FAST ACTION NEEDED ON STRATEGIC CROPPING LAND POLICY

THE Queensland Farmers’ Federation said today that the State Government must quickly progress from its first milestone of releasing its strategic cropping land (SCL) criteria, and get on with the job of developing a pragmatic policy to protect the State’s best agricultural land.

QFF CEO Dan Galligan said new Minister for Environment and Resource Management Kate Jones has got off on the right foot by releasing the eight criteria aimed at identifying the State’s best agricultural soils to protect these soils from permanently destructive activities such as mining and urban encroachment.

“Until now, farmers have been in the dark about which parts of Queensland are strategic cropping land since the policy intention was announced early last year,” Mr Galligan said.

“The criteria we now have are not perfect, but they are a launching point to progress the policy. All sides of the debate must acknowledge that we have to start somewhere and there has been enough discussion and not enough decisions.

“We now need further leadership from the State Government to progress the SCL policy and associated legislation. That means we need to get on with the job of dealing with the multitude of other issues and uncertainties, such as how it would cover existing projects that have progressed beyond the start up phase.”

Mr Galligan said that according to the Queensland Resources Council there is about $100 billion of future resource investments under consideration for Queensland.

“Clearly Queensland needs this policy and we need it fast. The absolute worst case scenario would be an SCL policy that lags behind the rapid pace of the mining boom, because once our soils are gone we can’t get them back.

“Our soils are complex and are formed over thousands of years of geomorphological actions. That’s why there will always be debate about these criteria; we are still learning so much about them, but it is also why we need action to protect them in the long term interests of Queensland.”

He added recent data on the world future food needs highlighted that the world population would grow to 11 billion people by about 2060 and the total food demand would double. But the land from which the food comes form is becoming more scarce.

“Our soil is just one of many finite resources that must be protected to meet the massive demand that will be on the farm sector in the future.

“The State Government must make it an absolute priority to progress the SCL policy for the long term benefit of the State. The time for this policy to become a reality has well and truly arrived.”