Where is the perspective of the farmer in your coverage of the Native Vegetation Amendment Bill 2014?
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We are told that the existing law needs to be made stronger to end
“illegal clearing”.
Is your message that farmers are unfit to understand and manage the land that they own, live and work on?
The present Act has pitted the Department of the Environment and its officers against landowners in an adversarial relationship, casting the farmers as environmental vandals.
It is time to remove the draconian elements of this Act, not make it worse.
It is time too that environmentalists and ecologists recognise the custodial nature of the relationship a farmer has with his land.
No farmer seeks to degrade his property. He has invested large sums of money into it, long, arduous hours of work and great love.
Farmers need to be allowed to look after their land with the understanding and sensitivity to its needs that have been learned by close observation and direct experience.
Christine Hall
Cherry Tree Hill