Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member for Mallee agrees with what I have said. The key issues raised at the meeting included: inflation of land prices; critical farming; stock land being lost; 30,000 breeders disappearing from the area; damage to roads; damage to the social fabric of communities; and no net economic benefit to communities—that was a key issue. Managed investments are great—if we can foster more agribusiness, that is a good thing—but we also want to see some of that net economic benefit coming to communities. Yes, there are some jobs, but there are not a lot of jobs.

Other issues included monocultural practices—and I am talking about forestry plantations—causing bigger weed infestation, particularly when you are planting dunnii; no local government or local community capacity for input; no regional royalties flowing to local communities; no expertise with some schemes regarding forestry, and that is not all people involved in the business; large water use that is not compensated; schools going and the number of students down; and aerial spraying, an issue we have not had to face in our area for a long time because we thought it was not happening anymore. Aerial spraying uses simazine. Yes, this a herbicide that it is used for cropping but, with cropping, it may not be such an issue. But we have big plantation areas and, when it is used across a big area, there are some problems. I have read that the director of public health in Tasmania has stopped it from being used in a particular area. I have taken that issue up on behalf of all of the communities because aerial spraying was happening near families and where kids had to go to catch the bus. The local farmers actually came and asked me to take up that issue.

The inquiry into agribusiness managed investment schemes was able to clearly recognise that we have an issue here. It is an issue for our community and an issue for the parliament. The way agribusiness is done is an issue for the three levels of government, but local government is being locked out, which seems nonsensical, and the state has control over those areas and monitoring. It almost needs something else to happen, and some of that is clearly beyond the terms of reference of the committee. I suggest that it requires something beyond a parliamentary committee. It needs something quite different, another review to look at the whole management—and I do not mean the financial product.

I thank the committee for the good work that they did in their review of MIS and agribusiness. I welcome the recommendations. I, like the honourable member for Mallee, will continue to be seized by this issue. We will work until we get some outcomes in the way we manage these systems that are acceptable across the communities. I thank the honourable member for Oxley, the chairman of the committee, for coming to my area and having an informal roundtable with all the people across my community who were concerned with this issue. I think the Kyogle council chambers and the mayor and the councillors for hosting that for me.

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