Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett and the Queensland Opposition has successfully protected farmers’ access to groundwater following the passing of important provisions in State Parliament this week.

Mr Bennett said the LNP got behind even stronger ‘Make Good’ arrangements to protect Queensland’s groundwater resources from the potential impacts of resource projects.

“The LNP has a strong record when it comes to protecting landholder rights – it was the LNP that put in place a legislative make good obligation on mining tenure holders. This was a major step forward for landholder rights and a critical safeguard for the agriculture sector,” Mr Bennett said.

“Labor failed, however, to commit to a comprehensive review of the current ‘Make Good’ arrangements to ensure they achieve the protections required.

“Labor has launched more than 130 reviews in 21 months of Government, so why won’t they commit to undertake a proper review into ‘Make Good’ provisions?”

Legislation passed in the early hours of Thursday morning includes new provisions that will ensure:

• Make good agreements have a 5 day cooling off period for landholders
• Landholders can recoup costs for expert hydrogeologists advice to inform their make good negotiations with resource companies
• Resource companies have a legislative obligation to pay for alternative dispute resolution costs for make good negotiations, so that landholders aren’t disadvantaged or left out of pocket.

11 November 2016