Changing Agriculture's Approach to the Environment

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The Australian Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced the formation of an Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group on 1st March 2005.  This group invited submissions to help it guide development of future directions in "Australian government policies and programs affecting the agriculture and food sector".  The group will develop broad recommendations to improve the profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of the Australian agriculture and food sector. 

Following is my submission to this Group made on behalf of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Abstract

In this submission I outline the case for implementation of the following recommendations by the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group:

1.1  That basic data on the state of Australia’s natural resources, including information on
changes in vegetation cover (not just numbers of trees cleared), water quality and
numbers of endangered species, be publicly available on the Internet. That this information
be in the form of measured statistics, rather than modelled forecasts.

1.2  That an evaluation be undertaken of the processes of environmental law and policy
formulation in Australia—including a legal, scientific and economic investigation—
with the following aims:
• Examination of the theoretical and philosophical premises on which environmental
law and policy in Australia are founded.
• Examination of the processes of environmental law and policy formulation to assess
whether they are informed by the best scientific knowledge available.
• Examination of the processes of environmental law and policy formulation to assess
the extent to which they admit local knowledge and know-how.
• Examination of the extent to which environmental decision-making takes account of
the costs and benefits of proposed measures.
• Assessment of the impact of current environmental policy and law on civil liberties
and constitutional government, including substantive and procedural due process and
the principle of compensation for property-taking.
• Identification of novel ways of conservation through the use of incentives and market
processes.
• Development of proposals for legal and administrative reform in the area of environmental
law.

1.3  That consideration be given to mechanisms for supporting diversification and competition
within the Australian environment movement.

1.4  That open debate and discussion on environmental issues which affect agriculture be
supported, including the use of the Internet-based, university-supported National Forum.
This could include:
• Sponsorship of a feature on agriculture consisting of a series of opinion articles and
debates with topics to include GM food crops, broad-scale tree clearing and animal
rights campaigning.
• Sponsorship of qualitative research by the National Forum, which could be done in
conjunction with the debates, to assess community attitudes.

Download the Full Submission  136 Kbs

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