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Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Locally owned and proudly independent
THIS WEEK
Mother's Day Young ladies Looking to buy? gifts for mum ready for debut Houses, land, farms P13 P14 P15-18
Bid to stamp out domestic violence As part of Domestic Violence Prevention Month, Tablelanders have been involved in community events across the region that aim to raise awareness of the shocking prevalence of family violence. Over 12 months, on average, one woman is killed every week by a current or former partner. “We support it because we see a lot of people who experience it and it’s one of those things that’s still very hidden,” said Robert Larkin, Supervisor for the Homeless at Mareeba Community Housing. “Hopefully people will start to understand it’s still an ongoing issue. “Anyone’s life that’s lost through domestic violence is one too many.”
Community Housing Support Officers Flore Watkin and Tansy Gleed were on hand to offer advice in Mareeba last Friday as part of the organisations bid to raise awareness of domestic violence in the community.
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Anger over tree laws
By Rebecca Wallis
Tableland farmers have lost their fight to stop Vegetation Laws being passed through parliament, making it harder for land to be cleared for farming. The new law was a major election commitment
by the Labor government which they said was a great win for Queensland’s precious endangered species, including koalas. But Katter Party Member for Hill Shane Knuth said he was “gutted” about the news. “We were just getting to the position where it was
almost workable,” he said. “And the reality is according to the figures, regrowth is growing faster than land clearing and land owners are having trouble keeping up with the regrowth, let alone clearing for high value ag.” Mr Knuth said the laws were “un-Australian” and
that it “treats farmers like criminals”. “There will be great enforcements now, putting in place similar to what they had back in mid-20002010,” he said. “We had the tree police, the water police, the dob in a farmer hot line and the spy in the sky satellite. It’s
a joke.” Mr Knuth said there were many angry indigenous communities who would be appealing the vote. “They were able to defeat the wild rivers and I’m aware that representatives of those communities are looking at avenues.
“Myself and Robbie Katter have a bill before the house now and we’ll be working to hopefully get that up and convince the Labor MP’s who should not have voted for it, to support ours.” Mareeba District Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association President Joe
Moro said the move will likely affect the local horticultural industry in the long term. “Right now the Australian horticultural industry produces 96 per cent of fresh produce for the domestic market,” he said. CONTINUED P3
What’s New at Amaroo? Sweet 16 16 Allara St 955m2
$112,000
Sales Centre open Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 3pm. By appointment anytime .
Debbie Sweedman
www.amarooestate.com.au
0409 321 000