Protesters to swoop on Premier over river bill
08.02.2007
HOSTILE reception awaits Queensland Premier Peter Beattie at the cabinet meeting in Atherton, near Cairns, this weekend, as Aboriginal leaders, cattlemen and councillors gather to protest at laws locking up Cape York's river systems from development.
A meeting of the groups in Cairns yesterday resolved to meet Mr Beattie and express their dismay at the legislation, which they claim was a deal the Premier did with the Greens for preference support at last year's state election.
The Wild Rivers legislation amendment bill was introduced into parliament on Tuesday, declaring the first six ``wild rivers'' protected from any development proposals.
Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace told parliament there had been ``more than adequate consultation on the Wild Rivers code'', a claim disputed at the meeting yesterday, when the Government was accused of arrogantly pushing through the legislation ``to appease conservation groups at the expense of local landholders''.
Greg McLean, mayor of Hopevale Aboriginal community, north of Cooktown, said the Government was stripping away any possibility of local indigenous people developing self-sustaining businesses.
``It is just not true to say we have been consulted on these important changes, and to say we are not happy is an understatement,'' Mr McLean said.
``This just destroys our aspirations for our children.'' Scott and Ann Harris operate Queensland's largest leasehold property, the 1million hectare Strathmore Station in Cape York, which can provide jobs for 100 people. But they claim the new laws make the property unsustainable. Their lawyer, Cairns-based David Kempton, said pastoralists and native title holders would not be able to operate any enterprises within 1km of the vast rivers, which are now in flood.
``The Scott family want to harvest 1per cent of the water only in flood times, but they are being denied that,'' Mr Kempton said. ``They can run 50,000 head of breeding cattle -- with a total capacity of 90,000 -- and this scale of operation would take the pressure off at least 100 farms in water-starved southeast Queensland.
``The mismanagement of this state's water resources has resulted in the use of drinking water by irrigators in the southeast for agriculture ... On its own admission, the Beattie Government has not undertaken any proper scientific, ecological, social or economical analysis of this region to support its wild rivers legislation or its proposed water resource management plan.''
Cape York Land Council chairman Mike Ross, who chaired yesterday's meeting, said the legislation would ``stop economic development for Aboriginal people and cattlemen''.
