The New South Wales Nationals minister Bronwyn Taylor demanded intervention from the deputy premier, John Barilaro, over environmental laws affecting her family’s land holdings, describing efforts by the Office of Environment and Heritage to protect native grasslands in the Monaro area as “ludicrous” and “a joke”.
An email chain from 2017 reveals the war between the OEH, Local Land Services (part of the primary industries department) and senior Nationals over maps designed to identify endangered ecological communities in need of protection under land-clearing laws introduced the same year.
The laws, under which landowners assess their own land for clearing purposes, have led to a 60% surge in land clearing in the state. But areas designated as protected on the maps prepared by the environment department could not be cleared.
Landowners in the Monaro region– including Taylor and her extended family – fiercely opposed the maps as a result.
In mid-2017 she attended a consultation between OEH and Monaro farmers in Cooma about the maps, although it is unclear if she was there as a landowner or as parliamentary secretary, as she was then.
Taylor told Guardian Australia: “As a member of the legislative council in NSW parliament and a farmer in southern NSW, I have been asked on numerous occasions by other landholders, the NSW Farmers Association and various community groups to raise local issues with my colleagues.
“I will always stand up for farmers on the Monaro and it’s my job to raise issues that affect the whole community.”
The landowners believed they had won the battle to have the grasslands maps withdrawn. But on 29 October Taylor’s brother-in-law, Richard Taylor, forwarded her an email from OEH saying the maps would be reissued. She let fly to Barilaro’s office.
“JB – I really need to talk to you about all this. They are directly now working against the fact that you said the maps were dead,” Taylor wrote in the email, contained in papers released to the NSW upper house on Thursday.
“Honestly, the energy this takes, the goodwill it trashes, it’s just ludicrous. Read what they say – it’s a joke.
“This would have gone to all the people who attended the first workshop that raised the issue and then were told we would not implement the maps.”
The email chain was then forwarded from Barilaro’s office to a senior officer in Local Land Services.
“See below: are OEH seriously demented?” wrote the head of policy development in Barilaro’s office, Daniel Newlan.
“It’s unfortunate in the extreme,” replied LLS’s Kristian Holz.
“This is destructive and and unprofessional behaviour in the extreme … I am going to Cooma next Tuesday … I think Niall [Blair, then minister for primary industry] or DP [deputy premier] should put out a release next Tuesday to confirm maps are out for grasslands and to confirm the commitments LLS has made and the positive things we have done.”
Newlan replied that Barilaro, who is also the MP for Monaro, had already issued a release.
“I spoke to the DP, we want to look at a revised regulatory framework with no maps on any level, anywhere.”
On 17 November, Barilaro announced: “The government will not be proceeding with the regulatory maps in native grassland dominant landscapes.”
The Taylor family has taken an active interest in the grasslands laws at state and federal level.
The Guardian has previously reported that the federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, also Bronwyn Taylor’s brother-in-law, had made representations in 2017 to the federal department over the federal laws protecting native grasslands.
Those meetings took place soon after a company, Jam Land, in which he and his brothers had an interest, was investigated for land clearing by NSW and federal authorities.
Jam Land has since been found to have contravened federal laws by spraying the grasslands with herbicide. It is currently appealing an order for remediation.
Bronwyn Taylor faced questions in 2019 over a call she made in 2018 to OEH over an investigation into land clearing brought against her family company, Fairross.
In August 2018 OEH received a report of “potential unlawful clearing of native grasslands” on a property in Nimmitabel, owned by Fairross Pty Ltd, which is owned by Taylor and her husband, Duncan Taylor.
Documents tabled in the NSW upper house revealed that Duncan Taylor called the OEH on 13 September 2018 and identified himself as the property owner.
On the same day, Bronwyn Taylor made a separate call to OEH in which she “advised OEH that she was a member of the state parliament but was calling as the landowner”.
“Minister Taylor stated that they had done a self-assessment of the grassland and the area in question was not comprised of over 50% native ground cover, meaning that an offence had not been committed,” the document says.
Labor’s environment spokeswoman, Penny Sharpe, said the latest documents raised more questions about the minister’s role.
“In what role was she lobbying the deputy premier after receiving information directly from her brother-in-law?” Sharpe said.
“Given the contentious issues and that Ms Taylor had been directly impacted by the rules regarding land clearing, she should explain why she continued to play such an active role given her clear personal interest in the outcome.”
