E-Petition

The Petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that Queensland’s farming, fisheries and forestry industries are critical contributors to the State’s economy, regional employment, food production and community stability.

• These industries operate within a complex framework of environmental and natural resource regulation intended to achieve environmental protection outcomes;
• Stakeholders within primary industries have raised concerns that increasing layers of regulation may be imposing significant economic and operational impacts, and that the scientific assumptions underpinning certain regulatory settings have not been independently reviewed against measurable real-world outcomes over time;
• Confidence in public policy is strengthened where the scientific basis of regulation is transparently examined and independently assessed to ensure alignment between intended environmental outcomes, regulatory burden and economic sustainability;
• The Queensland Productivity Commission is an independent statutory body with expertise in evaluating regulation, economic impacts and policy effectiveness.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to:

• refer to the Queensland Productivity Commission an independent inquiry into whether the scientific assumptions underpinning environmental and natural resource regulation affecting Queensland’s farming, fisheries and forestry industries remain supported by measurable outcomes; and
• as an initial case study, include consideration of the Environmental Protection (Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) and Other Legislation Amendment Regulation 2019, as applied within the Burnett-Mary region.