PROPERTY owners in Southeast Queensland have employed lawyers to help defend their homes against biosecurity officers from forcing entry and spraying fire ant pesticides.
Gold Coast-based lawyer Mia Behlau said a possible class action could be brought against the Department of Primary Industries for tactics used during the fire ant eradication program.
Ms Behlau said residents have failed to stop biosecurity officers from baiting their land even when no fire ants were present and when pesticides have made people ill.
“It is like The Castle,” Ms Behlau said.
“Homeowners think their home is their castle. Well – it’s not; every parcel of land in Australia is subject to the rights of the Crown.”
She said the rights of Queenslanders had been hugely undermined by emergency powers introduced under the guise of covid, which were “now being used in another way for a different kind of treatment”.
“Under the Biosecurity Act, the government – state government or federal government – has an entitlement, irrespective of an individual homeowner’s opposition to have treatment on their property – it has a carte blanche right to do that under legislation,” she said.
“Department officers are entitled to come on to your property to effect treatment; if a person refuses or obstructs an officer from doing so, then they may engage the police to assist them.
“If the landowner still refuses them entry to the property, they will be charged with a charge under either the Biosecurity Act and/or the Police Powers and Responsibility Act; those charges will be of obstructing an officer.
“A defence to obstruction is whether that person had a reasonable excuse to do so.”
Ms Behlau said she is fighting for exemptions from the treatments on properties and for the Department to devise an alternate risk assessment to meet the needs and address ailments cited in medical records as a reason not to bait properties.
The lawyer said the silence from the Department had so far been “deafening”.
“They have not responded in any instance whatsoever, despite multiple follow-ups; even though medical records suggest my clients would suffer; the Department has sent officers to houses to spray anyway,” she said.
“We say we are obstructing them because we do not consent, we will not let you on our property and that we have a reasonable excuse to refuse, and that is by reason of medical records.
“The idea is to get two steps ahead; if you want to charge us for breaching, for obstructing police or obstructing officers under the Biosecurity Act, we say we’ve got a reasonable excuse to do so, so don’t come on our property.
“If you have objected to treatment and have provided or submitted a reasonable excuse against it, it is implicit it has been rejected.
“We contend that the Department has not reasonably considered medical submissions and their actions in treating those properties may be considered unreasonable refusal to consider a reasonable excuse; we may be able to apply to the court to get an injunction restraining certain types of treatment on those properties.”
Ms Behlau said a legal precedent could be set.
She highlighted one recent, successful case in which the owner and operator of the Ecovillage at Currumbin negotiated an exemption, saying his site was a special class of land and shouldn’t be exposed to aerial spraying.
However, Ms Behlau said one resident in Bonogin had not had similar such luck after his property had been aerially sprayed.
“He and his wife live off the land; they drink and wash from rainwater and they have a veggie patch that supplies them with food,” Ms Behlau said.
“They moved to Bonogin because they suffered adverse reactions to spraying the council carried out for mosquitoes, which also caused significant respiratory problems where he couldn’t breathe.
“When the Department sprayed his property for fire ants from above, he became extremely sick again and was rushed to hospital.
“People are experiencing rashes, eczema, and menstrual issues and they say their animals like chickens have died.
“The Department is not taking any factors into consideration and is implementing its 100 percent KPI.
“Communities have been outraged by this; people are petrified because officers are coming on properties without, in many cases, any warning or explanation, and demanding access.
“When people say no, fire ant teams tell them they are coming on whether they like it or not, and that – if they don’t like it – the police would get involved.
“It is causing mental anguish and distress.
“Fire ant officers and police jumped a six-foot fence to spray a property without the owner’s consent – they sprayed it everywhere, and then it rained on a day when rain was forecast, and these pesticides are not supposed to be sprayed.”
“I see comments about my clients being conspiracy theorists or whatever, but they are well-informed, educated people – they are professionals and some work in agriculture and know what affects their properties and livestock.”
