Australia must reduce its farming sector red tape to better position itself as the food bowl of Asia.
Australian farming businesses want consistent and common-sense rules empowering them to manage land and other scarce resources in such ways to appropriately project a clean, green image for food and other commodities they market both domestically and internationally.
The desire for minimally effective government regulation is sound in theory but, as is sadly all too common in practice, excessive red tape gets in the way of farmers being able to become even more efficient and more innovative as market opportunities change. The recent draft report by the Productivity Commission on agricultural regulation chronicles numerous instances whereby poor-quality regulation imposes unnecessary red tape on the farm sector.
Mountains of red tape upon agriculturalists is especially problematic for the many small-scale producers, who lack the time and financial resources to effectively comply with the many rules imposed by all governments.
The breadth of red tape and lax regulatory governance outlined by the Commission is extensive, and should serve as a wake-up call for all sides of politics to push a new red tape repeal agenda.
What is also significant about the Commission agricultural regulation draft report is that Queensland, with over 75 Acts and 17,590 pages of regulations on agriculture alone, is identified as an epicentre of numerous regulatory problems.
The state's sugar industry has long served as effectively a bottomless pit of corporate welfare and other forms of discriminatory assistance, with the recent move to partially re-regulate the Queensland sugar market heavily criticised by the Commission.
The push by the LNP state opposition, with the support of the Katter Party and independents, to re-regulate the international marketing of sugar has been found by the Commission to likely "reduce the productivity and profitability of the industry".
The Commission assessed that repealing the December 2015 state legislation "could enable consolidation and productivity gains which would enhance the international competitiveness of the sugar industry".
Transport red tape affecting farming businesses throughout Qld was also identified as a major impediment to getting food and fibre to markets in the cheapest and most seamless ways possible.
A producer provided testimony to the Commission about the time delays and other burdens surrounding obtaining permits from different levels of government simply for the privilege of moving an oversized agricultural machine between farms along 25km of a public road. Other information was supplied about the effect of heavy vehicle restrictions in Qld, which led, in one instance, to a transport cost premium of almost 40 per cent for delivering cattle to abattoirs.
The excessive red tape burdens associated with managing native vegetation on farming properties was also raised as an important issue for local farmers, given the extensive uncertainties due to policy changes in recent years.
Other matters, such as inefficient biofuel mandates, restrictive animal welfare conditions, and increasingly prescriptive foreign investment rules, were also cited by the Commission as major concerns for producers in Queensland.
The Productivity Commission has made it clear that the build-up of red tape is holding Queensland producers back, with the onus squarely on governments to eliminate restrictions against farmers using common-sense approaches to get food on plates and fibre on backs.
If this report helps to recharge an agenda to cut farming red tape, then Queensland and Australia will benefit enormously in the years and decades to come.
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