I reckon the most frustrating thing is the fact that my grandfather and probably your father paid thousands and thousands of dollars to freehold our properties so they would have the right to manage vegetation as they saw fit.(amongst other things).
Then as RC says, a stroke of a pen a generation later and freehold land has no more rights than leasehold.
Something else interesting, in prosecuting tree clearing offences the burden of proof realistically changes, the prosecution really doesn't have to prove you cleared the timber, you have to prove you didn't.
Courts have basically accepted that no one else is going to invest the time and money required to clear land to "frame" someone.
So murder someone, innocent until proven guilty, cut down a tree you own, someone decided you cant, guilty til proven innocent.
Gotta love the "fairness" in that.