Koala habitat protection

Eligibility - Queensland residents
Principal Petitioner:
Cornelia Turni
47 Blackall Street
EAST IPSWICH QLD 4305
Total Signatures - 3,920
Sponsoring Member: The Clerk of the Parliament
Posting Date: 31/8/2020
Closing Date: 9/2/2021
Tabled Date: 23/2/2021
Responded By: Hon Meaghan Scanlon MP on 25/3/2021
TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that the protections for our koala are not adequate to assure their survival. The new Nature Conservation and Other Legislation (Koala Protection) Amendment Regulation 2020 has exemptions that allow the koala habitat destruction without assessment. Schedule 24 of the Regulation defines "exempted development" and amongst a range of exemptions it includes "development in the area of a development control plan that the old Act, section 857 applies to". This means clearing of koala habitat in areas of development control plans is not triggered as being assessable against the koala provisions. This means an application of a 167ha development in koala habitat in the Springfield area does not have to be assessed and does not have a formal public notification period or a specific time period when the public can make a submission. These exemptions extend to state infrastructure projects, coordinated projects, development in a State development area and many more.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to call on the Minister and the members of parliament to upgraded the status of the koala to “CRITICALLY ENDANGERED” in the South East Queensland Bioregion and to remove the exemptions from the regulation to make sure that all developments within or adjoining to koala habitat are properly assessed, community engagement is sought and to update the koala map to assure that we have captured all koala habitat correctly. It is also requested that priority koala habitat and koala habitat is permanently protected.