Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to add my theory of disgrace and disappointment at the decimation of koala habitat at Ray Frawley Fields, Elizabeth Avenue at Clontarf. The eucalypt trees were cleared for the pedestrian overpass across Elizabeth Avenue. Since the Queensland government has cleared these trees we have already had one koala die and another one displaced. On Wednesday 30 March, some eight months ago, I attended a meeting with the state member for Redcliffe and Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads representatives and residents Phil and Susan Johnson, also local environmentalists, and also a representative from Clontarf state high.

During that meeting on 30 March, I asked Transport and Main Roads for one other road safety project where state and federal funding could be spent—just one. Road safety is very important. You would think that, in a seat the size of mine, which is three times the size of a state seat—or anywhere in Moreton Bay—the Queensland government would have a road safety project other than this pedestrian overpass, which the community doesn't want. Do you know what the answer was? No. Nothing. There was not one road safety project that could be done in 18 months.

This shows that the Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Mark Bailey, has no ability to forward plan, which we have also seen in Griffin, where 100 or so homes are being resumed to make way for Bruce Highway upgrades that were also unplanned. The story there, of course—and you'd know this, Mr Deputy Speaker Young, in Narangba in your own electorate as well—is that homeowners in Griffin were building brand-new homes, and the day they got the keys they were getting a resumption notice. Minister Mark Bailey has clearly failed there. He's clearly failed with saving these eucalypt trees in Clontarf as well.

During that meeting, state MP Yvette D'Ath, local residents and I left where we were originally meeting at the old fire station on Oxley Avenue and went down to Ray Frawley Fields and looked at where the overpass would go. We worked out that, if this project must go ahead because they had nothing else, at least half of the eucalypt trees could be saved. That was a commitment by the state MP. But what has happened is that the lot have been bulldozed. There's one left in the middle, just sticking out. Everything else is gone.

Clearly, state MP Yvette D'Ath took this information on board and she said it could be done. The Transport and Main Roads representatives said it could be done. So you can imagine my surprise when I returned home from the sitting week last week to find that pretty well all the trees at Ray Frawley Fields have been knocked down and removed.

The reality is that this overpass does not have the support of the community, who are concerned about koala habitat and tree removals. There are a couple of Facebook pages that have been set up: Stop Clontarf Overpass Action Group, as well as Pristine Peninsula. Sue Johnson said: 'We feel deceived. I am angry that, despite being declared endangered, the law is not protecting our koalas from having their homes and breeding corridors destroyed—and, in this particular case, for the sake of a pedestrian overpass for which funding was rushed through without any supporting data and ignoring community requests for alternative safety upgrades.'

At the time, I said to the state MP and TMR representatives, 'Why not build it at Hercules Road? There have been a lot of people contacting me about that school.' But they said they couldn't do that, nor could they do one other road safety project. So it went ahead. The trees were supposed to be preserved. They were all knocked down as well. There has been a failure by the state government here—by the minister but also by the state MP.

Les Barkla, another resident, has sent me questions for the state government, which I forwarded to the state opposition. He said that Department of Transport and Main Roads officers advised the state and federal MPs and the community at that site meeting that some trees would be retained. Exactly, Les. He also said: 'DES also stated in a letter of 13 June 2022 to a local resident that the position of the overpass had been selected to retain as many of the local street trees as possible.' Well, guess what? The lot got knocked down. Les says that DTMR plan graphics show trees on site post completion. That's in the drawings. His question to Minister Scanlon in the Palaszczuk government was: why were these trees removed and why wasn't temporary fauna exclusion fencing installed to protect local endangered koalas?

I'll write to them, Les, but it really is a failure of the state Labor MP Yvette D'Ath to do her job properly. I'm sorry, but there's no other way to describe it. Her electorate is a third the size of ours, being federal MPs. It's a simple thing: if you say you're going to save a few trees, save a few trees; don't have your state department bulldoze the lot. We had the death of a koala that was squashed on the road the day after the trees were bulldozed, and another one was displaced, so I can understand why residents are upset.

I would like to bring to your attention the current issues around active native title applications that cover the Moreton Bay region in our area and Noosa and Sunshine Coast. The area that I represent in the Moreton Bay region is Gubbi Gubbi land. Since the Native Title Act was passed in 1993, there have been 14 native title applications submitted within the Moreton Bay Regional Council area. The most recent application was filed in 2018. Queensland South Native Title Services, known as QSNTS, is a government funded organisation that is providing legal representation to native title applicants. The current claim that QSNTS are representing on Gubbi Gubbi country has many flaws. This has been pointed out to me by Gubbi Gubbi Dyungungoo—a group that you would be familiar with, Deputy Speaker Young, as the member for Longman—who are Gubbi Gubbi traditional owners and a not-for-profit organisation that do a great job teaching Aboriginal language and Indigenous language in schools. They have been active members of our community for many years and their members have brought this concern around native title claims to my attention.

The current claim in Moreton Bay before the Federal Court has seven applicants. It is unknown how these seven people were selected from a large group of descendants. Members of Gubbi Gubbi Dyungungoo Group have told me that they don't represent all traditional owners of the area but note that the seven applicants for the latest native title claim were not chosen through a formal election process, which is usually standard practice. QSNTS appear to be cutting corners to increase their chances of increasing their quota of native title claims that get passed in the Federal Court. Members of the Gubbi Gubbi Dyungungoo Group have said the seven applicants represent only themselves and their children. They do not represent all the traditional owners in the area and, therefore, should not be making decisions on behalf of others. They seem to care more about making money than upholding the original purpose of native title which is hunting, fishing and camping on country. Three of the applicants are known to live in Cherbourg, which is on Wakka Wakka country, so they are trying to make decisions for country they don't live on.

Another tactic to generate money from native title claims is to obtain compensation payments off small pockets of freehold, unallocated state owned land. For anyone who inquires to the Queensland government or council to purchase freehold land, they are referred to contact the registered native title applicants to negotiate a price for the sale, because the land is subject to a native title claim. The sale price is essentially compensation money that will go to the native title applicants post sale if they surrender their native title rights to the area of land. It is ironic that, when there is money involved, all of a sudden these native title applicants come out of the woodwork and claim compensation over the smallest pockets of land.

According to Gubbi Gubbi Dyungungoo, this is nothing more than a cash grab by some in the Indigenous community under the guise of native title and land rights. For example, this scenario is happening in Scarborough on the Redcliffe Peninsula, for three lots of land each of only 143 square metres in total. The way it works is that you can have freehold land that you want to buy from the council or the state government—a very small piece, just a couple of square metres—and they say, 'No, go and talk to these people because there's a native title claim over it,' They say, 'That'll be 50 grand'—tens of thousands of dollars for a small lot of land. This is unacceptable. The Moreton Bay region is a major urban landscape with high density of houses, commercial buildings and roads. It is the reality that the current state of the area and native title activities to fish, hunt and camp on Gubbi Gubbi country are limited due to urbanisation. Therefore, native title in this area is plain exploitation, according to the Gubbi Gubbi Dyungungoo Group, and I am calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the native title system.