Queensland agriculture minister Tony Perrett.

QUEENSLAND agriculture minister Tony Perrett has called for an immediate reversal of the new Federal environmental laws, highlighting concerns about their impact on the cattle industry and a lack of consultation.

Last week, the Federal Government passed updates to the Environmental Protection and Biosecurity Conservation (EPBC) act following a deal with The Greens.

The Federal legislation is set to override state environmental laws, allowing for reclassification of ongoing clearing permits for regrowth 15-years-or-older and “removing exemptions for high-risk land clearing”.

Emotions have been running high and concern has been wide ranging since the passing of the laws, with a lack of consultation and limited detail being the main themes in conversations over the past week.

Beef Central has also heard that the new laws are creating serious concern about some property purchases, with the regrowth limits set to take immediate effect.

Speaking at press conference near Toowoomba today, Minister Perrett said the new laws were already impacting confidence in the industry.

“These rushed laws at a federal level are going to create a situation where lawful practices in this state that could become unlawful, where hard working family famers could become criminals,” he said.

“The Federal Labor Government are riding roughshod over Qld primary producers. It is something that disturbs me enormously, it disturbs our Government and it is something I call on the Federal Government reverse immediately.”

Questions over process

In the reaction to the laws, plenty of criticism has also been aimed at the Coalition who could not come to a deal with Labor.

Mr Perrett said he had personally written to Minister Watt requesting a meeting about the laws.

“I was in Canberra and as soon as I heard they were going to rush these changes through before the submissions closed I tried to meet with him,” he said.

“He has completely ignored me as the minister for primary industry, he has completely ignored the Qld Government and he has completely ignored the ignored the industry associations of concerned landholders. That is the arrogance we have seen from the Federal Labor/Green coalition.”

Mr Perrett said the Federal Coalition were of the understanding that the process was not going to be so rushed, with a senate inquiry set up to report back next year.

“The process should have been continuing, submissions to these changes should have been closing on Friday,” he said.

“This would have given the opportunity for everyone in primary industry in this state to have their say. Unfortunately, this Labor/Greens deal has run roughshod over the normal practices of the parliament.

“AgForce made a submission to Federal Senate inquiry, but I am certain Senator Watt never read that submission and if he did, he completely ignored it.”

Lack of understanding from the Government

In media interviews after announcing the deal, environment minister Murray Watt said he was bringing the industry in line with other industries like mining, housing development and renewable energy.

“Farmers are currently able to clear agricultural land, even if it has a significant impact on threatened species or other protected matters, without needing any assessment or approval under the EPBC Act. Now, that’s different to every other industry,” Minister Watt said.

Mr Perrett said the minister was being misleading.

“The processes involved with those industries is a material change of land use,” he said.

“Murray Watt does not understand planning laws. By him saying that demonstrates how rushed this has been, how little he actually knows about the legislation he has just passed in the parliament and the impact it is going to have.

“I ask him to explain how it is bringing farmers into line with multi-billion-dollar foreign companies that propose mining projects in this state. This impact on Mum and Dad farmers in this state, going through the regulatory processes, will drive them insane.”

State laws some of the toughest

In lobbying for these laws, Greens MPs and environmental groups like the Australian Conservation Foundation have been painting a picture of unregulated land clearing laws in Australia.

A point that was refuted by both Mr Perrett and AgForce general president Shane McCarthy.

Mr Perrett said producers had already compromised in the formation of the state environmental laws with the former Labor Government, by allowing some areas of their properties to not be cleared as part of the Property Maps of Assessable Vegetation (PMAV).

He said the state Labor party needed to stand up for its legislation.

“I call on Steven Miles to stand up to his Labor/Greens friends in Canberra and call on them to reverse these decisions. The reason I do this is because the laws we currently operate under PMAVs, which were something that were put in place by the Labor Party of this state.

“Vegetation management has been heavily regulated in this state for the past 25 years. Something that gave landholders certainty was PMAVs, where landholders could lock the vegetation management practices in on their property.

“What we have now is a level of legislation and law that has come over the top, that completely nullifies what we have here in the state.”

Mr McCarthy said the laws in Qld were already onerous.

“I would say we are some of the most regulated farmers in the world. The practices we already have there are so stringent,” he said.

“To knock over a whole heap of trees, let alone one tree, it is so bloody hard it is not funny. I would love some of the Greens senators, like Sarah Hanson-Young, to come up to Qld and go through an application to work through clearing some land and show her how hard it is to get those permits.”

Response from Murray Watt

In response to questions from Beef Central, environment minister Murray Watt said:

“These changes were passed by Federal Parliament last week and will not be reversed.

“The changes don’t stop producers from clearing their land – they simply require producers to seek Federal environmental approval before undertaking high risk forms of land clearing.

“All this means is that producers need to comply with the same environmental standards and laws that every other industry needs to meet, like mining, housing development, renewable energy, and other industries.

“I’ve personally conducted over 120 meetings over the last six months with a whole range of groups, including farming organisations and state governments.

“I made very clear that we would be passing the laws this year and that we would deal with either the Coalition or the Greens. The Federal Coalition were so distracted by their internal divisions that they were not able to work out what they wanted, which made it impossible to do a deal with them.

“These reforms have been waiting for five years since the Morrison Government received Graeme Samuel’s review, and we needed to get on and deliver them.

“They are a balanced set of reforms that will be good for our environment, and good for business by speeding up the approval process for the projects we need to take the country forward.