Extract from The Guardian
Barnaby Joyce confirms backflip over Shoalwater Bay military training
area expansion, assuring owners ‘property will not be purchased against
your wishes’
The federal government has bowed to pressure and scrapped plans to forcibly buy up a swath of Queensland cattle properties for new training sites for the Singapore military.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said on Tuesday the “clear position” of the government was now that “a property will not be purchased against your wishes”.
The threat of forced acquisitions was first flagged in November in letters by the Australian defence force to more than 60 central and north Queensland landholders.
It followed the Coalition touting the benefits of a $2.2bn training deal with Singapore during the federal election campaign in which the prospect of forced sales was not raised.
Joyce said he did not see the decision as “being a major detour from what we’re doing in any case” as properties bought by defence so far had all involved “a willing seller and a willing buyer”.
But the Queensland agriculture minister, Bill Byrne, a former
commander at the Shoalwater Bay base in central Queensland slated for
expansion, said it was a “humiliating climbdown” for federal MPs who had
defended the plan.
This included Queensland senator and the minister for Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, who “even in the last few days, has been insisting that compulsory acquisitions were inevitable”, Byrne said.
“It has been an extraordinary saga to get to this point and I have no doubt it would not have happened if it had not been for the determination of the graziers and the local community,” he said.
“The sense of betrayal in Marlborough and Rockhampton was palpable and the political pressure we were able to exert proved irresistible.”
The decision followed lengthy talks in recent days between Joyce, the defence minister Marise Payne, and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Turnbull was last week asked to personally intervene by the Queensland Liberal National opposition leader, Tim Nicholls, who panned the ADF’s handling of the issue.
Joyce said that “obviously the major concern was people did not want their property purchased against their wishes”.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being a government that hears the concerns of people,” he said.
The position now was that “if you wish to sell you can. If you don’t wish to sell, that’s fine”.
Philipa Rea, who along with her husband Clinton faced losing their 8,000 acres of grazing land at Shoalwater Bay, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the news.
She looked forward to “seeing something in writing” confirming no forced sales.
The government had evidently “heard our plea” after making an original decision that “wasn’t planned out very well and wasn’t executed very well”, Rea said.
“I think this is a win-win situation. We’ve always supported those who want to sell and now so people who want to sell will have that option, and people like us who don’t want to sell, that’s not hanging over our heads.”
The couple run 11,000 cattle on a property where Clinton’s family started the Braford breed. The region, which produced top quality MSA-grade beef, was ideal for grazing because of its predictable rainfall and close access to beef markets, Rea said.
Payne said the ADF would continue to pursue deals with willing sellers around the Marlborough and Charters Towers districts, which have been slated for expanded training sites for 14,000 Singapore troops a year.
The government’s “masterplanning process” would be “finalised within a fortnight or so”, she said.
Guardian Australia has been told the Queensland government is set to continue an investigation of the impact of the defence expansion plan on the beef supply chain, as it remains unclear how many properties within the state’s prime cattle country are now slated for acquisition.
The revelation of possible forced sales only after the federal election has placed significant local pressure on the local federal member, Capricornia MP Michelle Landry, who occupies one of the Coalition’s most marginal seats.
Landry thanked Turnbull, Joyce and Payne for the outcome which she said was “a win for the whole community”.
“It’s been a very controversial issue in my electorate obviously, and I’ve had a lot of upset farmers there,” she said.
Nicholls said it showed “the prime minister is prepared to listen and act in the best interests of Queenslanders”.
“Following my phone call to the prime minister, I welcome his commitment today that farmers will not be forced to sell their land in central and north Queensland to the defence department,” he said.
Byrne said the federal government had been “dragged kicking and screaming to the right conclusion” after political pressure that began with state Mirani MP Jim Pearce “highlighting the plight of the graziers”.
“There are still a number of very difficult questions for the Coalition to answer today about the shonky process and the anguish they have inflicted,” he said.
“The people of Capricornia in particular know they were misled at the federal election and they will not forget that key details of the Singapore deal were deliberately hidden from them.”
The state MP for Keppel, Brittany Lauga, said the government had been “shamed” into a backflip by “people power”, including a protest rally of 400 in Rockhampton last week.
Lauga said the Turnbull government had “caused incredible stress and heartache to the people in the Marlborough district by declaring he was taking their homes and livelihood without any consultation”.
