LEAH Vella, Bald Hills, Marlborough, has seen her cattle breeding and fattening operation come to a halt while waiting to hear whether she and her husband will own their land or not.
Ms Vella is one of almost 40 landholders affected by the proposed compulsory acquisition of land in the Marlborough region to allow for the expansion of the Shoalwater Bay defence training grounds.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was in Marlborough on Friday to speak to landholders, and stated he did not support compulsory acquisitions.
Ms Vella said while the meeting was enlightening, no solid outcomes were achieved.
“Hopefully Barnaby will convey our message through the Cabinet, and they will realise that they need to remove the compulsory acquisition from the table to enable people like myself, who do not want to leave our land, to move on,” she said.
“I have a little bit of optimism - I can see a little light, but there’s still a long way to go in the tunnel.”
Ms Vella said one thing discussed in the meeting was the possibility of thinning the land already held by the government.
“The land they’ve already got of 1.1 million acres, they need to utilise that more efficiently, maybe look into tree thinning to utilise the full capacity of the land,” she said.
Kelly Butterworth
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
Rockhampton-based journalist covering all things ag.
