Graziers have been left shocked by a State parliamentary committee's recommendation that Queensland's proposed vegetation management laws be passed unchanged.
The recommendations come from the State Development, Natural Resources and Agricultural Industry Development Committee which led an inquiry into the proposed laws.
The inquiry was welcomed by picket lines of protesting landowners who feared the legislation would be unworkable.
The vegetation management bill, which sets out how trees can be cleared or protected, was introduced into Queensland Parliament early this year.
The Labor government made strengthening the laws a platform leading up the last election.
The committee held hearings in Rockhampton, Townsville, Cloncurry, Longreach, Charleville and Cairns and more than 13,000 written submissions were also tendered.
After hearing hours of testimony against the legislation in community consultation, committee chairman, Labor MP, Chris Whiting said the Government had the laws right and the focus should be on a public education in how the new laws worked.
"A lot of the things that people want to do with the vegetation, the answer is there already in the legislation," Mr Whiting said.
"It was certainly very clear that people needed some assistance and some guidance on how they could actually manage the vegetation."
Despite extensive lobbying from peak farming bodies like AgForce, Mr Whiting said the laws would not hold back economic development in Queensland.
"There are still 1 million hectares available to be opened up," he said.
"I feel very strongly that there will continue to be opportunities for the agricultural industry to expand."
Farmers feel ignored
Central Queensland cattle producer Josie Angus who has been a vocal opponent of the vegetation management laws and the impacts she believed they would have on farmers across the State said producers had been let down.
"We had so many producers who went to such enormous efforts, we had producers who swam flooded creeks and travelled a combined hundreds of thousands of kilometres," Mrs Angus said.
"Producers and scientists gave overwhelming evidence and the report largely shows that it has been ignored."
Beef cattle breeders Blair and Josie Angus operate Signature Beef, the product of four generations of the Angus family.
The couple have worked to diversify their production and now export branded beef to a number of countries.
However, Mrs Angus believed her operation would suffer, along with many others, if the vegetation management laws were passed unchanged.
"We have a huge amount of country that is developed farmland that has been locked up by these laws," she said.
"It is just simply not fair."
Despite fears the laws would pass as proposed, AgForce president Grant Maudsley said there could still be changes.
"We are talking to the Cabinet ministers and I am meeting the Agriculture Minister," he said.
"It's not over. There's certainly a long way to go.
"I can accept why some people might say it's a done deal but we've got a process to follow and we've got to go through with it.
"Make no mistake, producers will not keep copping this stuff from the Government."
