Rushy Lagoon sale fully finalised as select committee seeks public submissions

TasFarmers CEO Nathan Calman says that the sale of Rushy Lagoon has been fully finalised, as the Select Committee established to investigate the purchase asks for public input.

Last month, a push from the Liberals to establish an inquiry into Rushy Lagoon passed Tasmanian Parliament.

The sale of the 22,000-hectare property in north-east Tasmania - Tasmania's biggest farm - has been the source of significant controversy over its $69 million Federal Government back sale to a foreign corporation planning to convert a large part of the farm to pine plantation, generating carbon credits.

The firm behind the purchase also received an $8.8 million pine plantation grant.

The House of Assembly Select Committee on Commonwealth Decisions on Agricultural Land is seeking public submissions on the matter of the Rushy Lagoon sale.

Liberal Member for Bass and Committee Chair Michael Ferguson urged “absolutely everyone with relevant information or views to make a submission and ensure their voice is heard”.

“At Rushy Lagoon, $78 million in taxpayer-backed Commonwealth finance has enabled the purchase of a major working agricultural property by a foreign-managed investment vehicle, with thousands of hectares proposed for conversion to plantation,” Mr Ferguson said.

“There are very legitimate unanswered questions about how Commonwealth funding, incentives and approval processes favoured that particular outcome and what it will mean for other productive agricultural land across Tasmania.

“This Select Committee Inquiry provides a vital opportunity for farmers, regional communities, industry and other interested Tasmanians to put their evidence and experiences directly before the Parliament, noting that a proposed Senate inquiry was voted down by Labor and the Greens.”

Submission to the Committee close on October 9.

“I want the inquiry to establish exactly what role Commonwealth funding, incentives and approval processes played, identify the consequences for productive agricultural land and recommend any practical reforms.

“Most importantly, I want Tasmania’s regional communities to have a stronger voice in decisions that affect their future.

“Rushy Lagoon is the case study, but the inquiry is also about the bigger question: whether Federal Government policies and taxpayer-backed incentives are inappropriately changing the economics of agricultural land use in ways that negatively affect Tasmania’s primary industries.”

Mr Calman said he was told that the sale of Rushy Lagoon had been fully finalised.

‘We’ve been told that trees on the farm won’t start being planted until April next year probably,” he said.

“Nothing we did unfortunately stopped that going through.

“Our focus is on what comes next out of the inquiry.”