Continued wet conditions in some agricultural areas have brought forward concerns about the types of chemicals being used in spraying operations and how they are impacting communities and the environment.
The NSW Farmers Association has called on farmers to be extra careful during spray operations, noting that spray drift had caused significant damage during the 2022-23 season, and have further called on property owners to report spray drift incidents to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) despite concerns from the community that the EPA don’t have the resources and powers to regulate spray drift incidents.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Agriculture Sue Higginson said “Irresponsible practices when conducting spraying operations while in desperate need of addressing is really just one part of the issue when it comes to the landscape wide impacts caused by harmful chemical sprays. If we are serious about the impacts of spray drift on human and environmental health and long term agricultural productivity we need to take a harder look and approach,”
“There are 12 agricultural chemicals in use in Australia today that have been banned in most other countries due to their known harmful impacts on people and the environment. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) is really asleep at the wheel and must act to ensure that these chemicals are no longer available for use in Australia,”
“Government documents I obtained under parliamentary order in 2022show that the community has been contacting the EPA since at least 2020 with concerns about the reckless use of chemicals that have resulted in spray drift impacting neighbouring properties, townships and sensitive receivers like schools,”
“Residents have reported mass de-foliations of remnant native vegetation to the EPA as well as specific vegetation dieback across the landscape and on their properties, but the EPA have taken days or weeks to respond and have essentially told residents that there is nothing they can do,”
“After much pressure the EPA has recently implemented a regulatory program including active monitoring of spray drift which a step in the right direction, but communities and the environments of agricultural districts are still being subjected to a suite of incredibly damaging chemicals in what is essentially a self-regulating industry,”
“It is telling that the day after Youtube political commentator Jordan Shanks released a new videoabout the disastrous impact of pesticides in the landscape, the NSW Farmers Association have encouraged their members to take greater care when spraying, while this is welcomed its not going to fix the problems”
“The Minns Government needs to take action and clear up the mess left by the Nationals, where rogue operators are acting irresponsibly and with apparent impunity from any compliance activities and its high time to look deeply at the regulatory settings, because they’re not right” Ms Higginson said.
Comments from Bruce Maynard (Regenerative Farmer and Convener of the Community Overspray Groups)
“The NSW EPA and other government agencies have deliberately obscured the extent, seriousness and increasing repetition of synthetic chemical exposures across NSW. This has been confirmed with the release of over 4000 pages of internal EPA documents that MLC Sue Higginson obtained via a NSW Upper House information request.”
“The documents show repeated and consistent refusal to assess native vegetation defoliation damage notifications across the state. The documents show collaborative action when specific commercial crops such as Cotton are affected but repeated refusals at all levels to adequately respond to environmental and human health notifications made to the EPA.”
