TEARS flowed during high level meetings between farmer leaders, agricultural stakeholders and senior Coalition government officials in Rockhampton yesterday, amid escalating fear and anxiety at fighting a forced farm-land acquisition.
National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) CEO Tony Mahar said his group and member group AgForce, and others, left the talks disappointed by the government’s non-committal response to concerns raised about the farmland take-over, as part of a $2.25 billion strategic military training agreement with Singapore
Defence Minister Marise Payne was joined in the discussions by Queensland Nationals’ MPs Michelle Landry and Ken O’Dowd and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan.
Mr Mahar said Ms Payne’s major commitment was a tightened four-week time-frame to produce a “master-plan” document that aims to provide greater definition on what land the Department of Defence would be acquiring and where.
That strategy paper will feed into another government process - a social and economic impact study by KPMG - that may not be handed to government until mid-year and then a decision must ultimately be weighed-up by the federal cabinet.
Last week after meeting in Charters Towers with about 40 impacted locals, Mr Mahar said an estimated 300,000 hectares of productive agricultural land could be compulsory acquired by the government which would be “a sad day for Australian agriculture”.
This week, he said the Rockhampton meeting, comprising about 15 people, was positive and encouraging given the Minister had prioritised the issue and came to listen to the concerns of local farmers and others in the beef supply chain.
He said Minister Payne also committed to, and instructed her department, that “ag-land must remain ag-land as much as it possibly can” while reducing the time-frame around the master-plan to four weeks.
However, he said the minister didn‘t rule out compulsory land acquisition and “that’s the major concern to the NFF and AgForce and all of the major landholders”.
“In a sense not much has changed,” he said.
“It’s admirable and we recognise the minister has made it a priority to come up and listen and hear and speak but she did not rule out compulsory acquisition and that remains our major concern.
“Our concerns are still there – we’ve still got this uncertainty for four weeks and the landowners have already had that uncertainty for six weeks, possibly more.
“The axe hasn’t been removed and the threat of compulsory acquisition is still there.”
Mr Mahar said the federal politicians and ministers were “all ears” at the Rockhampton talks and wanted to continue “the discussion” but a state of heightened anxiety remained for impacted locals.
“It’s fine for them to turn up and listen but really they’ve got to give landowners certainty and at the moment we still haven’t got certainty,” he said.
“We’ve got certainty in terms of four weeks - hopefully this master plan will provide greater detail - but to be honest a couple of people in the crowd were in tears today which was a demonstration of how much this is affecting them.
“There’s a tangible level of anxiety within these communities.
“It’s good for the ministers, and Senators and members to see that but it doesn’t make it any easier; people still walked away pretty disappointed today.”
Mr Mahar said it would be “a real concern” if a decision on the compulsory land acquisition dragged on, beyond four weeks, given the final cabinet process and the timing of the social and economic report.
“We know from other similar incidents, the longer it drags on the more the anxiety and the concern and the frustration builds,” he said.
“The commitment to get more detail in four weeks – at the end of the day that’s a positive step but it is four weeks to wait and see what that is.
“In terms of what we’re doing we’ll continue to keep the pressure on and keep the communication up so we can try and get the best possible outcome for these landowners.”
Ms Payne said a 25 year relationship was planned with Singapore within what was a, “very, very significant agreement” and undertaking with Australia.
But she said, “I don’t for a moment underestimate or understate the level of concern and the anxiety that it’s caused in the community, in discussions around land and property and the issues that come as part of an arrangement like this”.
“It is my strong view, and I have directed Defence to ensure that this is the case, that agricultural land should be used for agriculture purposes,” she said.
“To that end, any land that is to be acquired should be done so in a timely manner and I know that there have been concerns raised around the master planning process.
“It is intended to be and will be a very comprehensive process, but I had thought that we would not receive the return on that until the second half of the year.
“What I’ve directed Defence to ensure is that the outcomes of that process are available within four weeks.
“So, a very clear timeframe that will give graziers, give farmers in the community, a scale if you like, with which to work in terms of when that information will come back to them.”
Ms Payne said the “comprehensive” master planning process involved consideration of the requirements for military training and should include “minimal acquisition of agricultural land”.
“I don’t think anything is inevitable,” she said.
“I think it was important for us not to sneak around in the background and start master planning or doing studies without communicating with individual landowners and the community.
“We’ll still be doing the master planning and we’ll know an outcome of that in around four weeks and then we can have another conversation.
“Our last resort is compulsory acquisition.
“Our first resort is negotiating with local members of the community who may wish to engage with us and then there are steps after that.
“I have instructed Defence that the minimal amount of land should be acquired, that is agricultural and prime agricultural land in this area and that is the premise from which they will begin.”