OPPOSITION natural resources spokesman Andrew Cripps has accused an alliance of green groups of dishonest scaremongering by their use of flawed data on the first day of a new campaign to frighten Queenslanders about vegetation management laws.
Mr Cripps said a Right to Information (RTI) application by The Australian newspaper had revealed green groups were using incorrect figures to exaggerate their claims.
The LNP member for Hinchinbrook has previously said that data in Queensland’s Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) was being manipulated by green groups to trash the reputation of farmers.
The claim of dishonest use of vegetation management data has already been by farm group AgForce, which has accused the Palaszczuk government of only telling half the story. CLICK HERE to read that story.
“During the debate on the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s unjustified vegetation management bill last year, I highlighted just how SLATS was being unfairly used and abused by Labor,” Mr Cripps said.
“To try to get that bill passed, Labor and the Greens ran a campaign of contrived misinformation about vegetation management activities in Queensland, but thankfully, that was rejected.
“Now the activist groups are back ahead of the state election to run a defacto campaign on behalf of Labor and they are peddling the same nonsense - but this time, they have been caught out.
“This RTI application underlines what I was saying during the debate last year – trees grow – and that quoting global figures in the SLATS report is dangerously misleading.”
Mr Cripps said the attempted “shock and awe” tactics by green activist groups were further compromised by the inclusion of certain types of management activities as vegetation clearing.
“I’m currently investigating the inclusion of thinning, fodder harvesting and other management activities in Labor’s published clearing rates data, a practice that is inappropriate and inaccurate,” Mr Cripps said.
“The reforms to Queensland’s vegetation management framework in 2013 by the former LNP Government were balanced and responsible, if people actually take the time to understand them.
“The focus on koala habitat on the weekend is a good example, because no changes were made to essential habitat mapping for koalas, or any other native species, as part of the 2013 vegetation management reforms.
“This do-nothing Government and the green activist groups are colluding to launch a bitter campaign against Queensland’s farmers and are using dodgy figures to pad out their propaganda.”