I, and others, have written about the ecological (& other) implications of the increased land clearing in Queensland. It had been pretty much under control between 2007-2012, until the Newman Government weakened the laws - which saw a rapid increase of clearing.
The areas that had lost the most continued to be cleared the fastest, and new areas (e.g. Cape York, Gulf country) were also being cleared in massive projects (see graph below from our Pacific Conservation Biology paper).
Threatened species habitat is being lost, lacking protection at the state and federal level.
The Queensland Labor government attempted to bring in an amendment to bring the clearing rates down in 2016, but this Bill failed because Labor didn't have the numbers.
Now, they're trying again.
My colleagues and I have put together an article in The Conversation to briefly outline where we think this new Amendment Bill will do well. (Thanks particularly to Anita Cosgrove and Martin Taylor for your hard yards on this!)
The Queensland Herbarium and CSIRO have made their summaries of the science available.
If you are interested in letting the Queensland government know your thoughts about the issue, submissions are due MIDDAY on Thursday 22/3/18.
Send your submission to:
Committee Secretary
State Development, Natural Resources
and Agricultural Industry Development Committee
Email: sdnraidc@parliament.qld.gov.au
With any luck, the other states and territories will follow suit.