A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to ask the Queensland Crisafulli Government to CHECK THE SCIENCE.
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CHECK THE SCIENCE AND CUT SOARING COSTS FOR EVERYONE

Queensland businesses, communities and families are battling soaring food, fuel, housing and power costs.

At the same time, costly regulations affecting the farmers, fishers, forestry operators and other industries that provide our food, building materials, energy and essential goods continue to escape proper independent scrutiny.

Layers of red and green tape are hitting our primary industries, tourism and resources sector - but many of these regulations are based on science that has never been adequately and independently checked.

WHY IT MATTERS

When excessive regulation hits primary producers, resources projects and tourism operators, the costs ripple through the entire economy.

Families pay more at the supermarket checkout. The cost of building a home increases. Regional jobs disappear and opportunities for growth are lost.

Ultimately, everyone pays.

That is why Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is being challenged to stop defending costly laws inherited from Labor and put the science underpinning these regulations to a genuinely independent test.

The Australian Environment Foundation (AEF), working with primary producers and regional communities, is fighting back against the layers of costly red and green tape burying regional Queensland.

Governments continue to rely on scientific assumptions that have not been subjected to adequate independent scrutiny.

The message to the Premier is simple: Check the Science.

Despite the continuing campaign, the Premier has so far refused.

This places him at odds with Nationals Leader Senator Matt Canavan, One Nation and the Katter Party, which have all spoken in support of independently checking the science underpinning regulations that are strangling primary, resources and tourism industries - and regional communities.

Australian Environment Foundation Chairman Dr Peter Ridd, a global authority on the Great Barrier Reef, points to Queensland’s Reef Regulations as a clear example of unsound policy founded on science that urgently requires independent scrutiny.

“Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is refusing to spend a few hundred thousand dollars checking the science behind the Reef Regulations imposed on farmers along the Queensland coast, but has this year committed another $330 million to the institutions whose work needs to be independently audited,” Dr Ridd said.

“That raises a serious question: whose side is the Premier on?

“It does not appear to be primary producers, resources or tourism operations, or regional communities and Queensland families right across the state struggling with the rising cost of living.”

The costs of UNCHECKED SCIENCE flow through the entire economy

• Higher farming costs contribute to higher food prices.

• Restrictions affecting forestry and building materials add to housing and construction costs.

• Reduced Australian production leaves our nation increasingly dependent on imported goods - many produced under environmental standards far below our own.

• Lost resources opportunities cost regional jobs, hurt local businesses and drain the lifeblood from communities.

• Declining tourism affects accommodation providers, cafés, shops, contractors and local households.

Every cost imposed on an industry through regulations based on unchecked science ultimately filters down to Queensland households.

Every Queenslander has a stake in this.

Protecting the environment should never mean switching off scrutiny. Good science should welcome being checked.

Introducing independent science checks would be a simple, practical and relatively inexpensive way for the Premier to support regional Queensland—and demonstrate that government decisions are based on reliable evidence rather than politics.

Support the Check the Science Campaign

We are raising funds to take the Check the Science campaign directly to Queenslanders so they know what is happening - and not happening.

Your contribution will help us highlight how layers of regulation placed on our industries - regulations based on UNCHECKED SCIENCE - are hurting industries, communities and families. They are increasing the cost of everyday life.

We are not asking the Queensland Government to abandon environmental protection.

We are asking the Queensland Government to ensure that the layers of red and green tape affecting our primary industries, tourism and resources sector are supported by sound science that has been independently checked and verified.

If the science is sound, an independent review will strengthen public confidence.

If it is not, Queensland families and regional industries should not be forced to keep paying the price.

Please donate today.

Help us demand independent scrutiny of the science governments use to make costly policy decisions.

Note: Peter Ridd continues to work, since forced retirement (!), without payment on all his advocacy and science work. All funds raised will go directly into the publicity campaign.

Help us tell the Queensland Government: Check the Science.

Note: the GoFundMe "tip" goes to GoFundMe, not the campaign