Helping farmers navigate green tape

 
The state’s peak agricultural body will tackle confusing new council rules at an online information session on Friday.

Proposed environmental conservation zoning, or ‘C Zones’, have caused a lot of angst among landholders, who are facing the threat of having their agricultural businesses shut down by punitive council regulations. 

NSW Farmers spokesman Ron Chittick said farmers had been told they may need to apply to council to change their on-farm operations as a result of the move, which he called ‘silly’. He said many regional communities were built on the back of agriculture, and to unilaterally declare responsibly-managed private land as a community asset was absurd.

“Farmers need certainty to invest in their farms and be secure in their business planning, so they can continue growing food and fibre,” Mr Chittick said.

“We acknowledge the NSW Government has invested heavily in reforming restrictions on how farmers can best balance productivity and environmental outcomes, but some councils have other grandiose ideas.

“There is a very real concern among our members that philosophically driven local government decisions that prioritise weeds over farmers and their ability to use their land.”

Communities in the north of the state were particularly exposed to this sort of rezoning, Mr Chittick said, but there were reports of similar anti-farming changes emerging in other regions as well. In seeking to impose the rezoning of productive agricultural land to C Zones, he said, local councils were undermining the very social and economic wealth that had built their regions.

“Many of these affected communities where people are really concerned have a long and rich farming tradition, but now we’re seeing that threatened by ideologies,” Mr Chittick said.

“C Zones take away private rights with no compensation and drive investment, jobs, and potential from regions in pandering to those want to see land locked up – land that will become a nest of weeds and pests such as feral cats, dogs and pigs.

“It’s time councils invested in an understanding of the issues that they are imposing on their farming ratepayers and stopped interfering in agriculture.”

Interested landholders can register to join a briefing on this issue from NSW Farmers by visiting https://form.jotform.com/holleyt/proposed-environmental-zones-rsvp
 




Date: Thursday, March 2, 2023
Media Contact: Steve Mudd  | 0429 011 690 | mudds@nswfarmers.org.au