AgForce is urging the Federal Parliament to reject proposed changes to federal environmental laws that have emerged from negotiations with the Greens as Labor steps up pressure to pass amendments by the end of this week.
Queensland's peak representative body for rural producers is warning that the deal as it stands would lock up productive land, constrain producers' ability to care for their country, punish farmers participating in carbon projects, and ultimately drive up food prices for Australian families. And all with no consultation with Australian farmers or the broader agricultural industry.
AgForce General President Shane McCarthy said they are gravely concerned about a proposed 15 year limit on "continuing use", resulting from negotiations on the Environmental Protection Reform Bill 2025 and its six adjoining bills.
"At the heart of this debate is a little-understood concept known as 'continuing use'. For 25 years, this provision has recognised that agriculture operates in cycles - grazing, rest, pasture renovation, regrowth management, cropping rotations, fallowing and recovery," Mr McCarthy said.
"These are not new impacts but ongoing, lawful land use that is essential for food and fibre production.
"That 'continuing use' enables scientifically proven land management practices that allow Australian farmers to keep producing the food and fibre our communities rely on."
However the Federal Government's proposal would allow land that has been legally and sustainably managed for generations to be reclassified after 15 years, regardless of rainfall, growth rates, drought cycles or landscape type - effectively removing a producer's ability to return that land to productive use.
Mr McCarthy said Australians understand the reality of extreme weather, but few realise how much routine vegetation management that farmers undertake underpins safety, biodiversity and productive landscapes.
"People see the flames on the news every summer," Mr McCarthy said. "But what they don't see is that unmanaged land becomes fuel. If farmers can't rotate stock or manage regrowth because Canberra sets a countdown clock, it's not just bad policy - it's dangerous for every community that lives near that land.
"The point is not to dramatise fire - it is to underscore that good land management delivers safer, more biodiverse and more resilient landscapes."
Yet the Government's reform package draws rigid lines around what land can or cannot be used for, without recognising existing stewardship practices, integrated carbon-and-biodiversity systems, or other models that reward better outcomes.
"As long as governments pit agriculture against the environment instead of treating them as partners, policy will fail," he said. "The 15-year rule removes the flexibility needed to deliver both environmental and agricultural goals."
More than half of Australia's land mass is agricultural. A blunt national rule that restricts land use will inevitably shrink the nation's productive capacity.
"Why does there seem to be such a desperate need to get this through before Christmas? Such important legislation we need to get right - so that agriculture can continue to do what we do best. Rushed legislation is bad legislation."
"If Canberra ties farmers' hands, the whole country will feel it at the checkout," he said. "Food doesn't grow in a committee room - it grows on land that must be managed.
"Landholders are the ones who look after the land on a day to day basis not the Greens in their inner city suburbs."
"You cannot restrict land management and expect food production to remain stable. Someone pays - and it's always the consumer."
AgForce's message is clear - Australia needs strong environmental laws - but they must be scientific, practical, and regionally informed, not a blanket timeline that punishes the very people who feed the nation and manage the land.
Minister Watt must not strike a deal that locks up farmland by accident. The Greens-backed proposal will not protect the environment - it will damage it, and the communities who care for most of the continent.
