May 14, 2018
KAP members are calling for Safer Waterways Bill public meetings to be held in Northern Queensland following today’s first public briefing on the Bill.
KAP members are calling for Safer Waterways Bill public meetings to be held in Northern Queensland following today’s first public briefing on the Bill.
KAP’s member for Hill Shane Knuth reintroduced the Safer Waterways Bill into Parliament on March 21.
“I spoke at the first public briefing of the Tourism Development and Environment Committee at Parliament House today,’’ Mr Knuth said.
“The KAP first introduced this Bill in in 2017, unfortunately due to the timing of the last state election the Bill lapsed which is why we have reintroduced this Bill into the current Parliament.
“In the previous parliament the KAP held public meetings in Mareeba, Innisfail and Cairns on this issue. These are the communities are being most effected by exploding crocodile numbers.
“It is critical that people in these areas have their say as they experiencing the problems first hand.’’
“We have seen increases in the number of beaches being forced to close due to the rise of crocodile numbers year on year. Surf Lifesaving Queensland reports they had four beach closures in 2015 while last year there were 21 closures. In the first four months of this year we have already seen seven closures.
“Crocodile sightings are also increasing with 509 reported sightings last year compared to 275 in the first four months of this year.
“However, I am also hearing that the sightings are becoming so common place that people think it is a waste of time even bothering to report them.
“We are encouraging people to have a voice on this matter. We are urging people to attend a public meeting and make a submission to the committee. People can do this by contacting the office of Shane Knuth, Nick Dametto and myself.
“We will also be putting information on our social media sites on how people can make a submission.’’