Sometimes free advice is worthless. Martin Taylor from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in a recent interview advised that landowners, even when clearing under the self-assessable codes, needed to seek approval from the Commonwealth government and that the Commonwealth is supposed to assess the proposed land clearing. The claimed requirement is under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC). This advice misrepresents landowner’s requirements. The fact is that, under the EPBC Act, there is no compulsion for land owners to approach the commonwealth, unless, the landowner has reason to believe that the clearing will have significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance. How the Act is written requires the single development action to significantly damage the likes of a world heritage area, threatened species or the Great Barrier Reef. On behalf of a group of landowners Property Rights Australia sought to have this point clarified by seeking written advice of a barrister in law. A barrister’s advice is not free, but has worth.
Martin Taylor is promoting the latest WWF report, this time alarmism about the land management that occurs under self-assessable codes. These reports peddled by WWF are little more than a campaign tool, used to effect change of political policy, to tighten legislations and regulations. This inevitably involves the taking of property rights from landowners and restricts their ability to manage the land for which it was designated – the production of food.
Ambiguous legislation and regulation creates uncertainty. Last week, the penalty and cost decision in the Michael Baker firebreak clearing court case revealed, after asking 32 different government personnel, Mr Baker received not quite as many interpretations and no definitive answer. Protracted, costly and multi-layered approval processes become very daunting. It would suit WWF’s purposes for landowners to unnecessarily approach the Federal department of environment. It is intimidation, WWF’s vigilante type action, just as it did in its deplorable “map of shame”, to publish an interactive map showing the locations of self-assessable code notifications.
Radical environmental groups ultimately are seeking control. If control can’t be gained by direct power, it can also be effected through uncertainty, fear and intimidation. - Dale Stiller, Chairman of Property Rights Australia