Agriculture is one of Tasmania’s great competitive strengths, and the Hodgman Liberal Government’s AgriVision 2050 Plan aims to achieve a tenfold increase in the value of Tasmania’s agricultural sector by 2050.
To help farmers get on with the business of farming, the Government has delivered on its election commitment to review the Primary Industries Activities Protection (PIAP) Act 1995.
The PIAP Act was introduced in 1995 to protect farmers from the potential of being sued by new, usually non-farming neighbours for alleged ‘acts of nuisance’ when carrying out their day-to-day tasks of running a farming business.
The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment received sixteen submissions to the Review, all of which were all taken into consideration.
As a result, the Government will introduce amendments to the PIAP Act to Parliament in the first half of this year to simplify and extend upon the ‘right to farm’ protection for primary producers.
The Review found that the complex drafting of the current Act is causing unnecessary confusion and was unclear as to whether farm forestry practices on private land, a common enterprise for many landowners, were protected under the Act.
Amendments will make it far clearer for farmers, and those who might seek to use frivolous or vexatious lawsuits to impede their operations, that responsible farmers have legislative protection to keep farming.
AgriGrowth Tasmania in the Department will also undertake a range of complementary activities to reduce the likelihood of land use conflict in rural areas through awareness raising and new information tools to prepare newcomers for the realities of rural life. The Government continues to work with our farmers so that they are best placed to respond to short and long term and challenges and grow jobs.
More Media Releases from Jeremy Rockliff
More Media Releases from the Minister for Primary Industries and Water