Land-clearing laws crippling growth in Queensland, says Rinehart

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart has savaged Queensland’s new land-clearing laws as another symptom of a regulatory environment crippling growth and stifling the state’s chance at prosperity.

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart has savaged Queensland’s new land-clearing laws as another symptom of a regulatory environment crippling growth and stifling the state’s chance at prosperity.

Mrs Rinehart also heaped praise on the Trump administration, saying the past 18 months had seen massive economic growth, lower unemployment and a slashing of restrictive red tape.

“This is the kind of economic leadership we need here in Australia from our politicians and our governments,’’ Mrs Rinehart told the American Chamber of Commerce In Australia’s 50th Anniversary gala dinner in Adelaide.

“Fourteen states across America have set new record lows for unemployment from Democratic California to Republican Texas.’’

Gina Rinehart is not a fan of Queensland’s land-clearing laws. Picture: Nigel Hallett

But Mrs Rinehart said Queenslanders were now saddled with onerous land-clearing laws which posed a serious threat to the state’s resurgent farm sector and the broader economy.

“The introduction of complex and costly vegetation management will hamper Queensland’s ability to produce sustainable food and grain for our growing population,’’ Mrs Rinehart said.

Mrs Rinehart said the new laws passed earlier this month by the Labor Government, which include requirements for approval to thin out vegetation while also protecting nearly 900,000 hectares of high-value growth, would have an impact well beyond the farming industry.

Quoting Matt Canavan, a National Party Queensland Senator who was in the audience at the dinner, Mrs Rinehart said, like the fishermen before them, farmers were now being demonised by environmental activists as wreckers.

“No longer are they portrayed as caring custodians of the land but greedy wreckers of the environment,’’ she said.

Mrs Rinehart said the new laws disregarded one simple principle – that “pastoralists and farmers know their land and how to care for it even better than bureaucrats in offices far away’’.

A farmer’s livelihood depended upon proper land management and he or she had a strong incentive to care for land often passed down from generation to generation, she said.

Mrs Rinehart said Queensland was Australia’s number one agricultural producing state.

“But with these laws it leaves a huge opportunity for South Australia,’’ she said.

If Queensland continued to burden primary industry with red tape, while South Australia worked to revoke red-tape restrictions as well as lowering taxes and licence fees, Queensland could be the ultimate loser, she said.

“South Australia could see investment flow toward it, as well as an exciting future.’’