compensation amounts, nor did it support the government’s response, which failed to reflect the full extent of impacts experienced by affected landholders. Mr. Guerin said an evidence-based approach was needed to properly account for the costs associated with a small-scale title claim on their farm, to ensure farmers were not left carrying an unfair burden. “Real-world losses extend well beyond the immediate surface disturbance and include increased biosecurity risks and ongoing management costs, defensive spending, livestock disruption, and significant impacts on labour and farm management,” Mr. Guerin said. “Landholders have told us they can lose us up to a one-kilometre radius around the actual title site as the livestock behaviour is disturbed on the adjacent land, which can also impact animal health, and access to watering points. “We’ve calculated a compensation rate of approximately $1500 per claim that more accurately reflects the true costs and losses incurred by farm businesses hosting opal mining activity. “If the government is unwilling to provide fair and equitable compensation, in lieu of compensable loss, then opal mining should be restricted to public land only, within designated reserves established specifically for that purpose. “Even the Independent Reviewer identified that less than 1.5 per cent of the available area is being used for opal mining, indicating there is a huge area of land potentially available for the continuation of activity within existing areas.This is contrary to the claim that there is a lack of land available and NSW Farmers does not support expansion of the current footprint to Opal Prospecting Area 4.“ “Most of us only own the top few metres of dirt, and the government can sell the rights underneath the surface to miners who then have the right to turn up, dig holes, disrupt your operation, and create a huge mess. “This is a massive impost on farmers who are doing their best to produce healthy plants and animals in a pretty harsh environment, and this pittance proposed by the government as ‘compensation’ is little more than an insult.” NSW Farmers did not support the outcome of an independent review that recommended tiny 6 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 08, ISSUE 02
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx