Lock the Gate has launched a new initiative to reform laws to protect key farming areas in Queensland

New research suggests that legislation supposedly aimed at protecting Queensland’s best agricultural land has failed to work as promised, leading an anti-fracking group to launch a new campaign.

Lock the Gate Alliance has launched a new initiative to reform regional planning laws to protect key farming areas.

ANTI-FRACKING activist group Lock the Gate Alliance has launched a new initiative to reform regional planning laws to protect key farming areas and other vital assets across Queensland.

The eco-warriors unveiled their “Plan to Grow’’ scheme on Tuesday even as the nation’s attention was somewhat diverted by a pretty thrilling horse race down south.

The campaign is backed up by fresh research which suggests that legislation supposedly aimed at protecting the state’s best agricultural land has failed to work as promised.

Lock the Gate Alliance has launched a new initiative to reform regional planning laws to protect key farming areas.

The Regional Planning Interests Act in 2014 was intended to “address the power imbalance between farmers and resource proponents’’.

But a new expert legal review has found that not a single one of 42 proposed mining or gas projects has been knocked back since then despite often passionate opposition from landowners and other stakeholders.

A CRAZY PLACE

Among the projects still on the drawing board is a $200 million-plus open cut thermal coal mine proposed for prime farmland just 6km south of Kingaroy.

The scheme, backed by Brisbane-based Moreton Resources, has drawn the ire of locals such as John Bjelke-Petersen (illustrated), son of the late premier perhaps best-known for his develop-at-all-costs mindset.

“This is a crazy place to put a mine,” said Bjelke-Petersen, who still runs cattle and a bed and breakfast at the family homestead.

“This kind of country, this prime agricultural land, should be off-limits for mining, but we have the real prospect of this amazing area being opened up for coal extraction.

“We’ve seen what’s happened in the Hunter Valley and to communities down there, with the effect of mines on prime farmland and in close proximity to townships, and the same will happen here if governments allow this to go ahead.”

John Bjelke-Petersen. Photo: Lachie Millard

Moreton snared the site in 2015 but it appears the project has stalled since then, with a State Government website yesterday revealing the lapsed status of both the “environmental impact statement’’ and the “coordinated project declaration’’.

The dire financial outlook for Moreton also casts doubt on whether the mine will ever go ahead. The listed company suffered a jaw-dropping $26.4 million net loss in the last financial year as auditors warned of a “material uncertainty’’ about its ability to continue trading.

Moreton boss Phil Bryant didn’t return a call seeking comment yesterday.

AIRBNB SETBACK

There’s fresh hope for property owners driven mad by the antics of rogue neighbours.

A groundbreaking legal decision on the Gold Coast has bolstered efforts by some unit owners to ban Airbnb and other short-term rentals.

Two residents of the up-market Fairway Island enclave on Hope Island had taken legal action to scrap a prohibition by the body corporate on leases with a duration of less than one month.

While the pair won the initial case, the matter was just overturned on appeal in the Southport Magistrates Court.

It’s understood to be the first time in Queensland that a by-law banning short-term letting within a strata-titled community has been successful.

A groundbreaking legal decision on the Gold Coast has bolstered efforts by some unit owners to ban Airbnb and other short-term rentals.

Strata Community Association boss James Nickliss welcomed the body corporate victory as a win for “common sense’’ and said it better defines how other communities can now establish rules.

“We believe the outcome of this case is encouraging for bodies corporate in Queensland and we hope the State Government is watching closely,’’ Nickliss said yesterday.

The state’s most recent body corporate legislation, dating from 1997, is currently under review. Draft changes are not expected to surface before the second half of next year at the earliest.

It’s not clear whether the two plaintiffs, who each own waterfront homes worth at least $1.5 million a piece, will appeal the latest decision and keep fighting. Neither could be reached for comment yesterday.