Primary Producers, Nuisance Laws

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (15:45): I rise today because we are at a crossroads, a moment in time where our primary producers, the very people who feed and clothe us in this state, are telling me they cannot take much more. For years now they have been stepped on, they have been burdened with rule after rule, they have been smothered in red tape, facing higher and higher input costs, whilst receiving prices dictated by a supermarket duopoly. They have weathered droughts, floods, bushfires and biosecurity scares; however, more than anything, they have weathered governments that make their lives harder instead of easier.

Now, somehow, farming itself risks being treated as a nuisance. Farming is not a nuisance. Farming is survival, farming is food security and farming is dignity, and in South Australia our farmers do what few others on earth can do: they produce world-class food in the driest state in the driest continent. They farm ancient, low fertility soils; they farm with some of the highest water costs in the country; and they farm in a climate that tests them every single day.

Yet it is not the climate or the weather keeping them awake at night. It is us. It is government. It is the unpredictability of policy and the constant fear that a new rule, a new cost, a new regulatory burden will be the straw that breaks their business. A recent survey shows that nearly half of fresh produce growers are thinking about walking away—half—not because they cannot grow food but because they cannot survive the compliance, the regulation, the constant pressure from markets and government alike.

Considering that only 4 per cent of Australia's land is arable, and when the world needs more food than ever, we should be strengthening agriculture, not weakening it. Yet with urban sprawl creeping further into primary production zones farmers are now being told that normal sounds, smells and realities of farming might be considered a nuisance. People move to the edge of a paddock and complain about tractors. They move next to a vineyard and complain about spray drift. They move beside a livestock property and complain about odour. And instead of government standing firm and saying, 'This is farming. This is how food is grown,' we are allowing farmers to be exposed to trivial, vexatious or ill-informed complaints, complaints that could jeopardise livelihoods.

As Anthony Kelly wrote in the Stock Journal of 20 November, there is an extremely low threshold in the act for something to be classified as a nuisance. A farmer legally using machinery, something as simple as noise at dawn, could suddenly find themselves the target of a complaint from someone sitting on a verandah who does not like hearing the sound of feeding a nation. This is not fairness, this is not balance and this is not how a state that depends on agriculture should behave.

Mining is exempt because of its importance to the state, yet farming, the industry that feeds us, is left exposed. Why, on what logic and on what moral basis are the questions I ask. Farmers do not want carte blanche, they do not want to harm or inconvenience neighbours and they do not want to ignore genuine issues. They simply want certainty. They want protection from frivolous complaints, and they want to be allowed to do the job that every single person in this chamber relies upon.

I do not think this is unreasonable. I think this is basic respect. While my attempt to exclude primary production from the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act was not successful, I take some comfort from the Attorney-General's acknowledgement that the minister will consider these issues when drafting regulations. But let me be clear: farmers cannot wait forever. Every season matters and every regulation matters. Every uncertainty costs them sleep, costs them money and sometimes the next generation's willingness to stay on the land.

I have been overwhelmed by messages from primary producers thanking me for fighting this fight, farmers who have felt unheard, undervalued and misunderstood. They do not want special treatment, they want a fair go, they want clarity and they want a government that remembers where their food comes from. We are at a crossroads: we can choose to support the people who keep this state alive or we can keep piling pressure onto them until the industry breaks. We will always stand with our farmers. I will always stand with our farmers and I will always fight for their certainty, their dignity and their right to farm without being labelled a nuisance for feeding this nation.