Murray Watt visiting producers in Central Queensland. Photo: Murray Watt Facebook

A GROUP of producers in Central Queensland are hoping that a recent visit from the environment minister will be the start of a more collaborative approach to recent changes to the Federal environmental laws, with the minister saying the laws must benefit the environment and productivity.

Minister Murray Watt, along with senior environment department staff, travelled to Clarke Creek to discuss the new Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act – which was bought in with a deal with the Greens at the end of last year. He was joined by members of AgForce, as well as local producers.

The chagnes have created plenty of angst, with concerns about routine land management activities that would ordinarily be regulated by the states potentially needing to go through costly and time-consuming Federal Government processes.

The minister was invited to Clarkwood by a group of producers who have been trying to raise the importance of routine land management activities in maintaining a healthy environment.

David Hill from Clarkwood said he had long been concerned about the possibility of incoming regulations that may lead to perverse outcomes for the environment. One of the main concerns is brigalow regrowth becoming a monoculture which leads to virtually no groundcover, poor soil health and erosion.

Brigalow has a protected matter status and the producers thought that might automatically trigger a referral to EPBC rather than the much easier self assessment process. However, they received some assaurances that the self-assessment process was more likely.

“I was really worried that I would not be able to continually manage our land for groundcover, soil health and water infiltration,” he said.

“Especially brigalow thickening in areas that were covered by the changed Great Barrier Reef regulations within the EPBC.

“We were told by the minister and the department that it would be extremely unlikely that we could not manage for this and that they don’t want us clogging their system up trying to do referrals for activities that are routine land management and that not impacting vegetation that could be considered a protected ecological community.

“We were just looking for a commonsense approach, we don’t want perverse outcomes like protecting brigalow monocultures.”

Opportunity to amplify the message

Mr Hill said the group that were present at the event were feeling a lot more positive about the future, with opportunities now to work with the department to gain a better understanding of the laws for producers and more effective ways to deliver the intent of the legislation.

“It is only early days, there is a lot of work to be done yet and we can only take him at his word. But myself and the other people there went away with a more positive outlook on the act and what it involves,” he said.

“This now give us an opportunity to do the work in telling the story about the good things this industry does and how well agriculture manages land in this country.

“The other thing to remember is that the EPBC act has not been revieiwed in 25 years and it was meant to be reviewed every five years. Maybe we now have an opportunity as an industry to contribute more to those laws as they develop.”