Steve Burgess

23 JAN 2007 

There are many inequities that have resulted from the rushed and ad-hoc approach the State Government and Queensland Water Infrastructure PL have implemented in buying up land in the Mary Valley (well in advance of gaining the approvals required to proceed with the development proposal under Federal and State legislatiuon).

These inequities make it possible for landholders to feel pressured into an early sale, because if they miss out on a good ‘early’ deal, they may end up with a far worse later deal. Probably the worse deal of all that landholders can be threatened with is a ‘water storage easement’. These are a relatively new weapon under the recently ammended State Development and Public Works Organization act which allows the Co-ordinator General to register a ‘water storage easement’ over a property title, without the consent or signature of the title holder. The landholder still owns the property, (even though it imay be under water for large periods of time), is still responsible for rates and maintainence (such as control of water weed on the water surface), has no riparian rights to the water, (unless they want to purchase a water allocation on a seperate title) and has no right of appeal against the decision.

This amendement was openly acknowledged to be in conflict with the legislative standards act, (page 6) but our elected labor representatives sold their souls and actively voted to allow such a weapon to be used by the State against its citizens. In this situation how would YOU weigh up your decision whether or not to sell early to the government? Would you feel pressured or bullied into an early ‘voluntary’ sale if you were ‘informed’ of what was in the range of possible future property negotiations?