Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

There have been, to put it in context, calls for national parks in Queensland to be used for grazing for drought affected cattle. An article to that effect, which seems to be where Senator Macdonald has got his information from, claims that the environment minister, Tony Burke, has dealt with this.

Australian and Queensland national park estates were established for good reasons. This form of land tenure offers real protection to threatened ecosystems and species. But any decision to open them up for grazing, even where this was the former principal land use, needs to be carefully considered by all parties. While the management of national parks in Queensland lies within the responsibility of the state government, many parks have been established to protect matters of national environmental significance. Under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, actions that have actual environmental significance—