It’s not often we do this, but Tasmanian farmers take their hats off to two state Labor MPs, two Liberal MPs and a Green MP in recommending that the yoke be lifted off from the neck of our fledgling industrial hemp industry to allow it to progress to a viable food crop option.
While we all recognise the tremendous opportunities that the poppy industry has brought to Tasmania, we have been labouring against trepidation, misinformation and misguided opposition as far as growing industrial hemp has been concerned.
The TFGA has long been of the view that hemp could in the future become as important a crop as poppies for Tasmanian farmers. Yet, because of the hurdles put in front of farmers, there are only about 60 hectares of hemp under cultivation in the state under what are essentially research conditions.
Now the House of Assembly’s Standing Committee on Environment, Resources and Development, chaired by Labor MP Brenton Best, has lifted the shroud of suspicion over growing hemp here. In a report released last week, the Committee slammed the unnecessary red tape strangling this infant industry and recommended that the government focus on slashing these impediments as soon as possible.
Up until now, the major parties had taken the conservative – and quite bizarre – view that growing industrial hemp would indicate some relaxation of our drug laws. The Tasmanian multi-party parliamentary committee has now thoroughly debunked that argument.
The report concludes that there is unlikely to be a viable industrial hemp industry in Tasmania unless restrictive regulatory impediments are removed; and, further, that there are no convincing reasons for treating this crop any differently to other crops.
This is really important. The red tape around growing hemp would drive anyone to despair and is totally unnecessary given the fact that, even though hemp is related to marijuana, it is not a drug.
The Committee stated that the licensing requirements for growing industrial hemp were “too onerous and imposed undue burdens that stifled the industry’s development by acting as a significant deterrent to potential growers.”
The report endorses everything we’ve been saying for a long time – and even goes a step further, suggesting that hemp should be exempted from the Poisons Act and regulation should be transferred to the Department of Primary Industries – just like any other crop.
“The Committee finds that the licensing system should be simplified so that industrial hemp crops are treated similarly to other farm crops,” it said in its report. To ensure there is no illicit cropping, the report proposed that the industry would be subject to random testing through the growing area.
The report also identified another matter that is the province of the federal government, and which has to be considered by COAG. Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) made another recommendation last year to the federal government that the current ban on using hemp in food products in Australia be lifted. This would bring regulations here in line with those in NZ, where hemp foods are freely available, even though the same regulatory authority has jurisdiction in both countries. COAG has referred the matter to the Standing Council on Police and Emergency Services, composed of all police ministers and a local government representative – and we’re still awaiting their response. The Committee urged the federal government to move quickly to bring Australian rules in line with those that apply not only across the ditch, but in many other countries across the world.
This report is not only a win for Tasmanian farmers, it is a victory for commonsense. The state government should move immediately to implement all the recommendations. This would send all the right signals to farmers who are key investors in Tasmania and open up new opportunities across the state.
