The strongest protections for the State\u2019s farmers and farming families will be enshrined in law after the NSW Liberals & Nationals today passed the historic Right to Farm Bill through State Parliament.
\nDeputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro and Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall today announced that the historic Right to Farm Bill had passed both houses.
\n\u201cRegional NSW is experiencing extremely trying times \u2013 suffering through this devastating drought and battling ferocious bushfires \u2013 the absolute last thing our farmers need is the threat of trespassers and expensive legal disputes,\u201d Mr Barilaro said.
\nMr Marshall said he was delighted the Bill has passed both houses, despite Labor refusing to support the Bill at any stage.
\n\u201cThis is an historic day for our State\u2019s farmers, introducing the toughest penalties in the nation for farm trespass and providing farmers with a nuisance shield to protect them from unnecessary and costly legal disputes,\u201d Mr Marshall said.
\n\u201cWe are the first jurisdiction in Australia to enshrine in law a farmers\u2019 right to farm their land and have rigorous protection from the threat of illegal farm incursions.
\n\u201cIf a farmer is undertaking lawful agricultural activities, they will have the full protection of the law in NSW against farm invasions, intimidation and interference in their farming operations.\u201d
\nUnder the Bill, penalties for aggravated farm trespass will increase from fines of up to $5,500, to three years jail time and up to $22,000 in fines.
\n\u201cFarmers are under siege across our State \u2013 they are battling drought and fires right now. They do not have the time and do not deserve to also be faced with a battle against illegal trespassers driven by lunatic ideology,\u201d Mr Marshall said.
\n\u201cFarmers have waited for years for legislated protections \u2013 and I am proud to be the Minister for Agriculture that has worked with our stakeholders, including NSW Farmers and the cross-bench, to finally deliver the protections they deserve.
\n\u201cToday, Labor again refused to vote for the Bill at the final step and voted against it in the Lower and Upper House.
\n\u201cNot only is this letting our farmers down at a time when they need their parliamentarians to have their back most, it\u2019s clear that Labor have no policy and no direction. They quite literally appear to have no idea what they stand for when it comes to agriculture.
\n\u201cBy not voting for the Right to Farm Bill, Labor has shown where its true loyalties lie, with law-breaking activists \u2013 not hard-working farming families battling drought.
\n\u201cTheir refusal to support the Bill is an act of treachery against country NSW and for that they stand rightly condemned.\u201d
\nThe Right to Farm Bill delivers on a key election commitment by the NSW Nationals in Government.
\nThe new penalties will be in force in by 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The strongest protections for the State\u2019s farmers and farming families will be enshrined in law after the NSW Liberals & Nationals today passed the historic Right to Farm Bill through State Parliament. Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro and Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall today announced that the historic Right to Farm … Continue reading “HISTORIC RIGHT TO FARM ENSHRINED IN LAW”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}