Setting the stage for government to persecute people, particularly farmers

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For the past year, we have been battling proposed changes to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Regulations 2008. They were to have come into force on January 1.

In our view, the draft regulations set the stage for the government to persecute people, particularly farmers, for minor infringements with negligible environmental impact.

We prepared a detailed submission outlining a range of concerns; and a number of other submissions echoed our view. These were put to the government last July.

Our concerns centred on the absolutely unreasonable expectations with respect to chemical use. In short, the proposed regulations would have required water quality standards across all water in Tasmania (rivers, dams, creeks, even puddles) that would have been higher than anywhere in the country, higher than anywhere in the world.

These would have been many times higher than even the World Health Organisation’s standards for drinking water, i.e. water coming out of taps. The effect of this would be to put most farmers in the north of the state out of business.

Despite the detailed issues raised by the TFGA and others in submissions, there was a total lack of communication from the time the submissions closed until November, when the final version was released. This included some minor revisions, but did not address the substantive issues that the industry had raised.

A broad alliance of industry groups came together with the TFGA to fight these new regulations. This included industry groups such as Wine Growers Tasmania, Poppy Growers Tasmania, Fruit Growers Tasmania, the Tasmanian Agricultural Productivity Group, private companies; agricultural consultants, spray contractors, chemical companies and resellers. Members of the Legislative Council, led by Western Tiers MP Greg Hall, also supported us strongly in the process.

Through this concerted effort, we managed to get the current regulations extended until March 31. We assumed that this would allow time for further negotiation and review of the draft regulations, but that was not to be. DPIPWE’s view was that this extension was simply to allow further time for farmers to adjust to the new regulatory regime.

Our industry alliance kept the pressure on the government and continued to lobby for significant changes to the regulations.

In the meantime, the department issued fact sheets and other advisory notices that showed the implementation date of the proposed new regulations as being April 1. These were distributed to a small group of industry stakeholders including the TFGA and also posted on the DPIPWE website.

On March 1, representatives of the industry alliance met with Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green and a number of senior bureaucrats involved in the process. Greg Hall and several other MLCs also attended. We laid out clearly our opposition to the proposed changes and sought details of the science on which the proposed standards were being based. The responses from the bureaucrats were essentially “trust us, we’re from the government”.

We must have got our message through, though. In a press release on March 9, Mr Green announced that the introduction of the legislation enabling changes would be deferred “to give the Legislative Council the opportunity to be fully briefed by the Agricultural, Silvicultural and Veterinary Chemical Council … and to consider further feedback from industry”. The announcement said that current regulations would apply until new legislation was passed.

That’s almost a month ago; and the date for the proposed changes (i.e. April 1, an appropriate date if ever there was one) has come and gone. Yet we have heard nothing from the government to confirm this deferral or to explain what the process might be from here. The press release is the only communication we have received about the withdrawal of the draft regulations. And that was very light on detail.

So farmers are completely in the dark about what rules and regulations prevail in what is a pivotal area of their operations. We’re getting calls every day seeking clarification yet there has been a dearth of information coming from both the minister’s office and the department.

In our submission on the proposed changes last year, we said:

“It would seem the government is relying on the main stakeholders in the agricultural industry to spread the word on the draft regulations.

“For such a pivotal piece of regulation that will affect all farmers in Tasmania, there needs to be a much better consultation process. Organisations such as the TFGA should not be relied upon to be an information arm of government.”

It seems nothing has changed.

The initial proposals for change to these important regulations date back to 2005. This taken seven years; millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been wasted; and industry has committed huge resources to the process. Yet there is still no resolution. Someone has to be held accountable.