The preselection campaign has been busy but lots of fun.  During the past 2 months I have visited 10 regional branches, spoken publicly on 3 major environmental issues, written to more than 700 members and phoned and emailed many Queensland Greens personally.  All of this was achieved while working full-time.  In the event that I am preselected I intend to take long service leave so that this sort of energy and campaigning momentum could be devoted to winning a senate seat. 

Visiting distant parts of the state brought home the many challenges facing us in Queensland but also served to remind me how much Queensland needs an environmental champion in the Senate to stand up for our wonderful places.

The work we need in the Senate

The urgent policy priorities I want to pursue in the federal parliament include:

1. Reform of the EPBC Act:

• to include providing a greenhouse gas emissions trigger which would allow federal  government intervention over the granting of coal mining and coal gasification leases
• to focus on protecting whole significant ecosystems and habitats rather than particular threatened species.   Let’s get rid of the nonsense that you can dam the Mary River but guarantee the survival of the Mary River Turtle and the lungfish or destroy the Caley wetlands near Bowen for industrial development but not harm migratory shore birds.

2. Transitional economic strategies to wean Queensland off its carbon economy.  We need to set specific targets and proposals especially for those regions currently being promised windfalls from coal.  These should include bio-fuels, bio-char, baseload solar power stations for rural areas and heavy and light rail for our cities.  
3. National standards for care and funding for disability services.  It is shameful that the Australian constitution guarantees equal treatment of goods and services across state boundaries but not of people.  At the moment if a person with a disability needs to move across the border from NSW to Queensland they suffer a significant loss of support and funding because Queensland social services lag behind other states. 
4. Reintroduction of federal mineral export licensing this time with the inclusion of coal so that there is national power to block inappropriate mining ventures for uranium, mineral sands or coal. 
5. Use of federal incentives to convince Queensland to establish an integrated system of linked protected areas of conservation significance that include the state’s stock routes and riparian areas which act as wildlife highways.  Our wild spaces are dying the death of a thousand cuts so we need a system of sticks and carrots to protect our desert uplands, inland rivers, coastal places and overdeveloped southeast.

There are many other policy matters, such as education, that I feel strongly about – too many for a final email.

If you would like a reminder of my professional and political achievements please go to my website: www.libbyconnors.com.au.