AGRICULTURE and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce says he’d prefer no compulsory acquisition of any farmland in Queensland, by the federal Department of Defence.
But he won’t make any “proclamations” about his actual position on the controversial government land grab, which has local farmers and communities on tenterhooks, ahead of his fact-finding visit to the impacted region later this week.
Labor has attacked the consultation process and alleged secrecy underpinning the Turnbull government’s proposal to expand military training facilities in a multi-billion dollar agreement with the Singaporean government.
Mr Joyce has also been taunted by the opposition for avoiding making any public statements on the issue in support of impacted farmers and landholders who have ventilated their concerns.
But Mr Joyce spoke to Fairfax Agricultural Media today giving his first public comments on the controversy, revealing a cautious position on the potential purchase of farming land west of Townsville and north of Rockhampton, ahead of his trip on Friday, along with local Queensland Nationals MP Michelle Landry.
“At this point in time there has been no compulsory land acquisitions,” he said.
“I know (Defence Minister) Marise Payne has been up there to talk to the key stakeholders and Michelle Landry has given me a fair report on the concerns that she holds.
“We don’t want to create unreasonable disturbances - but rather than start giving proclamations about what I intend to do before I get there, I’ll go up and have a yarn with the key stakeholders and see if there’s anything we can do to sort of mollify the situation.”
Mr Joyce said if he already had a position on whether compulsory land acquisition should be allowed, there’d be no point in him visiting the area on Friday.
But he said, “Obviously I do prefer if there wasn’t any compulsory acquisitions - but I’ll go up there to hear what’s going on”
Mr Joyce said there had only been one land purchase at this stage which was voluntary.
“You can hardly complain about voluntary sales to the Australian government – that’s their call,” he said.
“It’s not being bought by an overseas company - it’s being bought by the Australian government.”
It’s understood about 65 landholders representing about 300,000 hectares have been notified of the government’s intention to acquire land.
After visiting the region last week, National Farmers’ Federation CEO Tony Mahar said local communities still faced “a tangible level of anxiety” despite Ms Payne committing to a four week time-frame on a ‘master plan’ to identify land that’s likely to be acquired.
“The axe hasn’t been removed and the threat of compulsory acquisition is still there,” he said.
Ms Payne said she’d instructed her department, that “ag-land must remain ag-land as much as it possibly can” but she did not rule out compulsory land acquisitions which was the core demand of the NFF, AgForce and major landholders.
Ms Payne said a 25 year relationship was planned with Singapore within what was a, “very, very significant agreement” and undertaking with Australia.
Mr Joyce said “the dilemma” underpinning the issue was the need to “defend the nation” given his role on the National Security Committee while also considering agricultural interests.
He said he was “curious” to explore the details further and stressed the right balance was needed as towns like Rockhampton, where a defence base was located, would gain from the $2.25 billion 25-year training deal.
But he said, “We don’t want to be buying huge swathes of land against peoples’ wishes”.
“If we were to say we’re not going to go ahead with the land purchases there, there would be equal complaint coming from a different group of people,” he said.
“I don’t know if there’s the possibility of lease-backs and that kind of thing if they’re not using the land but we will find all of that out.
“Defence is going to acquire land so it’s no good saying, ’Oh well we should be buying land at Booyal’ - you’ve got to buy it next to the base.”
Responding to criticisms that his silence on the issue had been “deafening”, Mr Joyce said he was in Germany last week for trade talks at the G20 agriculture minister’s meeting “trying to assist with us with moving beef”.
“I take that on the chin and the week before I was doing the white spot disease (response) but what exactly is Labor’s position?” he said.
“Are they going to support the purchase or not?
“Their position is generally that they don’t have a position, so they only talk about our position.”
Shadow Defence Minister Richard Marles said Labor was calling on the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to start listening to those who would be adversely affected by the defence proposal.
Mr Marles said the Turnbull government announced an investment in the training areas prior to last year’s federal election but kept secret the fact they would threaten landholders with compulsory land acquisition.
“The government’s actions were nothing short of deceitful,” he said.
“Affected land holders only learned of the government’s plans after the election but have still not been given any real detail and have been left in a desperate state of uncertainty.
“Minister Payne’s recent visit only exacerbated local concern and Barnaby Joyce has been nowhere to be seen.
“The threat to such large tracts of agriculture land is a threat to both farmers and the communities in which they spend their money - it’s also a threat to jobs in Queensland’s meat processing sector.
“The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Joyce must surely now intervene.”
Last week, Queensland Labor Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne took a swipe at Mr Joyce saying he had “run up the white flag” on the issue, while Ms Payne was prepared to “wreck lives and damage agricultural industries without bothering with independent expert advice”.
Mr Byrne said funding had been allocated to investigate the impacts of losing an estimated 100,000 head of cattle in central and north Queensland on the meat processing and live export sectors and broader economic impacts on nearby communities.
“In light of the Federal government decision to press ahead with a significant land grab of top quality grazing properties without considering a business case, there must be a thorough assessment of the defence land expansions,” he said.
“Producers have told me that the threat of compulsory acquisitions is already having a negative impact on those industries which support the cattle supply chain.
“I have very deep concerns there will be job losses in my own electorate of Rockhampton as a direct consequence of this headlong rush to seize grazing properties.”