New farm group sets priorities

Convenor and chair Andrew Weidemann said the AVA primarily sought to ensure the formal protection of farming land and the food and fibre it delivered to the state, the nation and the global economy.

“We are a coalition of community groups from across the state which has come together over a shared concern about the complete lack of whole of government policy making in Victoria,” he said.

The six policies the alliance wants to see governments deliver are:

“Our inaugural conference has recognised the huge threat that a range of large-scale projects — wind turbines, transmission lines, battery energy storage, mineral sands mines — pose to Victoria’s food production,” Mr Weidemann said.

“Many of these projects are being installed on, or proposed for, prime agricultural land.

“Whatever issues our state may face, be they energy challenges or critical resources required for supply chains and our modern life, the answer is not destroying prime agricultural land.

“If we continue in the direction the Allan Government is heading, farmers, agriculture and food supply chain companies, and the agriculture department and its minister, will soon be obsolete.

“The importance of food production land must be recognised, and no-one should have the right to enter a farm without the farmer’s permission, particularly with the biosecurity threat this poses.

“We seek a planning system which is transparent and does not allow large-scale industrial projects to go ahead without proper scrutiny.

“It is ludicrous to think that a huge wind turbine can be built without the planning scrutiny that a home owner would face for adding a small home office.