Think before you hit farmers

Tasmania’s economic engine room features a wide range of industries such as mining, tourism, aquaculture, metal manufacturing such as zinc, aluminium and ferro manganese and forestry, but the enduring driver is farming - the jewel in Tasmania’s crown is our agricultural sector. We grow, we employ, we consume, we process, and we export. And we do it better than most.

Other industries will come and go, but farming will always be here while there are mouths to feed, people to clothe and medicines to prescribe across the state, nation and globe. But it is getting harder and harder to be farmers with the increasing impediments to productivity placed in our paths. Some of these impediments are increased costs, but unfortunately, many of these barriers are through the consequences of government decision-making – intended or not.

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Spare a thought for Tasmania’s fresh food producers who export to Victoria and beyond across Bass Strait. It is a constant juggle for farming businesses at any normal time, but now there is the impact of the Spirit of Tasmania debacle combined with planned maintenance on the Sea Road shipping service during January – a peak time. Probably the peak time.

The new Spirits should be in service right now, offering greater capacity and certainty for all Tasmanians, including those who drive economic activity by growing fresh produce that gives Tasmania its reputation as the best producer of the best food. But they aren’t, and farmers bear the cost.

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We have the continued brick wall of compounding local government rate increases and the high percentage of overall contribution that farmers make to local government budgets with little to show for that contribution. TasFarmers in recent editions of Tas Country have highlighted our concerns and the issues, and to date not only has then been an absence of rebuttal, but our office has been inundated by correspondence from the rural sector supporting the need for action on this important issue to our rural communities.

All Tasmanian industry, not just farming, is impacted by the cost of doing basic business across Bass Strait. We are fortunate that independent Senator for Tasmania Tammy Tyrrell has taken up the cudgel for much needed reform to the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme which tries to keep Tasmania on the same competitive footing as mainland Australia and we look forward to the outcomes. 

Read more: Primary Employers Tasmania, 21 October 2024 Newsletter

At a time when energy costs will be front of mind with all irrigating farmers as we are well into the irrigation season and pumps driven from mains electricity don’t run on fresh air. While all farmers would welcome new power generation for Tasmania in principle, farmers would be rightfully concerned about network charges reportedly already on the increase even before Marinus is a reality.

But things are also done very well. TasFarmers has been working extremely constructively with government departments such as State Roads and Biosecurity Tasmania, where before making decisions with massive impacts, these government agencies have contacted us to be better informed. This has resulted in much better outcomes for farmers and develops much stronger relationships with government and our members.

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These positive interactions have been made stronger through the good work of TasFarmers’ committee chairs where their direct links to the farming community ensure members’ voices are heard and listened to.

All difficult issues can be resolved by doing better, especially with early engagement, no matter how hard that might be. This applies to doing better in policy formation, doing better in timely consultation with agriculture and doing better in considering unintended consequences before acting. 

Read more: Tasmanian Livestock Health Report - September 2024

Unintended consequences are not unforeseen, and all TasFarmers asks is that before adding cost, before adding regulation and before adding compliance, those seeking to make the changes ask themselves: “what problem are we trying to solve, what are the impacts of these decisions, and who do we need to talk to”.

It isn’t hard to do better – it’s all we ask.