Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House this petition against tick line movement in Coolabunia/Malar Area. If the tick status is changed from free to infested it will result in a number of negative consequences for all landholders involved. These include but are not limited to:

• The landholders in this area are strongly opposed to go from being tick free to infected.
• Due to chemicals used to control ticks, cattle wilt not always be saleable as a result of chemical withholding periods.
• The regular mustering required to treat tick infested cattle causes undue stress to cattle involved affecting their overall welfare and loss of weight gain due to extra handling.
• In the current cattle market, customers are preferring chemical free meat and having to treat cattle with tick eradicating chemicals will mean that cattle horn these properties will not have the option to be sold to these markets.

The landholders in this free zone have spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort to maintain a free status for the past 18 years.

In summary, the costs, time and manual labour required to treat cattle that will potentially move from tick free to infested zones will result in greater hardships for all cattle owners on these properties. This will have an underlying impact on overall profitability and viability of the stated properties.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to leave the free zone in the Coolabunia/Malar region as tick free and not move the tick line making the free zone tick infested.