The petition of residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House a new report from the Australian Conservation Foundation titled The extinction crisis in Australian's cities and towns saying "habitat destruction for urban sprawl is fast-tracking the extinction crisis". Over the past 17 years, across the whole of Australia, half the forest habitat lost to urban sprawl was in Queensland.

Clearly Queensland's planning regime is failing its mandate to protect critical habitat for endangered species. Recent revisions of the Queensland Planning Act and SEQ Regional Plan have focused on removing hurdles for developers. This has evidently gone too far. Too much has already been taken from our natural habitats.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to tighten controls on land clearing for urban expansion to protect endangered species and implement planning regulations that put the environment first.