Opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek missed the point when he accused Labor Premier, Anna Bligh, of being unethical by accepting donations from coal magnate Ken Talbot who is accused of bribing former Labor minister Gordon Nuttall.

The point is ALL big donations, especially those from major companies doing business in this state, bring with them excessive political influence. The two worst areas here are property development and mining but there are many others.  Barnaby Joyce’s acceptance of a donation from Cubbie Station whose water entitlements are notorious throughout the Murray Darling being a good case in point. 

There is only one answer to ridding this area of the hint of corruption and undue influence: ban political donations from all companies that have significant dealings with government and cap individual donations.

The Department of Main Roads should put aside its plans to widen the beautiful “Cathedral Highway” that runs between Geham and Hampton, just north of Toowoomba, on the grounds that it is likely to kill hundreds of native animals.
These beautiful trees are habitat to bandicoots, echidnas and wallabies. 

Clearing 1400 trees along this highway will also destroy the homes of a
great variety of birds including the red-tailed black cockatoo. The area is an important wildlife habitat owing to the diverse age structure of the highway woodland which ranges in age from saplings to over-mature trees with rotting branches and hollows, ideal for birds and animals.

I am also concerned about local rumours that the main reason for
the highway widening is for the convenience of large double-trailer coal
trucks.

I am presenting a list of alternatves to the Mains Road Minister, Craig Wallace, and am hopeful of a good outcome.

Climate change is forcing many of us to alter our behaviour. Nowhere is this more urgent than in the area of bushfire control as Queensland forests, which have till now been largely free from the raging wildfires we have seen in Victoria, become drier.

The Greens are the only party with a clear policy on fire management of forests. Our policy emphasises the need to underpin policy with science, achieving a balance between protecting human settlements and maintaining ecological integrity.

A comprehensive fire management policy should therefore be developed for our forested areas and include such practices as hazard reduction firing with frequencies appropriate to the vegetation types, mosaic rather than broadscale hazard reduction burning with escape paths for wildlife and extensive public consultation and education.

Please contact me on libby.connors@y7mail.com if you would like to see our policy in this area.

Premier Anna Bligh’s statement that it is “nonsense” to equate the Inskip Point development (that her government has stopped) with the Traveston Dam shows she is not fully informed about the dam project.

This Traveston Dam proposal puts at risk over hundreds of hectares of riverine forest along the streams of the Mary river, over 50 state and federally listed threatened species and an internationally recognised Ramsar Wetlands at the mouth that needs fresh water.

These threatened species include the famous lungfish, a “living fossil” that lives in only a few river systems in south-east Queensland.