Why Farmers are going the big CHOP on July 1.

G'day Agmates,

Opposite is a photo of Professor Suri Ratnapala Professor of Public Law and Director, Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law at University of Queensland.

Recent correspondence to our published articles (see comments under article "National Chop a Tree day")reveal that the majority of people both country and city have no idea why Australian Farmers are resorting to "Chopping down trees" as a form of "Civil disobedience".

Under current Vegetation Management Acts (VMA's) in all States of Australia any person who cuts down a tree is guilty of "Broad Scale Land Clearing". Once charged of this offence under a VMA land holders have less legal rights than someone charged with rape or murder.

So why would 1,000's of farmers take such a risk. Farmers by nature are conservative, private and law abiding citizens. Farmers do not have a history of extreme acts of civil disobedience. So why is this happening?

Agmates will over a series of articles over the next 2 weeks explain why this extreme action is being taken by farmers. We will do this by publishing a 16 part series of extract from a paper written by distinguished Professor Suri Ratnapala titled:

CONSTITUTIONAL VANDALISM UNDER GREEN COVER.

This paper deals with the issues that are at the core of what farmers are agitating for - the complete remove of the Vegetation Management Acts from Australian state Legislation.

The paper deals in detail with the QLD Vegetation Management Act 1999 which as a model now see's is duplicated across Australia with dangerous mutations of it starting to appear i.e. The federal government wanting to take land off the Aboriginals in the Northern territory.

Each day we will publish a chapter in sequence of Professors Ratnapala's paper for online discussion. We invite all parties, farmers, environmentalists, politicians, intellectuals, professionals to comment. Comments can be left anonymously.

Once we have dealt with one issue we'll move onto the next. We have invited a panel of experts from all sides of the issue to comment.

Below is part one of the series. You can read the entire paper in advance by CLICKING HERE.

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CONSTITUTIONAL VANDALISM UNDER GREEN COVER
A paper by Professor Suri Ratnapala

PART 1

Australia is called the Lucky Country, but luck has played only a small part in the country's success. The conversion of resources into wealth requires capital, technology, enterprise and hard work. People do not invest in wealth creating activity when the risks are too high and the returns too low. Risks increase when the law is unpredictable and property rights are insecure.

The success of Australia's primary industry sector owes much to the relative stability of property rights and contractual certainty secured by what the great Scottish philosopher David Hume called the "three fundamental laws concerning the stability of possessions, translation by consent and the performance of promises".1 These laws are maintained by the strength of the Constitution and the eternal vigilance of the people.

This essay discusses a new threat to constitutional government and property rights in Australia that has arisen out of what is in principle a worthy and necessary program in public policy, namely environmental protection. The threat arises not from the aim itself, but from the flawed processes by which environmental policies and laws are determined and implemented. These processes not only subvert constitutional principles but also admit bad science.

It is impossible to survey within a brief essay the complex and ever growing environmental regulatory regime in Australia. Hence I will focus my attention on one piece of legislation that typifies all that is wrong and dangerous about recent trends in environmental protection law in this country. The legislation I examine is Queensland's Vegetation Management Act 1999 (VMA) which applies to all freehold and non-freehold lands in Queensland. This law reflects a regulatory model that is becoming the standard in Australia.

In searching for an illustrative case of a statute that comprehensively defeats the values of constitutional government, in particular the rule of law, democratic principle and the basic requirements of natural justice, one need look no further than this Act.

I will consider the constitutionality of some aspects of this legislation and the prospects for a successful challenge to its provisions.

Before I discuss the impact of this Act on constitutional government, it is necessary to make some explanatory observations about this form of government and its vulnerabilities.

End of Part 1. To read the rest of the paper in advance CLICK HERE

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Comments Invited -
Cheers
Your Agmate - Steve
Agmates - 100% Pro Australian Farmers.