Qld govt dismisses land clearing concerns

Acting Premier Jackie Trad has shrugged off concerns about aspects of the government's new vegetation management laws, which effectively make landholders guilty until proven innocent.

Ms Trad says reverse onus of proof is already commonplace, including when car owners receive infringement notices in the mail for speeding or running a red light and are assumed to be the ones behind the wheel.

"If big tracts of vegetation are cleared from a particular property using big machinery, it is assumed that the person who owns that property has cleared that vegetation, not that someone's come in accidentally and cleared it," Ms Trad said on Friday.

The Queensland Law Society has described the laws, particularly the reverse onus of proof provisions, as unjust and backwards.

"The government's justification for these changes is, quite frankly, feeble and is based on administrative convenience," president Bill Potts.

Parliament's Agriculture and Environment Committee have been holding public hearings across the state about the controversial laws, which included an event in Brisbane on Friday.

Industry and economic groups have also come out against the "draconian" laws, which they argue will hurt the state's property market and make life harder for people earning a living off the land.

But the reintroduction of the tree clearing restrictions, which were relaxed by the former Newman government, has been welcomed by green groups.

The Newman government's changes allowed the clearing of vegetation for high-value agriculture projects and introduced a series of self-assessable codes for landholders to manage clearing in certain areas.