Queensland’s budget decisions are a crucial opportunity to support landholders who protect nature by removing barriers that hold back private land conservation.
The issue
Queensland faces a growing gap in investment needed to protect and restore its natural landscapes. While private landholders play a critical role in stewarding biodiversity, current policy settings make it harder - not easier - for them to contribute.
A key barrier is Queensland’s ongoing land tax on properties under conservation covenants. Queensland is now the only state in Australia that still applies land tax to land formally protected for conservation.
This means that farmers and other landholders who voluntarily commit their land to long‑term conservation are financially penalised, even though their efforts contribute to Queensland’s biodiversity goals, national conservation targets, and the prosperity of regional communities.
ALCA’s submission focuses on addressing this disincentive and supporting the Government’s broader commitment to strengthen private protected areas and reward environmental stewardship.
Why it matters now
The Queensland Government has outlined clear commitments to grow private protected areas and support landholders who manage nature on their properties. But the tools available to achieve this remain limited, and in some cases counterproductive.
- Queensland is the only Australian state that still levies land tax on conservation‑covenanted land.
- Other states have removed this penalty because it acts as a “substantial disincentive” to conserving natural capital.
- Queensland has set targets to expand its protected area estate, including reaching 17% terrestrial protection under the Protected Area Strategy 2020–2030. Removing barriers to conservation is essential to meeting these goals.
At the same time, Australia’s nature crisis is accelerating. Habitat loss, biodiversity decline and climate pressures are intensifying, and the most recent State of the Environment Report shows cumulative impacts are driving widespread ecosystem deterioration.
Supporting private land conservation is one of the fastest, most cost‑effective ways to protect nature at scale.
ALCA's recommendations
ALCA puts forward six practical actions the Queensland Government can commit to in the 2026–27 Budget:
1. Exempt conservation covenants from land tax
Removing this tax would align Queensland with every other state, simplify compliance for landholders, reduce financial barriers to conservation, and directly support state and national biodiversity goals.
2. Restart Nature Refuge Landholder Grants
The last grant round was in 2022. These grants are vital for helping landholders manage and improve biodiversity on Nature Refuges.
3. Increase resources for the Private Protected Areas team
More staffing is needed to process new Nature Refuge applications and to support existing landholders with stewardship and management advice.
4. Continue the Land Restoration Fund
This successful program supports on‑ground projects that deliver environmental outcomes through carbon markets. It could be used more strategically to help formally protect more land.
5. Create an independent statutory conservation trust
Similar to models in NSW and Victoria, this trust would partner with landholders to permanently protect and restore biodiversity, backed by a secure capital endowment.
6. Fix planning barriers to conservation
Outdated or restrictive planning rules can block ecological restoration on former agricultural land. ALCA recommends ensuring planning schemes allow conservation as a possible land use across all regions.
Removing land tax barriers and strengthening support for private conservation is a simple, cost‑effective way for Queensland to protect biodiversity, reward landholders who are providing a public benefit, and secure the natural capital that underpins the state’s future prosperity.
