NSW Greens to move bill to let councils better regulate berry industry as it continues rapid expansion | New South Wales politics

Cate Faehrmann, the Greens member of the New South Wales legislative council, will introduce a private member’s bill next week to give councils more powers to regulate blueberry and other fruit farms, which have expanded along the mid-north coast and caused serious friction with other landowners.

Separately, the state Labor government is considering an investigation into the alleged allegations. Labor exploitation in the region Most states regulate labor hire companies that act as intermediaries between farmers and seasonal workers, but there is no such regulation in NSW.

Guardian Australia reported allegations of underpayment, poor living conditions and exploitation, particularly of workers who arrived on the Pacific Australia Worker Mobility (Palm) scheme but left their employers; Often these claims a result of worker exploitation.

Faehrmann’s bill aims to address the environmental impacts of intensive fruit growing.

“People move to these beautiful valleys for the lifestyle and the environment, but then one day they wake up and within a few months they’re looking at an industrial-scale blueberry farm,” he said.

“Belief that you can erect hectares of poles is begging [and] You put up white nets without telling your neighbors or getting council approval, but people have to apply to have a car park installed.

Faehrmann said there had been a “deliberately huge cut” from “incomprehensible” planning laws for the fruit industry. He called on Labor to fix problems he attributed to the previous National party’s influence on policy.

Faehrmann’s bill would call for mandatory buffers between intensive horticulture farms and homes and waterways, as well as strict controls on spraying, runoff and irrigation, and increased monitoring of crops for pesticides.

He also wants councils to be given more power to regulate blueberry farms, following the Coffs Harbor council’s loss in the NSW land and environment tribunal last week.

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The council had brought a case against two Bonville raspberry farmers challenging a stop work order the council had imposed on their raspberry farms.

The council said polytunnels under construction required development consent. Built with metal pipes and hoops to create tunnels up to 2.5 meters high and 60 meters long, the tunnels were farm buildings covered by the local environmental plan (LEP) and required approval. The tunnels covered 4 hectares.

Farmers said they were part of “intensive horticulture” which did not require a development application under the Coffs Harbor LEP.

The court upheld the farmers’ case and held that these were not farm buildings because they could be dismantled and stored when not in use.

“There are no legal preconditions for the decision,” the court said. “If there was a desire for polytunnels and the like to be subject to development consent, the appropriate course would be to make intensive crop farming a permitted use subject to development consent.”

Rachel Mackenzie, managing director of Berries Australia, told Guardian Australia in October that the proposal for DAs was not supported by the planning department or state government, which “confirms the industry’s position”.

In Scotts Head, people are concerned about the new blueberry farms’ proximity to waterways and South Beach national park. Blueberry farming is rapidly spreading beyond Coffs Harbor, where it began decades ago, south to the Nambucca Valley and Kempsey region, and west to Grafton and Bellingen.

“I’ve been in this area for a while, and it’s devastating when blueberry farms come in,” local photographer Zahn Pithers said.

“It devalues ​​the land because no one wants to live next to a blueberry farm except for another blueberry farm.

“We’re losing farm families that have been here for generations. Blueberry investors come in and underestimate them because they know there won’t be any other buyers when there’s a blueberry farm next door.”

Pithers is particularly concerned about the proximity of Warrell Creek, South Beach national park and a very large blueberry farm next to the beach.

“People from Nambucca are fishing here and eating the crabs in the stream. Where does the fallout go? What happens to the stream? This farm is built on sand,” he said.

Pithers has asked the EPA to investigate, but there is no result yet. Previous monitoring by the EPA in the Nambucca Valley had detected low levels of three different pesticides in three streams; This showed that the water quality in the region was not affected by excessive amounts of pesticides.

In November 2024, Nambucca Valley council asked the NSW planning department to add a requirement for blueberry farms to obtain development approval as part of the LEP. The planning department rejected that requirement, saying it was not supported by sufficient evidence.

currently council I’m working on the second proposal He works for the planning department but disagrees that issues such as buffer zones should be left to self-regulation rather than being mandated.

Paul Scully, the state secretary for planning, said it was open to councils to seek changes to their LEPs so they could request horticulture providers to get development approval.

The current LEP standard developed by the state government says that intensive farming in RU1 primary production and RU4 primary production small batch zones should be allowed without development consent. However, councils may choose to regulate the RU2 rural landscape zone.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but mandating mandatory development practices in all rural areas would hinder efforts to reduce regulatory burdens and promote modern farming practices across NSW,” Scully said.

“Overly restrictive local planning controls can delay or prevent necessary farm improvements, deter investment and create uncertainty for landowners looking to modernize their operations.”