Primary Industries and Other Acts Amendment Bill
Posted by Administrator (admin) on May 01 2008
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Primary Industries and Other Acts Amendment Bill

Mr LAWLOR (Southport—ALP) (4.12 pm):

This proposal follows amendments made in 2007 to the Sugar Industry Act 1999 to remove the legislative obligation on Queensland Sugar Ltd to fund the office. This was no longer justifiable following the removal in 2005 of statutory vesting of the Queensland sugar crop and the widening of the sugar authority which had the
responsibility to oversight the statutory sugar vesting powers. Interim funding for the commissioner’s 2007-08 budget is being provided by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, with the costs shared jointly by the department, the Australian Sugar Milling Council and Canegrowers.

The commissioner’s current appointed term, which is on a part-time basis, expires on 30 June this year. The Sugar Industry Act 1999 prescribes responsibility for the Sugar Industry Commissioner for
two types of statutory access rights to facilitate the harvest and supply of cane to a mill—namely, cane railway easements and permits to pass over another person’s land. The government announced in April
2007 that a process was being undertaken to phase out the office of the commissioner. Subsequently, the Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries established the industry-government access rights
working group to consider longer term alternatives for the future administration of access rights.

As at 30 June 2007, the commissioner reported that there were 4,993 registered access rights, comprising 4,795 cane railway easements and 198 permits to pass. Further legislation was found to be
warranted for the administration of access rights. A major factor was the ability of the cane railway system to transport a major part of Queensland’s annual cane crush independent of state road and rail
infrastructure. All but three of Queensland’s 22 sugar mills operate cane railway systems. The Australian Sugar Milling Council has noted that there are in excess of 4,000 kilometres of track transporting cane during an annual crushing season of up to 26 weeks. In the 2006 crushing season, approximately 29 million tonnes, or 90 per cent, of cane harvested was transported directly to raw sugar mills on these mill owned cane railways. The tonnage of cane transported on the cane railway network is equivalent to keeping thousands of truck movements per day off the coastal road network during the
crushing season.

No other agricultural industry makes a similar contribution in reducing road traffic through the use of private transport infrastructure such as cane railways. The amendments in the bill
recognise this situation and the fact that the normal process rights could continue to be afforded to an affected landholder. These rights included notice, objections, hearings and appeals, and compensation payable by the applicant to the landholder.
The working group has proposed, and the government has supported, the amendments to provide for the legislated future administration of access rights after the dissolution of the Office of the Sugar Industry Commissioner.

The amendments to the Sugar Industry Act 1999, the Land Act 1994 and the Land Title Act 1994 will dissolve the office of the commissioner on 1 July 2008 and provide for the
Land Court to assume jurisdiction for applications regarding non-consent sugar access rights matters, to preserve current sugar access rights and provide for future sugar access rights, to provide that future sugar access rights are recorded on land tiles and to allow cane railway easements to be registered as easements on titles, and to deal with spent and expiring transitional provisions and relevant consequential amendments that flow from the dissolution of the commissioner’s office. The bill will assist the industry to maintain the efficiency of the cane railway system in a cost-effective manner and assist with the operational efficiency and longer term competitiveness of the industry. I support the bill.

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