Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Hodgman majority Liberal Government has released a new Charter for Working on Private Farm Land that enhances relations between farmers and state utilities and guides access to private farms.
The Charter sets out what needs to be observed or actioned before undertaking work on private farms, such as notification of access, communication and observation of biosecurity controls and landowner requests.
This complements the Living Next Door to a Farmer campaign, released earlier this year, that supports good neighbourly relations, especially where farmland adjoins existing or new urban areas.
The Charter has been developed collaboratively by the Tasmanian Government, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Aurora Energy, TasNetworks, TasWater and Tasmanian Irrigation.
These businesses need to access private farm land to carry out routine maintenance work and to perform regulatory obligations such as reading meters.
The Charter spells out what’s expected on-farm and establishes principles for co-operation and mutual recognition.
A key plank of our comprehensive AgriFood Plan and target to grow the farm gate value of agriculture to $10 billion per annum by 2050, is to help farmers be competitive and provide them with the certainty and confidence to get on with the business of farming.
