Tasmania’s peak farming body, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA), today outlined its recipe for job creation in the primary industry sector; all the ingredients point to government getting off farmers’ backs.

TFGA chief executive Jan Davis told the TCCI Jobs Forum in Launceston that the major issue facing farmers was pretty basic: a lack of profitability.

“Margins that are very thin, a high $A, and increasing pressures from the supermarket duopoly are exacerbated by the inordinate cost of red and green tape across all layers of government bureaucracy,” she said.

Ms Davis said KPMG had measured the red tape facing Tasmanian businesses and concluded that agriculture, forestry and fisheries represented nine per cent of the private economy but they bore 25 per cent, $316 million of total annual compliance costs.

“This survey measured only costs applying to all businesses, and there are many more regulatory burdens imposed specifically on farmers,” she said.

“Our best estimate is that the total regulatory burden could be as much as three times that amount. That is, $1 billion a year, or 50 per cent of the total farm/fishery gate value of the industry.

“That is Big Brother on steroids.”

Ms Davis said compliance costs of that order were unimaginable.

“We export 75 per cent of what we produce. These costs make us uncompetitive in a global market place – and, increasingly, even on the domestic market – as cheap imports flood in,” Ms Davis said.

Farmers directly or indirectly employ one in seven Tasmanians.

“The farmers create those jobs, not the government. The government’s role is to provide certainty and an environment in which farmers can create jobs. The culture of government agencies needs to be refocused to deliver ‘how can we help you?’ responses, instead of putting up roadblocks and finding reasons why things can’t be done,” she said.

Among the TFGA’s suggestions to the forum are:

Under the Fair Work Australia Act, return farming to industry-friendly hours of work, spread of hours, and other conditions;
Government support for local businesses, including an ‘equivalence’ commitment;
Appropriate funding of community environmental expectations on private land owners;
Review and rationalisation of state regulation on farming practices;
Reduced utility costs;
Improved freight arrangements – on island, across Bass Strait and internationally; and
Improved government consultation with farmers.
Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Jan Davis