1. Copyright John Hine and Associates Pty Ltd 2015, www.developqld.net.au. Page 1
JOHN HINE AND ASSOCIATES PTY LTD
www.developqld.net.au
A NEW APPROACH TO VEGETATION MANAGEMENT
18 December 2015
This was prepared regarding plans by the Qld Government for a review of vegetation management legislation.
Key points are:
 The legislationof the formerALPQldGovernmentwaswronginthat itseemedtoban all clearingandnotlinkto
methodsof landmanagementthatgave real landprotectionwhileallowingstrongagricultural production. This
scenarioisneitherenvironmentallyoreconomicallysustainable. Norpoliticallysustainable.
 The reactionto the Beattie legislation wasthe legislationof the NewmanLNPGovernment,whichgave too
much freedomtofarmersandwasnot basedon internationalenvironmentstandards,asstatedbyformer(LNP)
MinisterCrippswhenaskedata function.
 There isnow an opportunitytolockinvegetationmanagementlegislationbasedoninternational standardsand
the bestavailable science thatwillallow higherlevelsof agricultural productionaswell assoundenvironmental
management,includingbetterdroughtmanagement.
Two trends are converging that make the above achievable. These two trends are;
 Significantadvancesin‘precisionagriculture’and‘precisiongrazing’byseveralresearchgroups,includingthe
CSIRO,Universityof NewEnglandandUniversityof SouthernQld. This science allows auditablescience based
landuse managementsystemstobe implementedthatgive betterlanduse management,lowerfarmcostsand
improvedfarmproduction. There are likelytobe significantlymore resultstocome fromthiswork,which
shouldbe builtintolegislation orregulations.
 A growingtrendbylarge purchasersof agricultural produce tobuy fromthose companieswhichcan
demonstrate soundenvironmentalpractice. Thisincludessuchschemesas;
o The Global Roundtable forSustainableBeef,initiatedby Macdonald’s butsupportedbylarge
agribusinessessuchasJBS,one of Australia’sbiggestabattoirgroups,see http://grsbeef.org/.
o The Global GAP program,initiatedbyEuropeansupermarkets,see http://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/.
o The Forestryand Marine Stewardshipprograms,see https://au.fsc.org/en,andhttps://www.msc.org/.
o The Best Practice Managementschemesdevelopedforthe beef andsugarindustriesfollowthistrend
and shouldbe supported. However,theyneedtobe continuallyupgradedasthe science develops.
Such schemesare betterthanregulations.
The advantages of such schemes are that;
 Theyare science basedandsoharder to challenge. Astheyare science based,variablescanbe measured.
 Meetcustomerrequirementssotheygive ourproducersanedge,ina worldwhere environmental sensitivity
and the provenance of foodare increasinglyimportant andourfarmersseekniche marketsforqualityproduce.
Tel: 07 3264 4568
Mob: 0432 027 744
Email: john@developqld.net.au
ABN: 67 157 769 901
74 Ballinger Crescent
Albany Creek Qld 4035

2. Copyright John Hine and Associates Pty Ltd 2015, www.developqld.net.au. Page 2
A key issue here is that more and more supply chains are the regulators, not government.
A challenge in implementing science based legislation is that many of the smaller farmers may not have the
skills and capital to implement science based environmental practices. A useful parallel approach would be to
encourage the formation of cooperatives, merged farms or other business models to give greater scale. In
addition, it would be useful to encourage the formation of farmer owned, incorporated, applied R&D and
extension companies broadly similar to the Birchip Cropping Group, see http://www.bcg.org.au/, that could
provide the extension staff to assist farmers with such environment management schemes.
There is now a unique opportunity to develop vegetation management legislation that gives a win-win approach
and that will be much harder to challenge by a conservative government that is bound to come to office at some
time in the future. Such win-win legislation will also be less likely to be opposed by farmers and farm groups.
Such legislation will also meet the needs of those agribusinesses which buy our farm produce.
Issues coming out of the Paris Climate Change Conference make this scientific approach more urgent. The
Global Landscapes Forum also held in Paris at the same time raised the issue of Natural Capital and the carbon
sequestration opportunities in savannah burning. An article in The Weekend Australian of 5-6 December
2015 has more detail. Mark Burrows, MD of global investment banking at Credit Suisse said that valuing
natural capital is the next very big thing and that investors are looking for investments that are socially
conscious. In addition, the National Australia Bank is beginning to factor natural capital into its lending
criteria. A Qld Government vegetation management scheme that builds such science into legislatio n will stand
our farmers in good stead in the future.