NEW SOUTH WALES Farmers is calling for a stronger agreement between the state and federal governments to cut duplication and confusion over environmental laws, while launching a new tool to help farmers navigate their regulatory obligations.

The call came during an on-farm visit at Illabo in southern NSW today, where representatives from NSW Farmers, the National Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NSW Local Land Services (LLS) gathered to examine the practical challenges of complying with Commonwealth and NSW environmental laws.

Hosted by NSW Farmers Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Taskforce Member, Murray Norman and family, the visit also provided an opportunity to launch FarmCheck, a new NSW Farmers members-only tool designed to help primary producers understand their obligations under the Commonwealth EPBC Act.

NSW Farmers has recently passed policy to encourage a bilateral agreement between the NSW and Australian governments that reduces regulatory duplication, recognises existing state assessments and provides farmers with a simpler, more coordinated pathway to compliance.

The Association also wants Local Land Services properly funded and resourced to provide practical, on-the-ground support for farmers.

NSW Farmers President, Rebecca Reardon, said the visit highlighted a fundamental problem facing landholders: complying with NSW land management rules does not automatically mean they have met their obligations under federal environmental laws.

“A farmer can follow NSW land management requirements and still be left wondering whether they’re complying with Commonwealth environmental laws,” Ms Reardon said.

“Farmers need clear answers before they book contractors, invest money, clear vegetation, maintain infrastructure or undertake other essential land management activities.

“Farmers want to do the right thing, but governments need to make it possible for them to understand and meet their obligations without excessive costs, duplication or the risk of inadvertently breaking the law.

“The challenge isn’t that farmers don’t want to comply. It’s that the two systems don’t always provide a clear pathway for them to do so.”

FarmCheck launched to help members

NSW Farmers used the visit to launch and showcase FarmCheck, a practical new tool developed to help members navigate EPBC requirements.

Available exclusively to NSW Farmers members, FarmCheck guides users through identifying proposed activities, gathering property records, checking NSW requirements, reviewing Commonwealth mapping and protected species information, assessing potential impacts and documenting their decisions.

NSW Farmers EPBC Taskforce Chair, Richard Bootle, said FarmCheck was designed to help farmers better understand their responsibilities while identifying where further advice or assessment may be required.

“FarmCheck provides a practical starting point and helps farmers work through the questions they need to ask before undertaking work on their properties,” Mr Bootle said.

“But it cannot grant approvals or resolve every uncertainty, particularly where habitat assessments, significant-impact thresholds or existing state approvals are concerned.

“That’s why we also need governments, regulators and industry working together to provide clearer guidance, better tools and greater certainty. However, we are very conscious of not reducing the existing exemptions that NSW farmers have fought hard to maintain in the past.

“We would also like to see agricultural research and development corporations work with regulators to develop further practical resources for primary producers.”

Working together for practical outcomes

Host farmer, Murray Norman, welcomed the opportunity to host regulators and industry representatives to his property and demonstrate the challenges firsthand.

“Our farm business has spent considerable time trying to understand how the Commonwealth and NSW requirements apply to our farm, so it was valuable to have representatives from the EPA, LLS and NSW Farmers come together and work through these issues on the ground,” Mr Norman said.

“We hope the discussions will help develop clearer guidance and better self-assessment tools so farmers across NSW can have greater confidence in meeting their obligations.”

EPA responds to grazing as a clearing event

Beef Central published a story yesterday raising the question if grazing could be considered a clearing event under the new EPBC Act.

National EPA CEO John Bradley has written the following letter to the Editor in response to that article.

Contrary to reports (‘Could cows eating grass break Federal land clearing laws?’) recent environment law reforms do not make cattle grazing unlawful, nor do they create a blanket ban on farming activities.

The National EPA’s Agriculture and the EPBC Act Guide identifies grazing within an existing grazing footprint as a low-risk farming activity because it’s the ongoing use of vegetation, not its permanent removal.

If clearing or opening a new area that’s likely to have a significant impact on protected environmental matters, then it will need assessment.

The EPBC Act has applied to landholders since 2000, including its continuous-use provisions which have allowed existing lawful agricultural land uses to continue.

Recent amendments put a 15-year limit on relying on that exemption for vegetation clearing.

That does not change the status of routine grazing which is not considered a vegetation clearing activity.

The National EPA provides information and tools to support people to understand and comply with environmental laws including these changes.

Our guide identifies a range of routine farming activities that can continue without detailed self-assessment or referral because they pose a low risk to nationally protected matters such as threatened species and habitats, listed migratory species or Ramsar wetlands.

If there’s a chance the activity you have planned might affect protected matters, you can visit the National EPA website to check out the guide or call us on 1800 976 422.

Beef Central is waiting to receive more detail from the EPA in regard to the inclusion of non-woody groundcover, like grasses being included as land clearing and if land was to be grazed after more than 15 years of other activity, if that would require approval under the EPBC.

Cattle Australia called for the EPA to have a clear statement in its Agriculture and the EPBC Act guide, that grazing is not a land clearing event.