Victorian election 2022: What a Labor win means for farmers

Another four years of Labor means farmers must battle to be heard. See the key issues and how you will be affected.

Farmers want Labor to invest in rural Victoria, not just undertake big builds in Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews is on the cusp of gaining a third term in government, marking the beginning of the end for the native forest timber industry, more transmission lines being built across rural properties and a huge surge in wind and solar energy projects.

Labor is on track to win at least 45 seats, the majority it needs to form government.

But farmers and rural communities continue to be frustrated by the lack of Labor funding to rebuild their roads and flood-ravaged towns, plus the lack of focus on agriculture.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said the Premier needed to remember he was governing for all Victorians.

“Regional Victorians don’t want to see more level-crossing removals in Melbourne, while they drive over crumbling rural roads,” Ms Germano said.

“We hope the next time the Premier enjoys some great Victorian produce, he remembers where it comes from.”

ROADS

Labor has promised to spend just $165 million in extra funding to repair flood-damaged roads.

Budget papers show total road asset management funding across suburban and regional areas has been cut from a Covid-stimulus high of $822.5m in 2020-21 to $605m in 2021-22, before being wound back to $592.7m in 2022-23. No allocations have been made beyond this financial year.

Department of Transport reports show resurfacing and rehabilitation was cut from 14,000,000 m2 of road pavements in regional Victoria in 2020-21, to 11,400,000 m2 in 2021-22.

Despite forecasts of a wet year, DoT reports also show that while 7000 culverts and roadside drainage pits were cleaned out in 2020-21, just 4000 were done in 2021-22.

RIVERSIDE CAMPING

The public will have to cross Stuart Crosthwaite’s property to access three camp sites DELWP has created on the Kiewa River bank adjoining his property.

Labor has opened up almost 120 river banks adjoining farmers land to public camping, where there are no toilets and camp fires can be lit. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning bureaucrats are planning to assess and list even more sites.

Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio failed to deliver on her promise to establish a register of riverside campers, so they can be identified, regulated and prosecuted for cutting down riverside vegetation, escaped fires, rubbish or damage to neighbouring farms and livestock.

Farmers fear they will be left to police campers themselves.

MURRAY BASIN RAIL PROJECT

The Murray Basin rail project has been left half built.

The Andrews government left the project half-built after running out of money in 2019, with a mix of standard and broad gauge lines.

Trains travelling down northwest Victoria’s standard gauge network must now divert from Maryborough to Ararat, adding 248km to a return trip to Geelong.

Ouyen Inc volunteers recently enlisted Mildura independent Ali Cupper to lodge a plan to complete the original project’s Ballarat-Geelong corridor with the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, which estimated it would cost $115.1 million.

But Labor Transport Minister Jacinta Allan has ignored the call.

TIMBER HARVESTING

Victorian sawmill workers face a bleak future as coupes are locked up by legal action and the Andrews Government promises to phase out native forest harvesting.

Labor plans tophase out native forest logging, from 2024-25 to its full cessation by 2030.

BRUMBY CULLS

Dean Marsland used trajectory rods to show how a stallion and three mares were shot from above, by what locals say were Victorian government contractors in August 2022.

In June Parks Victoria confirmed it intends to eradicate all 500 brumbies in the Barmah State Forest and would begin ground shooting another 5000 in the Alpine National Park.

Parks Victoria demands contract shooters must use silencers and operate covertly, due to what it called the “significant risk posed by feral horse activists”.

Tender documents also state that while shooters can take out pigs, deer and goats, it is feral horses that are the “primary target”.

ANIMAL WELFARE

Labor will introduce new animal welfare laws, which if breached could lead to penalties of up to $22,717.

Labor plans to introduce a new animal welfare Act in 2023, founded on the principle of animal sentience – the capacity to feel fear, stress and other emotions.

New regulations drafted under the act will set new standards of care outlining how humans must positively interact with animals “to minimise anxiety, fear, pain or distress”.

A person who fails to comply with the new standards would face penalties of up to $22,717 or up to six months imprisonment.

Farmers and hunters fear the new act will lead to a new wave of animal activist litigation against them.

A copy of Labor’s plan can be found HERE.

COUNCIL RATES

The fair go rates cap has failed farmers, who are shouldering an ever greater share of the rural rate burden. What’s the solution?

Labor established the fair go rates cap, but it is averaged across the whole rating pool, giving councils the ability to lift annual farm rates by 10 to 20 per cent in some years.

Farmers have asked for relief, in the form of a standard rate in the dollar applied across the whole state, category based caps and averaging farm valuations to smooth out the impact of soaring property prices.

The Andrews government has ignored these calls.

WATER BUYOUTS

Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek is about to wade into water markets to asset strip irrigation communities. Will the next Victorian Government stop her?

Victorian and NSW peak irrigator groups are opposed to any more Federal Government buyouts of their communities’ water.

Labor’s Water Minister Harriet Shing said “Victoria has delivered all its Basin Plan obligations to date, including Bridging the Gap water recovery – the federal budget commitment is targeted at other jurisdictions who have not yet met these targets and will not include water recovery in Victoria”.

PLANNING – extinguish the 40ha dwelling right

Landholder rights to build a house without a planning permit on 40ha or more in farming zones is under threat within 100km of Melbourne.

Labor’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land project proposed extinguishing landholder rights to build a house without a planning permit on 40ha or more in farming zones.

When asked whether the Andrews government would carry through with the proposal in October this year, Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn said the GWAL’s “recommended actions and responses following the consultation on the project are still under consideration”.

TRANSMISSION LINES

Farmers are up in arms over plans to swing 500 kilovolt double-circuit overhead transmission lines between 60m towers to fee power into Melbourne from six regional renewable energy zones.

Farmers are demanding a share of the $190 million in easement taxes AusNet pays the Victorian Government each year, to offset the impact of a new web of high-voltage transmission lines being slung across their properties — scarring the skyline and slashing land values.

The NSW Government has already introduced such a scheme, where landholders receive $200,000 per kilometre of new transmission lines that are built across their properties, paid out in annual instalments over 20 years. The payments are on top of the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act payments landholders already receive to cover the market value of the land under easements, losses due to severance and disturbance, plus other reasonable costs and expenses.

Labor plans to cut Victoria’s greeenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2035, which will require major investments in renewable projects.

The Premier has aslo committed $1 billion to revive the SEC, which will invest alongside the private sector in renewables.

ANIMAL ACTIVIST INVASIONS

Animal activists take goats from the Gippy Goat Cafe in 2018, which led to a parliamentary inquiry and introduction of on the spot fines for farm invasions.

Under a Labor government, animal activists who invade farms and breach biosecurity plans face on-the-spot fines of just $1272.

CFA

The CFA must second all its 229 assistant chiefs, commanders and instructors from the union-controlled Fire Rescue Victoria service.

Under a Labor government, the CFA must second all chiefs, commanders and instructors from the FRV.

MOBILE BLACKSPOT FUNDING

5G communications tower with man using mobile phone

Labor’s $230m Connecting Victoria Mobile Program is being rolled out under a tender that lists 97 “locations of strategic interest to the Victorian Government”, 76 of which are in Melbourne.