Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Pastoral leases are entered for a very modest sum by state governments for purposes of grazing livestock. Generally pastoralists are allowed small-scale tourist activities to augment pastoral income. There are difficulties in allowing pastoral leases to take on large-scale activities in tourism and other industries. Other operators in the region who need to buy or lease land commercially argue that pastoralists would have an unfair advantage and that, if public lands are going to be used for that purpose, all operators should have the right to compete. The state minister is obviously having to take into consideration the precedent this would set for the other 500-plus pastoral leases in WA. The kind of change to the use to pastoral land suggested in this motion is best done on a regional basis, such as was done on the Ningaloo coast, where some tourism concessions were made available for pastoralists.

Question negatived.