The state’s peak farming organisation, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA), today released its list of rural policy priorities that it wants an incoming government to adopt.
The association hopes the comprehensive list will elicit responses from the major parties in the next week so that the association can present its assessment to its members before the March 15 poll.
In essence, farmers want a fairer go, a greater consideration of their role in what is otherwise a fragile economy, according to TFGA president Wayne Johnston.
The farm-dependent economy contributes more than $5 billion to the gross state economy and is responsible for nine per cent of total employment. Farmers manage one-third of Tasmania’s land area.
“The government’s engagement in providing a setting that encourages and stimulates innovation and development in agriculture is imperative to our success,” Mr Johnston said.
“Governments have many duties in office but none is more important than ensuring that there is an economic environment that allows the agriculture sector to get on with the job of growing food and fibre.
“The community has an expectation that it can be fed and clothed and these fundamentals are the basis of a stable modern-day society.”
Mr Johnston said that the TFGA expected an incoming government to:
restructure its administration into a Department of Food and Agriculture that encompasses the many functions of government now spread across several agencies and includes an Office of Food Policy to drive whole-of-government food policy and provide high level strategic advice
encourage investment in improved on-farm efficiency and innovation
review unnecessary regulations that hamper growth of farm businesses
give financial recognition of farmers’ role as environmental stewards when, through public pressure or the public interest, they conserve natural assets on their land
establish a Good Neighbour Charter under which neighbouring properties, including Crown Land, must manage pests, weeds , boundary fences and fire threats
resource freight-related issues of strategic importance to the farming sector
promote the values of Tasmanian food and fibre products.
The TFGA says it has become frustrated at the lack of government response to its annual Budget submissions.
“We put a lot of effort each year into advising the government where it might allocate taxpayers’ money to maximise the economic contribution of farming and each year we are confounded at the disdain with which we are treated,” Mr Johnston said.
He also said that of special concern to farmers was the so-called right to farm legislation, the Primary Industry Activities Protection Act 1995. The TFGA wants it reviewed, strengthened and enforced.
“The statute was intended to protect the rights of farmers to farm, to protect them when non-farmer tree-changers move into a farming area and have different lifestyle and environmental expectations,” Mr Johnston said.
“We say it has been undermined by other conflicting legislation.”
High on the TFGA’s list is a HECS-style loan system. There is often a gap of many years between establishing a crop and its commercial harvest. There are similar challenges in the high upfront cost of new and upgraded dairy facilities. Similarly, the cost of irrigation entitlements is high.
“The upfront purchase price is just the beginning of required expenditure and delivers water only to the farm gate,” Mr Johnston said.
“Industry estimates are that every dollar spent on purchasing entitlements requires another two to get to the point of delivering water.”
The TFGA says a HECS-style loan scheme would enable farmers to repay financial assistance when they could most afford to do so.
TFGA president Wayne Johnston
