Native veg knockback: Nats delay reform

On Tuesday night, the government rejected a move which could have delivered immediate change.

But despite four years of waiting for action on what was a key election promise from the NSW Nationals, new leader Troy Grant said the Coalition government was right to knock back reforms to the unpopular native vegetation laws late yesterday.

Parliament debated the Shooters and Fishers’ Native Vegetation Amendment Bill, developed with policy backing from the NSW Farmers Association. The Coalition government used its numbers to vote it down.

Mr Grant said the Amendment Bill would have created bad legislation that placed farmers on the wrong side of the law for routine clearing.

He pledged to deliver his reforms, a comprehensive rewrite of the complex laws introduced by the former Carr government, as soon as possible – meaning after the State Election in March 2015.

Both NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson and Shooters MLC Robert Brown rejected the assertion that their changes would place farmers at risk and said there is no reason to reject the changes.

“We put up the Amendment Bill to deliver some small but significant changes whilst we wait for (the Nationals’) broader review to kick in,” Mrs Simson said.

“Government came into office with huge expectations from rural and regional people.

“It has been acknowledged by a number of members of parliament that the current laws are flawed, are broken and need change - but after four years of working with government towards change they have still, in the last year of their term, not delivered anything meaningful.”

Mrs Simson was sceptical that the “big piece of legislative work” needed for native veg reform could occur quickly.

“Practically speaking it will probably take up to 18 months until we see meaningful change now,” she said.

The Nationals announced a review into Native Vegetation laws in June 2013 to examine the Native Vegetation and Threatened Species Conservation Acts and related sections of the National Parks and Wildlife Act - but waited a year to commission its independent Biodiversity Review Panel.

The NSW government will consult with the community and stakeholder groups on the Panel’s recommendations before bringing its reforms to parliament.

Mr Grant acknowledged the anger over reform delays, but said his commitment was to deliver “a proper policy” early next year.

“We are only a matter of months away from a good outcome.

“NSW Farmers have been frustrated by the time it has taken to land the best policy outcome and have unfortunately adopted a political process which will fail to get a proper outcome.”

Mr Grant said native vegetation laws are complex and the Amendment Bill was a patchwork approach that would have had unintended consequences, placing farmers under scrutiny of the Threatened Species Act.

“The Bill was well intended, but because of the complex nature of all the overarching legislation farmers would have been to third party liability to any activity they did on the ground.

“As the leader of the Nationals I will never, ever expose my farmers to any add risks when they are trying to do their routine agricultural work.”

However, Shooters MLC Robert Brown rejected the assertion his Bill would have placed farmers in harm’s way – “based on the legal advice obtained by NSW Farmers lawyers”.

He acknowledged he brought a “patchwork Bill” but said it provides “political leadership… to address the most contentious issues in the current Act”.

“Native veg laws needs to be stripped down and rewritten, but the Nats could have done that in the four years they’ve had in government.

“The real story here is that the NSW Nats have been embarrassed by having made a clear promise before he election then doing absolutely nothing.”