As passengers come into land at the Brisbane airport, few would realise that they are flying over a coral reef with more marine diversity than any single reef in the Great Barrier Reef.

The Flinders Reef is just 30 kilometres off Brisbane. Yet life in Brisbane continues as normal while more and more regulation is imposed on farmers in North Queensland to “protect” the reef. How can reefs in Moreton Bay survive without imposing any specific regulations on the millions that farm, mine and work in the Brisbane catchment?

Dr Peter Ridd provides a succinct answer. He has researched the reef for more than 30 years but lost his job for daring to take a position opposite to those in charge. He makes the sensible point that the “inshore” reefs near the coastline of North Queensland (and Brisbane) have naturally adapted to high concentrations of sediment and mud. So while many complain that sediment from farming could harm the reef, these flows do not harm the inshore reefs.

Peter’s message helped convince senators to establish a senate inquiry into what were the real impacts of farming on the Great Barrier Reef. This inquiry heard that the inshore reefs make up just three per cent of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. So that means that 97 per cent of the reef is unaffected by farm run-off. The inquiry heard that farmers already adopt practices that limit the washing away of soil from their farms. They don’t need government bureaucrats to tell them do that, a farmer’s soil is like money in the bank and you don’t flush that down the river.

The inquiry heard that recently passed Queensland government laws would impose an average cost of more than $60,000 per farmer and no compensation was provided to bear this burden.

The inquiry heard that the Queensland laws impose a “no net decline” test on any new farms which it makes it prohibitively expensive to expand farming in Great Barrier Reef catchment areas. That means these laws will make it very hard for our region to take full advantage of Rookwood Weir. It is no point having the water if there are no new farms to use it on. All of this evidence led Coalition senators to recommend that these laws should change in a report tabled last week. We should return back to the cooperative approach that saw governments work with a farmer’s best instincts to improve the environment and the
land. Many farmers feel that the Labor government assumes that they are guilty until proven otherwise.

We should remove the high hurdles placed on new agriculture. We have so much water in North and Central Queensland and good soils to grow food on. These laws, however, threaten our ability to expand farming jobs and make the building of dams uneconomic. We should establish an Office of Scientific Review to provide transparency over scientific evidence. We must stop the practice of misusing the science just so farmers can be used as a scapegoat for all of the ills of the Great Barrier Reef.

Last week I met a cane grower just outside Mackay, Andre. He works hard in difficult circumstances and wants to pass his farm on to his sons who are keen to be farmers. But he is worried that the anti-farmer laws passed by Queensland Labor give no hope to his children. This election we should vote for parties that back our farmers and back our region. We have huge opportunities to grow more food. We just have to trust our farmers not work against them.