A NEW report which shows that Queensland's cattle grazing industry is already all but carbon neutral and could provide a solution in addressing the State's overall carbon liability has been buried by the Bligh Government.
It is understood the release of the 30-page report prepared by Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries has been derailed by Greg Withers, the Director-General of the Queensland Government's Department of Climate Change and Premier Anna Bligh's husband.
The report, which examines the carbon footprint of the beef industry and the impact of vegetation clearing bans, has been peer reviewed by a number of the nation's top scientists, including the CSIRO's Dr Ed Charmley, QUT's Dr Peter Grace, and Meat and Livestock Australia's Beverly Henry.
The authors of the report - titled Net Carbon Position of the Queensland Beef Industry - are respected QPIF scientists Dr Steven Bray and Dr Jacqui Wilcocks.
It is not the first time Queensland's Labor Government has denied a report. In 2003, a report prepared by leading government scientist Dr Bill Burrows detailing the negative impact of vegetation thickening was suppressed.
Queensland Country Life was first made aware on November 6 of the existence of the new report by industry sources.
At a meeting on November 9 with Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin and his key staff, QCL was advised the report would likely be made available either last week or this week.
However, QCL has subsequently been advised the report will now not be made available.
Instead, the report is now expected to go to Cabinet, meaning the release of the report would not occur until at least next year, long after the Copenhagen conference on climate change, therefore not allowing the ground-breaking information it contains to help shape Queensland's response to the complex climate debate.
It would also give the Bligh Government the right to claim 'Cabinet confidentiality' over the report if it did not suit its political purposes.
The delay of the report has significantly raised anxiety levels within rural industry groups and among a number of key bureaucrats.
Industry groups were moderately confident that a better working relationship had development following the resolution of Anna Bligh controversial election campaign-driven ban on the management of so-called "endangered regrowth".
There had also being been growing hope that the Bligh Government had brought at end to the Beattie Government culture of "bush bashing" following the development and recent release of the incentive-based Delbessie Agreement.
This agreement rewards landholders with increases in lease terms from 30 years to 40 years for demonstrating better land management practices.
The refusal to release the report has also understandably raised concerns among some senior bureaucrats over the level of politicisation of the Bligh Government administration.
"The report shows firstly that the beef cattle grazing industry is next to carbon neutral, at most producing a modest three megatonnes of carbon a year," one source told QCL.
"What we need to do is find the net carbon position position of the industry.
"We know that cattle are emitters of carbon but what what we need to understand is the entire process of emitting and sequestration in the grazing system. Not just the cattle, but also the role soil plays.
"This report concludes that the State owned soils which cover 80 percent of Queensland could be used to sequester carbon, improving degraded C class soils into B class soils and over a 10-year period sequest a massive amount of carbon.
"We know it can be done and the government recognises it can be done. It is the very basis of the Delbessie Agreement.
"We are talking about Queensland being able to significantly reduce its carbon liability as a direct result of the cattle grazing industry."
Email a friend