THE Australian Conservation Foundation last week launched its latest attack on Australian beef producers, with several media outlets quickly turning around the conservation giant’s allegations of illegal land clearing with little scrutiny – forcing the industry to defend itself.

While the organisation was painting a David vs Goliath battle with greedy corporations happy to destroy the environment with little remorse, you could make a strong argument that it is just ‘big conservation’ bullying family farmers.

A quick online search and a thorough read of the press release and accompanying ‘bulldozing the bush’ document shows a less sensational story than what was pushed out last week by several news organisations – including the ABC whose headline stated “ACF uncovers massive illegal land clearing”.

The ACF has provided scant details on any of the individual cases. At this point, it is just the ACF’s word against a whole bunch of unnamed and unknown landholders.

Of the 176 properties it says were in the report, the organisation says it will only report 76 cases to the Federal environment regulator. Aside from confirming to the ABC that it is aware of the matter and is investigating, no word has come from the Federal regulator and no charges have been laid.

Several news organisations covering the ACF report did not report any other relevant or pertinent facts to put into context the scale of what the ACF is talking about or what is happening on the ground.

According to the 2023 Federal Government state of the forests report, Australia’s total forest area increased by 750,000ha over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021, maintaining the increase in total forest area that has been observed since 2008.

The reports painted the idea that farmers can clear land with little scrutiny, which goes completely against the big fines have been handed out over the years and the anecdotal reports from farmers who have received calls from authorities for activities like erosion control on roads and weed control.

They also missed the fact that the European Union recently classified Australia a “low risk” of deforestation.

ACF working with millions more than volunteers

The ACF dressed the report up as a grass roots initiative driven by 700 volunteer ‘citizen scientists’ who used their spare time to trawl through satellite images, screenshot areas where land clearing has occurred and pass it onto the ACF.

A quick look at the Australia Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s feely available and easy to use website shows that the ACF has a few more resources than just volunteers and is likely to have a lot more resources than the farmers it is going after.

According to the ACNC, the organisation last year made $17.1m and spent $18.7m – with $11.7m going to staff.

The ACF’s two charitable activities are to campaign for a transition to renewable energy and campaign for new environmental laws.

So, could its agenda to change environmental laws, for which it receives tax deductible donations, have anything to do with its regular smearing farmers?

The same tax-free charity status is not afforded to the lobby groups set up to defend farmers, who are also engaged in the debate over environmental laws. And as this article pointed out earlier this week, the beef industry has little access to its own compulsory levy for advocacy.

The ABC’s coverage of last week’s report included a brief comment from National Farmers’ Federation president David Jochinke, before going on to chat with New South Wales producer Glenn Morris.

While Mr Morris is entitled to his opinion, a quick search online shows a close relationship with the ACF – which did not gain a mention by the ABC.

History of leaving out facts

Reports like ‘Bulldozing the Bush’ are routine business for the ACF, they claimthese masses of examples and dump it on the internet with barely any detail.

The ACF is quick to cry ‘deforestation’ if the clearing is not illegal, using the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation definition of land covering a certain threshold of tree height and canopy cover. It conveniently leaves out the fact that the UN FAO excludes agricultural land from this definition.

The many valid reasons for clearing land rarely make it into the reports, like the fact that it is needed to produce food at scale or that previously cleared land needs ongoing management.

The ACF uses these reports to push its agenda with corporations and governments. It last year successfully lobbied supermarkets to commit to “deforestation-free” beef.

This year, it has turned that focus to banks and the Federal Government, which is looking to update environmental laws.

If social media is anything to go by, the ACF is now enjoying a cosy relationship with Federal environment minister Murray Watt, who is currently working to reform national environmental laws. Outgoing ACF CEO Kelly O’Shanassy has been sitting beside the minister in their meetings and the minister has been retweeting the ACF’s press releases about the process.