SAFE, practical and economic access to roads is critical to agricultural businesses, however Governments’ current access provisions do not allow for this according to Canegrowers Mackay chairman Kevin Borg.
Mr Borg said the existing conditions placed on over-width and over-height vehicle movements were ‘impractical and onerous’ placing a significant burden on the sugar industry.
He said a trend towards increasing farm sizes (not all sharing a common border) was growing the need for cane growers and contractors to travel increased distances with larger machinery.
“Distances travelled are relatively short - often less than 10km - and cane growers work in an environment where agronomic best practice is dictated by weather conditions, thus the need to travel and cross public roads is unpredictable and often needs to be carried out at short notice,” Mr Borg said.
“The above practical operating conditions are critical to enabling the Australian sugar industry to compete in the world market,” he said.
Mr Borg said the post-NHVR process for granting oversize/excess dimension agricultural equipment permits was untenable and impractical denying growers legal and economic access to the full road network and creating unnecessary risk.
Queensland Transport and Main Roads (QTMR) as road managers are in control of approving access and setting conditions applied to permits for travel of agricultural machinery on its roads.
Mr Borg said Canegrowers required an immediate review of the current QTMR conditions for the movement of oversize/excess dimension agricultural equipment and machinery and was seeking the following:
- The separation of oversize or excess dimension agricultural vehicles and equipment from over mass vehicles and equipment, given their clear differences.
- A standard exemption, pre-approval system or class permit for agricultural vehicles or equipment that will allow landholders to operate unhindered.
