The Burnett River Catchment opens to the south of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
By Jo Nova
Below is the craziest environmental rule Peter Ridd has come across, and below that, a strategy to deal with it.
Queenslanders please sign this Petition!
For some reason no one can explain, the catchments for the Burnett and Mary rivers are included in the Great Barrier Reef protection legislation. These rivers don’t even flow into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, they empty to the south of it, and get swept away by the giant East Australian Current which heads south away from the reef.
The amount of water moving there is so vast that the entire annual flow of the Burnett and Mary Rivers passes in just two minutes.
Any runoff the rivers add to that flow will have to do a full lap of the Pacific Ocean to Peru and back before they get to the Great Barrier Reef.
We’re being so precious about the reef, but there are also eddy currents and gyres in the area that stir up the ocean floor and add a rich nutrient mix to the water. One near Frazer Island is so rich it causes phytoplankton blooms all by itself. Farms also use pesticides, and bad land management could add sediment to water — but as Peter Ridd says “where is the data”?
So despite farms adding an insignificant amount of nutrients to a current flowing away from the reef, farmers spread over 53,000 square kilometers of land must comply with rules about runoff, watering, and fertilizer. And they and their advisors all need to keep records of their compliance.
On this close up map below the distance from Bundaberg to Lady Elliot Island (the nearest reef) is 77 kilometers.
The Burnett and Mary Rivers flow into an area south of the Great Barrier Reef.
Let’s check that science — Queensland readers — we need your help.
BOM https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/learn-and-explore/marine-knowledge-centre/ocean-currents
Peter Ridd has looked closely into this (see his video below from last year.) The Australian Environment Foundation (AEF) is starting up a campaign to get the Queensland Productivity Commission to run an independent inquiry into the scientific assumptions behind environmental laws. The initial case study would be the Great Barrier Reef Protection Measure in the catchment of the Burnett-Mary rivers because it is a star example of pointless Big Government legislation.
To get started we need 3000 signatures on the QLD Parliamentary Petition before it closes on June 12th. Only people living in Queensland can sign it. But if you know someone who lives there please send them an email.
Professor Peter Ridd is organizing this as Chairman of the Board at the AEF. I am also a Director of the AEF.
Thanks for your help!
Let’s Check the Science: Petition 4488-26 Refer to the Queensland Productivity Commission an independent inquiry into checking the science
Peter Ridd, sums up the situation:
This petition is aimed at establishing a test case with the QLD Productivity Commission to ‘check the science’ around the environmental regulations.
Petition 4488-26 Refer to the Queensland Productivity Commission an independent inquiry into checking the science
The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that Queensland’s farming, fisheries and forestry industries are critical contributors to the State’s economy, regional employment, food production and community stability.
- These industries operate within a complex framework of environmental and natural resource regulation intended to achieve environmental protection outcomes;
- Stakeholders within primary industries have raised concerns that increasing layers of regulation may be imposing significant economic and operational impacts, and that the scientific assumptions underpinning certain regulatory settings have not been independently reviewed against measurable real-world outcomes over time;
- Confidence in public policy is strengthened where the scientific basis of regulation is transparently examined and independently assessed to ensure alignment between intended environmental outcomes, regulatory burden and economic sustainability;
- The Queensland Productivity Commission is an independent statutory body with expertise in evaluating regulation, economic impacts and policy effectiveness.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to:
- refer to the Queensland Productivity Commission an independent inquiry into whether the scientific assumptions underpinning environmental and natural resource regulation affecting Queensland’s farming, fisheries and forestry industries remain supported by measurable outcomes; and
- as an initial case study, include consideration of the Environmental Protection (Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) and Other Legislation Amendment Regulation 2019, as applied within the Burnett-Mary region.
Science needs to be audited!
The silver lining is that GBRMPA would also ban offshore wind farms. [We hope]
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It’s not pointless legislation if it’s intention is to control farming. It’s right on point, and the reef has nothing to do with it.
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How about a Senate Committee investigation into the money given by Mal Content Turn bull Sh@t to his Missus. Some 444 Million South Pacific Pesos.
Not directly to his Missus but as good as.
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But why haven’t they petitioned for this months ago and given concerned Qld farmers etc a much longer time period to collect the 3000 petitioners required?
I hope they can still get the numbers , but the Malthusian loonies will fight them all the way to try and further destroy the Qld farmers and the Qld economy.
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The Queensland Farmers Federation has over 15k members. The petition should be easily achieved.
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I hope so Ross, but I signed it anyway. I’m not a Farmer, thankfully.
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