On the road — Moreton Bay region

The Moreton Bay Rail Link Project is building a new train line, running from Petrie, in the Division of Dickson, to Kippa-Ring in the Division of Petrie. It also provides a stunning example of how ineffective offsets can be.

What is an offset? If a developer wants to knock down a tree, they can compensate for, or ‘offset,’ the cleared trees by, for example, planting new trees. The Moreton Bay Rail Link has cleared good quality Koala habitat. To compensate for the lost Koala habitat, the project has to date provided two major offsets: 1) funding for wild dog control, and 2) offset planting.

Neither has come anywhere near compensating for the loss of habitat. Despite additional funding for wild dog control, wild dogs have killed 23% of Koalas in that population since May 2013, with another 8% dead from suspected wild dog attacks. And the offset planting site, still looks like a paddock. Trees have scarcely grown, many have died. Not to matter, the offset planting site is in the middle of a future road corridor, so will be cleared anyway in the near future.

Even a donkey can see how the lack of respect for the Koala and the environment means that these populations will never recover… This would never be allowed to happen under a KPA.