Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek your indulgence to make a brief statement.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, I want to address the matter of my declaration of interests. I am required by the rules of this place to disclose my shareholdings. My Register of Members' Interests entry discloses my shareholdings in my family company, Gufee Pty Ltd. I am required by the rules of this place to disclose any partnerships I am part of. My Register of Members' Interests entry discloses Gufee's interest in Farm Partnerships Australia. This is a legal partnership set up with my three brothers and a business associate over 20 years ago to farm across this region, close to where I stand now, via leased, managed and owned farms. We originally set it up to work with ageing and absentee farmers to allow them to continue living on and owning their farms beyond their ability to farm themselves. This farming partnership, a common legal structure for rural holdings, has in recent years held a one-third interest in a farm near Delegate in south-eastern New South Wales.

If the register of interests were required to record minority, non-controlling interests held at three levels down in a family company structure, this would be a major change to current practice. For instance, investments made by public companies held by members would need to be disclosed. It would require changes in disclosures for many in this place, including for those opposite. I have therefore fully met my obligations to declare my interests in Gufee and Farm Partnerships Australia.

I turned to the revised EPBC listing of Natural Temperate Grasslands of the Southern Tablelands ecological community. In late 2016 and early 2017 I spoke with farmers from Boorowa and Goulburn in my electorate, and from Yass, which had been in Hume until mid 2016, about this listing and their concerns with that listing. On 21 February 2017 I spoke with a farmer near Yass who expressed strong and detailed concerns about the revised listing, pointing out that it had occurred despite the concerns of the National Farmers' Federation and the New South Wales Farmers Association and with little consultation with farmers themselves. All of these farmers were completely disconnected from our family farming operations.

There has been strong antagonism expressed by the farming community about federal and state native vegetation regulation for some time. The concern was very serious. The revised listing requires farmers to assess whether there is 50 per cent native vegetation down to parcels of one-10th of a hectare, at highly unfavourable times of year because clover, an introduced species, must be excluded from the assessment. The revised listing extends across most of my electorate's farming country, both pre- and post-2016 redistribution, as well as much of the Eden-Monaro. It goes well beyond New South Wales regulations and is costly and unmanageable, as it is difficult or impossible to be sure that routine pasture improvement or weed management is compliant. Ultimately, the revised listing would halt pasture improvement and efficient weed control across the Southern Tablelands and Monaro. It has the potential to do untold damage to agricultural productivity throughout the region, undermining the livelihoods of many of the 2½ thousand people who work in agriculture in my electorate.

On 21 February 2017, at the suggestion of the Yass farmer, I contacted the policy director of the New South Wales Farmers Association, who provided me with their June 2014 submission to the then Department of the Environment expressing serious concerns about the proposed revised listing. On the basis of these concerns I sought a briefing on the revised listing from the then minister's office, which I made clear was not to include any discussion of compliance matters. This has already been confirmed by departmental documents released to journalists under FOI, in which an official writes in internal correspondence that the meeting with me was, 'to answer questions on the technical aspects of the listing outcome,' and highlights that they would completely stay out of any compliance action underway. The official also writes, 'We will confine our discussion to the EPBC Act-listing process'.

On 20 March 2017 I attended the meeting. At no time during this meeting was any compliance matter or any personal interest of mine discussed. At that meeting we discussed precisely what the department had said we would discuss. Officials in attendance were determined by the department.

In conclusion, the facts are clear and straightforward. My interests have been declared in complete adherence to the rules. I have had no association with the events leading to the compliance action that has been the subject of these allegations and I have never made a representation in relation to it; I never would. All available information supports my repeated statements that the compliance action was never raised. My focus was advocating for the interests of the farmers in my electorate and across the region. This is my job as the elected representative for Hume, with a large farming population and agricultural sector. I am proud to represent the interests of farmers; the backbone of so many regional communities. I will continue to do this at every opportunity.

I would like to table two documents. The first is the initial 2014 letter from the National Farmers' Federation to the department expressing serious concerns about the revised listing. The second is the geographic distribution of the natural temperate grasslands of the south-eastern highlands ecological community. I thank the House.