We need to work together: Minister throws down gauntlet over koala strategy
Queensland Environment Minister says the ‘bitter pill’ for southeast Queensland councils to swallow is in the new koala mapping details. She’s calling for a stop to using koalas as a political football.
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Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch has questioned why southeast Queensland councils did not raise concerns about the State’s new koala strategy and mapping with her before now following several scathing attacks this week.
Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) Acting Mayor Mike Charlton, Redlands City Council Mayor Karen Williams and Logan City Council have all slammed the State Government’s new koala mapping and koala strategy saying it reduces habitat for koalas but Ms Enoch said she has not been contacted for a meeting by any of the councils since the new mapping was released on February 7.
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Ms Enoch said a letter sent by MBRC Acting Mayor Mike Charlton this week was to sent to the Premier and copied into her but did not request a meeting to discuss the strategy or mapping.
The State Government koala mapping and Draft South East Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy 2019-2024 were released for public consultation in December 2019 with submissions relating to the mapping closing before Christmas.
Public consultation on the strategy closed on January 31, 2020.
The mapping was released for public access again on February 7, 2020.
“Right now preserving and saving the best quality habitat is crucial and these are the strongest measures we have ever had in Queensland,” Ms Enoch said.
“I think when you (councils) have been using these maps and doing what you can to preserve koala populations and to find your maps are outdated, it’s a hard pill to swallow and right now we need to not make this a political argument but work together to ensure we are protecting the best possible habitat.”
“It’s a pretty important task that we have right now.”
Ms Enoch said south east Queensland councils had multiple opportunities to express concerns about the mapping via targeted meetings, mapping workshops and individual consultation in community throughout 2019.
She said: “I am a little bit surprised to hear that MBRC has issues when they gave up their opportunity to come and have those conversations” in 2019.
Ms Enoch said it was clear current koala policies and mapping “have not worked .. we have full housing estates with koala habitat mapped over them. It has not worked.”
Cr Charlton told the Herald last week the region would be left looking like “Swiss cheese” if the State Government’s koala mapping was not fixed.
He said the new mapping reduced koala habitat in the region by 15,000ha or a region the size of Bribie Island.
But Ms Enoch disputed this saying the new mapping would increase mapped habitat from 77,258ha to 135,000ha or an “area nine times the size of Bribie Island”.
She said the expert panel was clear “it is really a case of now ensuring the best quality habitat going forward”.
She said the new mapping took into account “best quality habitat” and “other pressures” including “fragmented and fractured locations” as well as impacts such as car strikes, dog attacks and disease.
The Minister confirmed translocation of koalas would be “part of” the policy to support future populations.
An MBRC spokesman said he understood the government’s position was that “fragmented areas” weren’t conducive to sustaining koala populations.
He said MBRC disagreed with that and believed any “policy change should increase not decrease the amount of habitat in Moreton Bay Region”.
“As the mapping stands it will mean MBRC loses 15,000 hectares of koala habitat – an area the size of Bribie Island,” he said.
Habitat around the Lakeside Raceway was also raised by MBRC.
“We’ve included the forests around Lakeside. The State Government hasn’t.
Ms Enoch disputed the claim saying the forests around the Lakeside Raceway were part of the new mapping model.
“Habitat around the Lakeside Raceway is included in the modelling. Council had mapped the actual raceway as habitat … this is where some of the issues have been with inaccurate mapping.
“This is one of the key reasons why we must have consistent mapping methodology and this was a recommendation of the expert koala panel. It’s not just Lakeside Raceway but the Dakabin Waste facility and whole sections of housing developments.”
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A Department of Environment spokesman said councils across South East Queensland had been invited to provide data to the State Government for the future koala strategy and new mapping on areas “proposed to be included as locally refined koala habitat”.
“These areas were previously identified under local government planning schemes and some areas had been developed since the making of the planning scheme,” the spokesman said.
“Examples of developed areas that were included in local government mapping include the Lakeside Raceway in Moreton Bay Regional Council, on the Gold Coast the Gold Coast Wastewater facility and the Southport Airport and in Brisbane City a landfill site and industrial areas.”
“Adoption of a new consistent methodology meant that some areas, previously protected under local government planning schemes, did not meet the criteria associated with core koala habitat areas.”
But Cr Charton said the new koala maps, part of the State Government’s future koala strategy released for public consultation in December 2019 had put “holes all over the place”.
“We had strategically mapped out green corridors around our region to enable koala movements and we’re spending record amounts on infrastructure to try to ensure their safe passage.
“This plan is a massive step in the wrong direction.”
Cr Charlton said the mapping made no sense when there was a net loss of green space.
“This isn’t something we can afford get wrong.
“Right now I know there are people in our region who’ve jumped at the chance to lop-down once protected trees because the state government’s mapping allows it and we’re powerless to stop that.
“I’s genuinely upsetting and locals are right to be outraged.
“When we’ve had bushfires raging in the south killing literally a billion animals, we can’t afford to be losing this precious habitat in Queensland.”
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