The native vegetation codes, which form a significant part of the NSW government’s biodiversity reforms are currently on exhibition for public consultation until June 21.
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There are seven codes: Invasive Native Species, Pasture Expansion, Stock Fodder, Continuing Use, PVP Transition, Equity and Farm Plan.
There are also a number of other supporting policies on consultation, such as the regulations and assessment methodologies.
NSW Farmers was promised a reduction in red tape and we are concerned with the complexity of it all.
Good regulation is clear and easy to comply with because everybody knows where they stand. We don’t believe the current codes meet that criterion.
After all, the aim of these reforms is to enable more agile, precise and effective management of native vegetation that is integrated within productive farming landscapes.
We also believe the current codes aren’t reflecting the recommendations of the expert independent panel that was set up to review legislative and policy framework for biodiversity conservation across the state.
We are enormously pleased that native vegetation reform is finally progressing, and we do congratulate the NSW government for taking this task on and securing legislation to do so through the NSW Parliament.
However, we need a partnership model that supports farmers in working constructively with government to achieve biodiversity outcomes on private land.
We strongly encourage all of our members to review the consultation documents at landmanagement.nsw.gov.au.
Our association always welcomes feedback from our members that can feed into our formal submission, but we also encourage members and branches to contribute directly.
- Mitchell Clapham, NSW Farmers native vegetation working committee chairman
