Environmental law making in Queensland : the Vegetation Management Act 1999 (Qld)

This article considers an example of environmental law making in Queensland: the Vegetation Management Act 1999 (Qld) (VMA). This law was enacted, and subsequently amended, within a heightened political context frequently characterized by a restricted parliamentary process. The Queensland Labor Government persistently promised that the VMA would bring certainty to rural landholders and protect the unique biodiversity of the State. This article demonstrates that the political machinations underlying the VMA contributed to considerable uncertainty amongst some landholders. Such uncertainty was exacerbated by delay in proclaiming the VMA, which generated a peak period of land clearing, and delay in the materialisation of a financial package alongside the legislative changes. This process reveals a dominant Labor parliamentary party motivated by political expediency, occasionally lax in its legislative role and unrestrained in Queensland by an Upper House and an effective opposition