General News
19 March, 2025
Green group blasted by MP
FEDERAL Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has blasted an environmental group raising funds for the Daintree in what he calls “blatant deception”.
Mr Entsch has accused the Gondwana Rainforest Trust of “misleading donors by falsely claiming that land in the Daintree Rainforest is at risk of development”.
At the centre of the controversy is Lot 92 Cape Tribulation Road, a property the group is actively fundraising for and stating that it must be saved from destruction.
However, Douglas Shire Council has confirmed that the site is not at risk of development under any circumstances.
A spokesman for the council told the Gazette, “(the) council can confirm that the lot 92 Cape Tribulation Road is within a protected zone and has no development rights”.
“The claims being made by Gondwana Rainforest Trust are completely false,” Mr Entsch said.
“They are telling donors that this land is under imminent threat of clearing and development, when in reality, it is zoned for conservation and cannot be built on, cleared or developed in any way.
“Yet Gondwana is still running a public misinformation campaign – claiming that Lot 92 is zoned for development – to con well-meaning donors into thinking they’re ‘saving’ something that was never in danger in the first place,” Mr Entsch said.
He said the trust was soliciting donations with misleading claims that the Daintree rainforest was under threat.
He said these advertisements used sensationalised imagery and even featured Sir David Attenborough, despite no evidence that he had endorsed their campaign.
Mr Entsch said this raised serious legal and ethical concerns.
Mr Entsch, who calls himself “a long-time advocate for balanced environmental conservation that respects both the land and the people who live there”, said groups like Gondwana Rainforest Trust “do not engage with local communities but instead operate as ideological activists. “For decades, we have seen outsider groups parachute into the Daintree and dictate to the locals as if they don’t belong there,” he said.
“This is yet another example of a group profiting off deception while undermining the very people who actually live in and care for this environment,” he said.
Mr Entsch is now calling for the appropriate authorities to investigate.
Gondwana Rainforest Trust chief executive officer Richard Christian said “there are several factually incorrect statements” in Mr Entsch’s claims.
“The fundamental one being that it is based on historic aerial imagery. He states that Lot 92 was not lawfully cleared in the past. This is incorrect and completely undermines the credibility and validity of Mr Entsch’s allegations and position,” he said.
“Mr Entsch should check his facts as publicly available aerial imagery from the 1980s and as recently as 1994 clearly show that this property was completely cleared in the past,” Mr Christian said
