Petition

Hinchinbrook Island, Whitsunday Island and Cooloola have been declared national parks because of their exceptional scientific, ecological, heritage and recreational values. Any changes to the land tenure of those national parks will lessen the protection of those exceptional values.

Public opinion, actively demonstrated over decades, indicates that citizens believe that areas declared as National Parks form a vital part of the state's heritage for all to enjoy.

We call upon Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, Leeanne Enoch, to ensure that:

• The whole of Hinchinbrook Island, Whitsunday Island and Cooloola National Parks are retained as national park with no private development within them;
• The three national parks are properly managed so as to protect their exceptional values; and
• No private development is permitted within any of Queensland's national parks.

Dear Mr Shorten

I live in regional Queensland and I agree with your Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Mark Butler, that no new thermal coal mines should be opened in the Galilee Basin. I am concerned about the impact of new coal mines on the world's climate. That will cause further damage to the Great Barrier Reef, the precious wetlands near Adani's mine, water for farmers and towns and put vulnerable wildlife at risk. New mines make no sense at a time when the world is rapidly shifting towards renewable energy. Like Mr Butler says, renewable energy is less polluting and cheaper than new coal fired power. 

I ask your party to adopt a policy that under a future Labor government, no new thermal coal mines will be opened in the Galilee Basin, including Adani's Carmichael megamine proposal.

"If you lined up more than 1200 bulldozers side by side and cleared a path from Brisbane to Cairns that’s the area that has been and is being bulldozed since the LNP gutted the protections against runaway bulldozing of habitat." says Martin Taylor from WWF Australia.

More than one million hectares of bushland, forests and woodland have been cleared of trees since the Newman Government removed controls on tree clearing in Queensland. 

We must let the Queensland Government know that it is unacceptable to put our wildlife, rivers and the Great Barrier Reef at risk by allowing tree clearing to continue. 

Sign our petition to say that you want strong laws that protect wildlife habitat from tree clearing right across Queensland. 

We are calling on all political parties to end the destruction of habitats by strengthening our tree clearing laws via a 10 Point Plan to Reduce Tree Clearing:

1. Use all available means to immediately protect forests and woodlands currently under threat from tree clearing, including declarations prohibiting clearing in sensitive Queensland areas;
2. Permanently protect remnant/old-growthforestsandwoodlandsfrombeingcleared;
3. Permanentlyprotecthighconservationvalueforestsandwoodlandsfromtreeclearing;
4. Apply a consistent approach to protection of forests and woodlands across all sectors responsible for excessive tree clearing (including agriculture, urban development and mining);
5. Ensure strong monitoring, enforcement and resourcing of tree clearing laws;
6. Remove high risk self-assessable clearing codes, particularly for ‘thinning’;
7. Continue to improve mapping for vegetation and halt exemptions via property maps;
8. Establish a land carbon fund and resource relevant state departments to research land carbon opportunities for Queensland land holders;
9. Ensure all clearing is referred to the Australian Government for approval, if it is likely to impact on protected matters under Federal environmental law;
10. Commit to regular (minimum annual) full reporting of clearing data and impacts.

Around the globe countries are shifting their energy production to become far less dependent on fossil fuels. Sweden has a policy to become the world's first 100% fossil fuel free nation. New Zealand will stop burning coal to make electricity in 2018. Australia can have 100% clean energy too.

If we are going to have any chance of preventing runaway climate change we must end our production of greenhouse gases almost immediately. The choice is clear, either act now or make our planet uninhabitable. 

Let Malcolm Turnbull know that you want him to take advice from climate scientists not the climate deniers in his party room.