiversity."

The head of the Queensland Conservation Council, Dr Tim Seelig, is reported as saying that the proposed laws would end a “brief but shameful period in our recent history”. Saying also:

The Guardian reported that WWF Australia believes the bill could be "a major step forward in the battle to end the state’s tree-clearing crisis." WWF-Australia conservation director, Paul Toni, indicated the the "acid test" for the proposed legislation would be if it actually drive down excessive clearing rates which had seen more than a million hectares of bushland bulldozed in four years.

After the Bill was reintroduced into the Queensland Parliament, it was referred to the State Development, Natural Resources and Agricultural Industry Development Committee, which is due to report back to Parliament by 23 April 2018. Submissions relating to the Bill can be made to the Committee until Thursday 22 March 2018.

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products. Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice and does not substitute for the advice of competent legal counsel.

Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 and supplementary and explanatory materials as reported in the TimeBase LawOne Service.

Queensland Labor reintroduces land-clearing laws to parliament (The Guardian Australia, 8 March 2018)

Can Queensland Labor end broadscale land clearing, as promised? (Michael Slezak, The Guardian Australia, 15 March 2018)