MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Environment groups meeting at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast last Sunday, 10th June, called for a moratorium on Local Growth Management Strategies (LGMS’s) under the South East Queensland Regional Plan until after the local government elections in 2008, when local residents would have the chance to vote for candidates based on their views regarding growth.
One of Australia’s leading scientists and finalist for Queenslander of the Year, Professor Ian Lowe, speaker at the weekend conference, said that the existing SEQ Regional Plan accepts the irreversible destruction of SEQ’s lifestyle and biodiversity. “Our unique local natural assets are being destroyed by over-development,” said Professor Lowe.
The State Government’s SEQ Regional Plan is requiring 60,000 hectares of farmland, open space and bushland to be bulldozed and concreted to accommodate over 550,000 new homes.
According to Sunshine Coast Environment Council spokesperson Keryn Jones, environment groups reject the irresponsible population growth targets set for the region through the SEQ Regional Plan and call upon the State and local governments to immediately halt further progress on their respective Local Growth Management Strategies until communities are better informed.
“The LGMS’s are the most important planning documents we will see in our lifetime as they will open up new suburban developments in areas previously inaccessible to developers, lead to high rise in suburban areas, and tie the region into irreversible growth,” said Ms Jones. “Injurious affection laws, unique to Queensland, mean that once land uses have been given the green light it can never turn to orange or red without attracting compensation payouts of many millions of dollars.”
Simon Baltais, President of Sustainable Population Australia SEQ Branch said that the fundamental weakness of the SEQ Plan is that it doesn’t recognise SEQ’s limits to growth. “SEQ will become very ugly and crowded,” he said. “Naturally, many are opposed to these strategies going ahead until the numbers are reconsidered in light of recent carrying capacity studies.”
Simon Baltais: mob: 0412-075-445
Keryn Jones: mob: 0418-982-158
Background paper attached: appeal for moratorium on LGMS
Re 5th June 2007 World Environment Day
Appeal to the Queensland Government
Take Action on Climate Change and Coastal Development
BACKGROUND
The South East Queensland Regional Plan prepared by the Queensland Government has a population target of 3.96 million people for the region by 2026, up by almost 1.2 million from the 2.78 million current residents. In effect, this represents an average growth rate of 50%, although Beaudesert and Ipswich face 100% growth, and several other areas (notably the Gold and Sunshine Coasts) also face extremely high growth rates.
Research conducted by Queensland University in 1996 and on-going studies since indicate that the population of South East Queensland already exceeds the area’s sustainable carrying capacity. The current and likely to be chronic shortage of water is the blatant and most pressing indicator, but there are others equally important, such as 75km² of bushland and agricultural land being converted into housing and other urban purposes each year.
ISSUES
The SEQ Regional Plan even acknowledges that at least an additional 60,000 hectares of land – approximately 12.6% of the total area of SEQ – will be converted to urban use by 2026. We will build more roads but they will be more congested and more public monies will be spent on trying to maintain basic services diverting funds away from services that actually enhance our communities. Currently, infrastructure grids, like those for water, are being set up to support floundering infrastructure and services in other communities at the expense of diluting the quality of life in others.
In the Gold Coast alone there are predicted to be an additional 116,900 dwellings over the next 20 years, accommodating a projected additional 244,000 persons by 2026, over 40% in Greenfield, previously undeveloped, sites.
There is widespread and genuine community fear that these high population targets will soon push ecosystems to that tipping point. We recognise that many of our most profitable and sustainable industries and the health of our communities are underpinned by these natural systems.
The escalating level of public disquiet over population growth in South East Queensland and the fact that consultation during preparation of the SEQ Regional Plan did not include consultation on population levels, should trigger a total reconsideration of the South East Queensland Regional Plan and its population targets.
The number of residents to be accommodated needs to be reconsidered in light of the SEQ Regional Nature Conservation Strategy, biodiversity mapping, climate change predictions of increased drought, bushfire and flood, and ecological services mapping.
Further, supporters of continued growth must be required to provide evidence that such growth is not having a negative impact upon SEQ residents and the environment upon which it relies.
Once gazetted, the Local Growth Management Strategies (LGMS) which Councils are currently required to prepare under the South East Queensland Regional Plan will open up new areas for development and lock in the high population growth.
REQUESTS
Our organisations reject the irresponsible and unsustainable population growth targets set for the region through the South East Queensland Regional Plan. Accordingly we the undersigned, representing our respective memberships, call upon the State and local governments to halt immediately further progress on their respective Local Growth Management Strategies until after:
- an extensive review of the figures to be accommodated, considering: the impacts of climate change on the Region (reduced rainfall, increased extremes of risk of bushfire and flooding); the value and extent of the Region’s biodiversity and other nature conservation values; the ecological services provided by natural areas; and, the requirement for open space for both residents and visitors.
- an extensive community education campaign has taken place throughout 2007-2008 to provide residents and ratepayers full disclosure and understanding of the social, environmental and economic impacts that overpopulation has already caused, and will continue to cause into the future;
- the people of Queensland have had the opportunity to assess candidates on their position on the population issue and the March 2008 local government elections and Council amalgamations have occurred; and,
- legislation is enacted to allow local governments to prohibit development and to remove injurious affection from the development process.
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