Drastic changes to land-clearing laws in NSW, which have been fiercely opposed by conservationists, have now also lost the support of farmers, leading to renewed calls for them to be dropped.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party told Guardian Australia it would take advice from the farmers’ lobby group not to support the laws in their current form. With Labor and the Greens opposed, the bill will have trouble passing the state’s upper house.
In May, the NSW government released its long-awaited draft Biodiversity Conservation Act, which would take the place of three acts meant to support conservation in the state: the Native Vegetation Act, the Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Nature Conservation Trust Act.
The new law would allow farmers to clear some vegetation that was previously protected, and give them access to “offsets”, meaning they would be able to clear trees in one place and make up for it by contributing to conservation elsewhere.
Conservation groups felt the development of the new laws was so skewed towards the interests of farmers that they stormed out of consultations in February, claiming they were a sham. They have since been protesting against the laws – on Friday 400 people demonstrated against them outside premier Mike Baird’s office in Manly.
But now, almost two months after the release of the draft legislation, lobby group NSW Farmers has said it will not support the laws in their current form either.
Its president, Derek Schoen, said the laws were still too restrictive. In a statement, NSW Farmers said they would “introduce excessive red tape and could impede the potential efficiency and equity of a new system”.
The draft act “contains excessive powers of entry and investigation”, the statement said.
Entry and investigation have been particularly controversial , following the prosecution and subsequent conviction of farmer Ian Turnbull for murdering NSW environment officer Glen Turner in 2014, while he was investigating allegations of illegal land clearing.
“While the draft laws go some way towards addressing the concerns of farmers, they are overly convoluted,” Schoen said. “For over 20 years, the current Native Vegetation Act has hampered efficient farming practices, and without significant changes, the draft laws run the real risk of repeating the mistakes of the past.”
Earlier this month the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists wrote to MPs warning the laws would “increase the rate of species extinctions”.
The chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Kate Smoklsi, said: “The Wentworth Group’s criticism is especially damning because one of the signatories to the letter is Professor Hugh Possingham, who sat on the government-appointed Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel that wrote the blueprint for these reforms.”
The NSW Farmers announcement led the NCC – the state’s peak conservation body – to call on the government to scrap the laws.
“Premier Baird’s draft biodiversity law is in tatters now that the NSW Farmers have withdrawn their support,” Smolski said.
Federal Labor has said it would stop NSW weakening its land-clearing laws, if it won Saturday’s election.
The NSW minister for primary industries, Niall Blair, said, “The NSW government is committed to implementing lasting, transformative reform that truly delivers on the independent expert panel’s recommendations and restores the balance between our farming sector and the environment.
“I urge farmers to back a change that has innovation, financial backing, and government commitment to deliver for the future generations of farmers to be able to operate with freedom and a public endorsement as the custodians of the environment.”
