A streamlined State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy promises to cut red tape for Queensland graziers hoping to renew their leases.
Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps said State Government reforms included a simplified Land Management Agreement and the removal of linkages between National Park acquisition and the lease renewal process.
“The grazing sector is a multi-billion dollar a year industry and a key contributor to agriculture, one of the four pillars of the Queensland economy,” Mr Cripps said.
“The reforms I am announcing today address landholder concerns and recognise the good work being done by land managers across Queensland in sustainably managing their properties.
“Changes to the State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy will restore certainty for graziers on leasehold land by simplifying the lease renewal process and eliminating duplicated approval processes.”
Mr Cripps said a revised template for Land Management Agreements would be clearer and easier to understand.
“Land management agreements negotiated under the SRLLS support the sustainable and productive use of rural leasehold land for agribusiness,” he said.
“The new template will incorporate the ability to negotiate the inclusion of identified vegetation management activities and remove the requirement for lessees to undertake a separate and time-consuming approval process.
“This will let lessees negotiate certain categories of vegetation management activities that can be carried out over a 10-year period without the need for a further approval under the Vegetation Management Act.”
Mr Cripps said the other key reform would remove the link between National Park acquisition and the rural leasehold land renewal process.
“The process of identifying future national parks as part of the rural leasehold land renewal process will be discontinued. This will restore certainty for landholders and allay fears that good custodians may have their lease acquired or reserved for a future national park rather than renewed,” he said.
Mr Cripps said the State Government was committed to providing certainty for rural landholders ahead of potential amendments to the Land Act 1994.
“The current Parliamentary Inquiry into the Future and Continued Relevance of Government Land Tenure Arrangements in Queensland is due to report by March next year, meaning possible changes to the Land Act may not be finalised until well into 2013,” he said.
“In the meantime, I’ve instructed my department to continue as normal processing lease renewals to avoid the future of these leases being placed at risk.”
