Deputy Queensland Premier Steven Miles says he has been assured by Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig of the councilâs commitment to koala protection as criticism mounts over its decision to remove two environment planning laws late last year.
The Deputy Premier and Planning Minister has been urged by environmental groups to step in and overturn the repeal of the two temporary planning instruments last December.
The decision sparked protests and outcry, including an online petition with more than 44,000 signatures asking Mr Miles to use his powers under the Planning Act to intervene.
This week the Wide Bay Burnett Environment Council renewed the push for State involvement, whether by reinstating the laws or expanding the governmentâs own southeast koala habitat protection laws.
The Containers for Change scheme exchanges 10 cents for every eligible beverage container returned to a registered Container Refund Point (CRP) in Queensland.
This has translated into $4 million for Gympie area residents, charities, community groups and businesses since the scheme began in November 2018.
Ken Noye is the chief executive of Containers Exchange, the not for profit organisation that administers the scheme.
He said the elimination of 40 million containers from the Gympie environment was a worthy milestone, but also a recycling effort everyone needed to continue to build on.
“It is an impressive amount of containers that have been returned in Gympie and those efforts have now injected $4 million into the community,” said Mr Noye.
The decision to throw the laws out drew protests t the town hall.
“This threat is especially concerning on the Southside of Gympie, where housing developments are taking place in areas where koalas have been observed living,” Mr Arthur said.
“In mid 2020 the Gympie Regional Council was awarded the Queensland Keep Australia Beautiful Award for Environmental Sustainability because of the TLPIs and their Koala Conservation Management Plan.
“The present council should publicly relinquish that award, since its retention is inconsistent with cancellation of the TLPIs.
“In the absence of operating TLPIs then the dire conservation status of koalas demands that the Queensland Government extend the South East Queensland Koala Conservation Strategy to the Gympie Region as a matter of urgency, and ultimately to the entire Wide Bay Burnett.”
Accusations of unlawful processes, claims green groups were being held to ransom and a councillor voting against a motion she seconded dominated a heated debate as Gympie Region councillors tried to unravel the mess around their environmental funding grants yesterday. Only one of nine applications for funding drawn from the council s Environmental Levy was deemed valid by staff, and only 40 per cent of the $196,000 up for grabs was recommended to be awarded across four projects proposed by the Koala Action Group, Cooloola Coastcare, Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee, and Gympie and District Landcare. The groups had already waited months for the grants to be awarded, a delay they criticised and called unprecedented .