NOOSA MP Glen Elmes has slammed Greens member Joe Shlegeris for “cooking up conspiracy” in his latest column to appear in local media.
In the column, Mr Shlegeris urges Mr Elmes to support the Labor Party’s Vegetation Management Bill saying Mr Elmes’ support was vital to the legislation passing.
“It’s clear that supporting this legislation is the right thing to do,” he said. “Open-slather tree clearing does direct and major damage to the (Great Barrier) Reef, causing huge volumes of farm waste and silt to poison and choke the reef’s flora and fauna.”
Mr Shlegeris said whether or not the Bill passed would come down to one vote.
“If the legislation fails it will be because it lacks just one vote in support,” he said.
“If it fails and our local member does not vote for it, then he is personally responsible, 100 per cent, for the resulting damage to the Great Barrier Reef.”
Mr Elmes said he voted against the legislation, but the final result was two votes against which would mean that even if Mr Elmes had voted for the legislation it still wouldn’t have passed.
“The Bill was defeated by two votes, not just one. So even if I had taken Mr Shlegeris’s advice, the Bill wouldn’t have got up,” Mr Elmes said. “What (Mr Shlegeris) is doing is trying to cook-up a conspiracy.”
Mr Elmes said he doesn’t deny there is plenty of work to do to ensure the health and future of the reef, but the Bill before Parliament was “not evidence based”.
In a speech to Parliament on Thursday 18 August, Mr Elmes said the Bill was another example of “a game of smoke and mirrors this government continues to play with the people of Queensland”.
“Claiming holier than thou policy positions where the devil in the detail reveals a slap in the face to hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders whose livelihoods depend upon agriculture and farming,” he said.
Mr Elmes believes the Bill was introduced as a way to appease the Greens, particularly those who live in the south-east corner of the state.
“The amendment Bill is premised on an emotional and sensationalised view that if the law is not changed, Queensland will somehow become barren,” Mr Elmes said. “That is simply ridiculous.”
Mr Elmes said he had a long history of working with conservation groups throughout the electorate and called on the public to get educated about environmental issues.
“We can achieve an outcome that guarantees the future of the Great Barrier Reef and we can achieve a balance that will allow for a sustainable future for agriculture in this state,” he said.
“These things can only be achieved if those people who are truly interested in the issue educate themselves rather than listen to extremists who are only interested in preference exchanges between the Labor Party and those whom I believe are a few degrees even worse, the Greens.”
