Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA), Media Release, 14 July 2022
Ian Sauer, TFGA President believes that it is time for an independent or parliamentary review into legislation such as Land Acquisition Act 1993, Irrigation Company Act 2011, Hydro-Electric Corporation Act 1995 and other associated legislation, which allows for the authorised acquisition of land for the purpose of infrastructure.
“Tasmania is in a golden age of infrastructure development and opportunity, and we need to ensure our legislation is “fit for purpose”. We need to know it is fair and transparent for all parties involved,” said Ian.
“We need to review the relevant legislation, as I don’t think it was ever designed or intended to swing over the heads of farmers and private land-owners as an excuse for poor communication or lack of consultation.
“We need to ensure there is fairness, equal access to information and transparency in the decision-making process. Often we seem to be dealing with government business enterprises (GBEs) or state-owned companies (SOCs) with far greater resources to spend on consultant reports and in-house experts, who are unwilling to share their information with farmers,” said Ian.
During the week the TFGA visited Oliver Scott-Young’s family farm, Palmerston at Cressy. It is crisscrossed with various infrastructure – transmission towers, tailraces channels and high voltage poles and wires. The Scott-Young family absolutely understands the need for public infrastructure, but there has to be a way for the GBEs and SOCs to work together to minimise the impact on some of the best farming land in the world. Surely these government companies could work together to share easements and other infrastructure.
An irrigation scheme was fully sold before the relevant GBE approached the Scott-Youngs’ and informed them they would need to acquire around 5 per cent of their land to locate a dam. This parcel included 20ha in the middle of the farm. Right outside their front door.
The GBE proposed removing an established irrigator and moving strategically positioned cattle yards, isolating parts of the property and resulting in stock having to be mustered along a public road to access paddocks.
Requests for the GBE to share research into other possible solutions were denied, even after going through a ‘freedom-of-information’ process.
“Surely this isn’t how the compulsory acquisition legislation was designed to be used — it was never intended as a band-aid for a lack of consultation,” said Ian.
The news is full of planning for major infrastructure projects, the TFGA believes now is an ideal time to make sure our legislation is “fit for purpose” — that farmers and private land-owners can be assured of a fair and transparent process when their land is compulsorily acquired for public purpose.
