One Nation MP Mark Latham is pushing for the NSW government to "call off the dogs" on distressed farmers currently facing prosecution over "unfair" land clearing laws.
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The Legislative Council member was in Moree on Friday to meet with farmers in the district currently embattled with the courts over land clearing.
"These people are being terrorised by overregulation and unfair process and in a time of drought, I've consistently said call off the dogs, I've pleaded with the Premier to call off the dogs so that these farmers can get on with their business," he said during his visit to Moree.
"It's hard enough in a drought, without having to face up to court action as well. And a lot of the court action is very, very unnecessary."
There are currently a number of people in the North West who have received compliance notices, and are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines from the former Office of Environment and Heritage (now the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment). Most of these relate to activity that occurred under the old native vegetation act, which would in fact be legal under the new, more flexible Biodiversity Conservation Act, introduced in 2017.
Mr Latham has been calling for the state government to halt legal action since his election campaign earlier this year and had promised to meet with North West farmers as part of his election commitment. He is also pushing for the legislation, which requires farmers to offset up to six hectares of land for every hectare they clear, to be relaxed and for farmers to be compensated for locked up land.
"I've had a lot of discussion with [farmers] and some of the lawyers involved, but today's a chance to have an update and meet more of the people and also give them my assurance that I'm part of trying to get a solution here," he said.
"I'm a crossbencher in a party of two in the parliament so our method of operation is always pressure and advocacy and putting forward fair process and good arguments for policy to ministers, so I did that with [Environment Minister] Matt Kean, I urged him to come up here to have a look at the land clearing because once you have a look at it in practice I'm told it's a very different issue than the way it's presented by the Office of Environment and Heritage."
After discussions with both Agricultural Minister Adam Marshall and Environment Minister Matt Kean, who visited Moree and Walgett this week, Mr Latham is confident that a solution is "imminent".
"I'm optimistic that these guys are headed in the right direction and we can get some relief for people who are being unfairly persecuted," he said.
"It seems at long last the state government is starting to do the right thing and there'll be some things that are brought before the parliament when we come back where One Nation can play an important role in making sure that a ministerial solution here, in effect calling off the dogs, can be defended in the parliament and stand up to any parliamentary attempt to overturn it."
Mr Marshall said he was hoping to make an announcement in the next few weeks "to bring this whole sorry saga completely to a close" and "instead focus on a much fairer system going forward".
"I'm firmly of the view that prosecution and compliance action should be halted if the activity undertaken by a landholder would now be permissible under the new land management laws," he said in a video address to a native vegetation forum held in Moree earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Mr Latham also met with cotton growers and industry representatives during his visit to Moree.
"I'm having a look at the cotton growing operations which I've never seen before and, with the water and drought issues, I thought that was critically important," he said.
"You've got people from interstate saying close down cotton exports and destroy the industry, and I spoke to cotton growers before the election and said I'll get up after the election to have a look at it in practice, because nothing beats that practical experience of being there.
"So I'm keen to learn about how cotton is grown, but also talk about water policy and what we should be doing at state level."
Mr Latham met with Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association executive officer Zara Lowien and NSW Irrigators' Council chair Jim Cush, and visited 'Deer Park', looking at the floodplain harvesting infrastructure, and Henry Moses' 'Courallie' property.
He also paid a visit to St Philomena's School, as chair of NSW Parliament's upper house Catholic education committee.