Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about a petition from my electorate. It's a petition to the Hon. Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the House of Representatives. It reads:

The Heytesbury Settlement began in the 1960s as a soldier settler scheme, and is home to many family farms and small communities in south-west Victoria, centred around the service town of Simpson, and also serviced by Cobden, Colac, Camperdown and Timboon. It is situated within the most valuable agricultural region in the whole of Australia (Food and Fibre Great South West strategy, 2021-2023).

Since the large-scale clearing of that time, many farms have worked to re-establish multi-species native plantings, enhance habitat, manage nutrient and run-off, and improve the amenity of this picturesque landscape. Tourists are increasingly attracted to the area for its rolling hills, lush pastures, native forests, wildlife, birds, and gourmet food and wine experiences.

The wide scale planting of blue gums ('green deserts') for wood-chip in the Heytesbury settlement district must be stopped before the landscape changes irreversibly, leading to harm to local communities, to employment, to local services and local food production.

Foreign Investment Review Board decisions are meant to be made in the 'National Interest'.

We call on the federal government to immediately publicly release the conditions the Foreign Investment Review Board placed on Munich Re (the German Superannuation Company) in approving the purchase of $200m in prime agriculture land in south-west Victoria.

We call on the federal government to detail what environmental assessment it undertook in approving the wide scale planting of blue gums, including on impacts to the underground water table.

We call on the federal government to provide greater transparency on the size and scale of purchases in the Heytesbury settlement by Munich Re.

And we call on the federal government to detail what community based assessment it undertook specifically with regard to the impact on food production of such a large scale purchase of prime agriculture land.

It's signed by the chief petitioner, Stephen 'Pappy' Hunt.

My community is very concerned about what is happening in the Heytesbury region. This is prime agriculture land that was cleared in the 60s and is now potentially facing the disappearance of all that prime agriculture land as blue gums get planted in that region. This is happening at an unprecedented scale and without the consultation of the local community. This petition has 628 paper signatories and it has 750 e-signatures—that's 1,378 in total. Nearly 1,400 people have signed this petition calling on the federal government to say, 'Enough is enough.' We want a moratorium placed on the purchasing of this land while these questions can be answered: what is this going to do to our prime agriculture land; what will it do to these native species; what will it do to the wildlife; what will it do to the birdlife; and, most importantly, what will it do to agricultural production in this prime agricultural land?

We have to be able to feed our own people, we have to be able to continue to feed the world, and if we get decisions like this, approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board and ticked off by the Treasurer, then we will see more and more of our prime agricultural land disappear. At a time when we should be feeding the rest of the world and at a time when we should be enhancing our prime agricultural land and the food production we get off it, we will be seeing that land disappear.

These nearly 1,400 signatures are saying, 'Enough is enough.' They want the government to pause. They want the government to put a halt to this type of activity and protect our prime agricultural land. I seek leave to table this petition.

Leave not granted.