11th Sep 2019, 3:52 PM – Senate Motions - New South Wales - Land clearing amnesty

The majority voted against a motion introduced by NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the New South Wales Liberal-National Government has granted amnesty to hundreds of farmers who cleared land illegally before the disastrous new land clearing laws came into effect; figures show land clearing rates more than doubled in the year prior to the introduction of new laws and tripled in the year after,

(ii) the decision comes after big cotton farms used their influence on the NSW Minister for Energy and Environment and the Minister for Agriculture to lobby for prosecutions to be dropped,

(iii) the decision contradicts earlier assurances given by the NSW Government,

(iv) the community is deeply opposed to the decision, and

(v) large-scale land clearing has turned Australia into a global deforestation hotspot and is exacerbating the climate emergency;

(b) condemns the NSW Government for their decision to grant amnesty to farmers who cleared land illegally; and

(c) calls on the NSW Government to reverse this decision.