Queensland Consolidated Acts Queensland Consolidated Acts(1) The purpose of this section is to provide a guide for a court in deciding the penalty to impose on a person for a vegetation clearing offence.
(2) Without affecting the maximum penalty the court may impose under the Planning Act for the offence, the court may take the following levels of penalty to be appropriate in the absence of circumstances of mitigation—
(a) for each hectare of vegetation cleared unlawfully in a declared area or offset area or that is an endangered regional ecosystem other than regulated regrowth vegetation—30 penalty units;
(b) for each hectare of vegetation cleared unlawfully that is an of concern regional ecosystem other than regulated regrowth vegetation—24 penalty units;
(c) for each hectare of vegetation cleared unlawfully that is a least concern regional ecosystem other than regulated regrowth vegetation—18 penalty units;
(d) for each hectare of vegetation cleared unlawfully that is regulated regrowth vegetation or an exchange area—12 penalty units.
(3) This section does not limit the matters to which the court may have regard in deciding the penalty.
(4) In this section—
declared area means an area of high nature conservation value or an area vulnerable to land degradation.