Nearly 50 properties in the region, representing 170,000 hectares of land holding 100,000 cattle, had been in the firing line, she said.
Lauga said landholders who wished to sell their properties would now be in a stronger negotiating position without the threat of force sales hanging over their heads.
“They can take it or leave it,” she told Guardian Australia.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said on Tuesday the “clear position” of the government was now that “a property will not be purchased against your wishes”.
The threat of forced acquisitions was first flagged in November in letters by the Australian defence force to more than 60 central and north Queensland landholders.
It followed the Coalition touting the benefits of a $2.2bn training deal with Singapore during the federal election campaign in which the prospect of forced sales was not raised.
Joyce said he did not see the decision as “being a major detour from what we’re doing in any case” as properties bought by defence so far had all involved “a willing seller and a willing buyer”.
This included Queensland senator and the minister for Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, who “even in the last few days, has been insisting that compulsory acquisitions were inevitable”, Byrne said.
“It has been an extraordinary saga to get to this point and I have no doubt it would not have happened if it had not been for the determination of the graziers and the local community,” he said.
“The sense of betrayal in Marlborough and Rockhampton was palpable and the political pressure we were able to exert proved irresistible.”
The decision followed lengthy talks in recent days between Joyce, the defence minister Marise Payne, and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Turnbull was last week asked to personally intervene by the Queensland Liberal National opposition leader, Tim Nicholls, who panned the ADF’s handling of the issue.
Joyce said that “obviously the major concern was people did not want their property purchased against their wishes”.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being a government that hears the concerns of people,” he said.
The position now was that “if you wish to sell you can. If you don’t wish to sell, that’s fine”.
Philipa Rea, who along with her husband Clinton faced losing their 8,000 acres of grazing land at Shoalwater Bay, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the news.
She looked forward to “seeing something in writing” confirming no forced sales.
The government had evidently “heard our plea” after making an original decision that “wasn’t planned out very well and wasn’t executed very well”, Rea said.
“I think this is a win-win situation. We’ve always supported those who want to sell and now so people who want to sell will have that option, and people like us who don’t want to sell, that’s not hanging over our heads.”
The couple run 11,000 cattle on a property where Clinton’s family started the Braford breed. The region, which produced top quality MSA-grade beef, was ideal for grazing because of its predictable rainfall and close access to beef markets, Rea said.
Payne said the ADF would continue to pursue deals with willing sellers around the Marlborough and Charters Towers districts, which have been slated for expanded training sites for 14,000 Singapore troops a year.
The government’s “masterplanning process” would be “finalised within a fortnight or so”, she said.
Guardian Australia has been told the Queensland government is set to continue an investigation of the impact of the defence expansion plan on the beef supply chain, as it remains unclear how many properties within the state’s prime cattle country are now slated for acquisition.
The revelation of possible forced sales only after the federal election has placed significant local pressure on the local federal member, Capricornia MP Michelle Landry, who occupies one of the Coalition’s most marginal seats.
Landry thanked Turnbull, Joyce and Payne for the outcome which she said was “a win for the whole community”.
“It’s been a very controversial issue in my electorate obviously, and I’ve had a lot of upset farmers there,” she said.
Nicholls said it showed “the prime minister is prepared to listen and act in the best interests of Queenslanders”.
“Following my phone call to the prime minister, I welcome his commitment today that farmers will not be forced to sell their land in central and north Queensland to the defence department,” he said.
Byrne said the federal government had been “dragged kicking and screaming to the right conclusion” after political pressure that began with state Mirani MP Jim Pearce “highlighting the plight of the graziers”.
“There are still a number of very difficult questions for the Coalition to answer today about the shonky process and the anguish they have inflicted,” he said.
“The people of Capricornia in particular know they were misled at the federal election and they will not forget that key details of the Singapore deal were deliberately hidden from them.”
The state MP for Keppel, Brittany Lauga, said the government had been “shamed” into a backflip by “people power”, including a protest rally of 400 in Rockhampton last week.
Lauga said the Turnbull government had “caused incredible stress and heartache to the people in the Marlborough district by declaring he was taking their homes and livelihood without any consultation”.
Nearly 50 properties in the region, representing 170,000 hectares of land holding 100,000 cattle, had been in the firing line, she said.
Lauga said landholders who wished to sell their properties would now be in a stronger negotiating position without the threat of force sales hanging over their heads.
“They can take it or leave it,” she told Guardian Australia.
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