BIG new charges on access to stock routes will be enforced with the threat of severe penalties for landholders who baulk at paying the bill.
The new charges will apply under the State government's Stock Route Network Management legislation, which is scheduled to pass Parliament this month.
However, graziers who find new rental charges on land occupied by stock routes too costly will face a double whammy. They'll pay to fence the land for others to use.
Beef industry advocate and Boulia Shire Deputy Mayor Kelsey Nielson says State government plans to dump responsibility for the stock route network onto local councils will not work.
"In the shire of Boulia, we have 1200 kilometres of stock routes, but the State government has no idea of the area of land involved," she said.
"It does not have a way of finding out. Most of the routes in the shire are unsurveyed, so it is impossible to know how to apply any new charges for a start.
"We are left in a cash-negative situation."
She warned the government that increasing the financial pressure on graziers could lead to overstocking and land degradation - outcomes contrary to its stated intent.
"What will happen in the drought years when there is no grass available on the stock route? Will landholders still be required to pay the same annual fee for their grazing agreement?"
Remote area councils were being asked to manage, monitor and collect taxes on a State asset.
"The State is getting money for jam. It is wiping its hands of its stock route responsibilities," she said.
Local councils had "no chance" of recruiting the experts necessary to administer the stock route network.
"If there are people who can determine at a glance the condition of pasture across hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of land, who can accurately forecast how it will be in coming weeks?
"Who can verify the health of travelling stock, negotiate charges on leasehold land and adjudicate disputes over access? They are not going to be coming out here to work in Boulia," she said.
"At the end of it all, agreements to charge for access to stock routes will only work if they involve the local landholder.
"Some of these stock routes have no water and virtually no feed. It is just not practical to offer them for use by others.
"The only people who walk stock out here are the big companies, and they rely on landholders for water because there is none on the stock route.
"The whole idea is a huge burden for local councils and residents. It is another ridiculous imposition."
Ms Nielson said the government's intention to force landholders to fence unwanted stock routes would impose heavy cost burdens that would become more and more unmanageable as the affected area became more remote.
At a current cost of $3000/km, fencing just one 25km-long stock route on her property, Two Rivers, by itself would cost $150,000.
"People have not got that kind of money just lying around in their back pocket."
Ms Nielson appealed to the government to trial its plans in closely populated areas with fully fenced stock routes.
She said that in parts of western Queensland, stock route supervisors would have to make a 600km round trip just to check whether a bore was operating correctly.
"Skilled bore repair contractors are increasingly hard to find and increasingly costly - $600 a day plus costs and travel," she said.
"Before any handover of the management of land and water assets to local government, there needs to be a full audit of the actual land condition within the stock route network and an assessment of the costs of bringing dangerous weeds under control."
Stock route bores should be assessed and cost estimates for repairs should be collated.
Ms Nielson said individual shires should not be required to source, train and fund staff and associated vehicles.
"A regional approach to stock route management would reduce the costs," she said.
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