27/05/2026
📰 The Examiner
'We are not environmental vandals': farmers fed up with 'bureaucratic' red tape
Owen Sinclair
Published 27 May 2026, 04:00 pm
Farmers have demanded an overhaul of land clearing laws as one family approaches their final day to pay a $100,000 fine for unauthorised clearing.
The Fergusson family was earlier this month fined $100,000 after a successful prosecution by the Forest Practices Authority for unauthorised clearing and conversion of a threatened native vegetation community on their East Coast farm.
The decision has sparked fury in the farming community over what some see as government encroaching on farmers’ rights and a lack of clarity over the rules for land clearing.
This week, a consortium of farmers is expected to visit parliament where Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Carlo Di Falco will raise the issue as matter of public importance.
Farmer Melissa Fergusson said she thought it was a healthy development for Tasmania that light was being shone on the issue.
“We are not environmental vandals,” she said.
“We have a huge environmental program on our farm.”
She said she wasn’t sure what would happen next, but hoped people would support a parliamentary petition by fellow farmer, Lindsay White, which demands the government review Tasmania’s vegetation clearing and land management enforcement framework.
The petition has received widespread support including from One Nation’s Lee Hanson.
Mr White said Tasmanian farmers are sick of being treated like criminals for working their own land.
“We cannot keep piling on rules, compliance and punishment while expecting family farms to survive,” he said.
Landowners are required to obtain a forest practices plan (FPP) if they want to clear vegetation on private land. The FPPs come with a fee, based on the complexity of the application. In some cases, landowners can be exempt from needing an FPP.
But the process of applying for exemptions and their attached conditions have been criticised for being overly bureaucratic and convoluted.
TasFarmers president Nathan Cox said farmers understood there were environmental considerations to be taken into account, but the process was complicated and expensive.
“The system needs to be clearer. Farmers need more options, with less bureaucracy and less cost,” he said.
Mr Cox said the whole system is being run by a government authority that is incentivised to prosecute farmers rather than work with them.
Mr Di Falco said farmers were telling him that the system has lost balance.
“They respect the environment because their livelihoods depend on it, but they are tired of being lectured by people who have never had to make a living off the land,” he said.
Minister for Business, Industry and Resources Felix Ellis said in parliament last week there had been significant new resources made available so that communities can understand the complex nature of these ecosystems and what might be required if they go down the path of forest clearing.
“We encourage anyone that’s undergoing land clearing and other such activities to work closely with the FPA,” he said.
Carlo Di Falco MP
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A decision to fine a family for unauthorised clearing has sparked fury from farmers.
