Environment | Steven Miles 2024

Environment.

Miles Labor – doing what matters.

Queensland’s environment is unique, home to creatures and plants found nowhere else in the world. It underpins our wellbeing and great lifestyle.

One of Steven Miles’ first acts as Premier was to legislate a new interim target of a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2035.

The new Miles Labor Government has also:

Banned new oil and gas in the rivers and floodplains of the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin.
Banned Carbon Capture and Storage in the iconic waters of the Great Artesian Basin.
Progressed World Heritage Listing of Cape York
Delivered 12,166,700 hectares of Net Free Zones in the Great Barrier Reef, Sandy Straits and Gulf – protecting species like dugongs, dolphins, turtles and sawfish
Significantly increased wildlife carer grants and invested more than $37 million targeting action to protect threatened species and critical wildlife care at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, RSPCA Queensland and the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital

Our Record.

This builds on a strong Labor record of protecting our environment, including:

Delivering Queensland’s strongest ever koala protections, including $24.6 million for the South East Queensland Koala Strategy.
Adding 2 million hectares to public and private protected areas, bringing total protected area to 15 million hectares, or twice the size of Tasmania, with $262.5 million funding to increase parks, improve management and visitor experiences. The biggest investment in our history.
Re-establishing sensible land clearing laws driving a 50 per cent reduction in clearing rates.
Doubling Queensland’s Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers from 100 to over 200.
Banning dredge spoil from being dumped on the Reef.
New reef regulations which minimise sediment and fertilizer run off to help the reef remain healthy.
Re-introducing Queensland’s Waste Levy after the LNP abolished it, making Queensland a dumping ground.
Creating the nation-leading container refund scheme.
Banning single-use plastic bags and other single use plastics and polystyrene, with a five-year plan to phase out most unnecessary plastics.

This is all at risk under the LNP.

The LNP has a terrible record and can never be trusted to protect Queensland’s precious environment.

They sacked 495 staff from the former environment department – a 33% reduction. The environmental regulator workforce reduced by 85 staff – of which 38 were employees dedicated to undertaking frontline compliance and assessment.

The LNP abolished the Office of Climate Change and the Office of Renewable Energy.

They cut more than 60 ranger positions.

The LNP wound back tree clearing laws, which led to vegetation being cleared in Queensland at a rate of 1000 football fields a day.

David Crisafulli opposed the Waste Levy.

The LNP opposed the Reef Regulations.

The LNP has confirmed they will keep coal fired power stations open indefinitely and will repeal our legislated renewable energy targets.

Peter Dutton has also said that the first step to expensive and waste-producing nuclear plants in Queensland is the election of a Crisafulli LNP Government.

The Smart Energy Council has said that 750,000 Queensland homes could have their solar switched off under the LNP’s nuclear plan.

The LNP have also foreshadowed changes to Labor’s enhanced protection of the Lake Eyre Basin.

And we will do even more.

A re-elected Miles Government will do more to protect the environment and our wildlife. We will:

Establish an independent EPA
Make the reef gillnet free by mid-2027, establish net free zones in Moreton Bay, Mary river and ban the sale and use of opera house
Establish a 54, 000Ha Greater Glider Forest Park, ensuring key habitat of the Greater Glider and other species like koalas is protected forever.
Establish Canarvon Station as a special wildlife reserve and undertake further koala mapping
Invest $140 million to triple the size of Queensland’s nature fund, including to incentivise landholders to establish private protected areas on their land and help them profit from conservation rather than clearing.