Peter

Thank your for your very moving article. It sent shivers down my spine. Brought back flooding memories of my Grandfather's farming days. Up and at it at 4am, seven days per week for a lifetime.

To the negative posters: let's cut off assistance to all farmers, let's get them to move to Sydney or Melbourne. Mmm, what country will we buy our meat, fruit and veges from? Mmm, yeah China would be a good option, with the soil fouled with human faeces. Sounds yummy eh?

I wish you and your family all of the very best Peter - and you too, SuziQ.

Cheers
Kay

Our constitutional rights to our land, whether rural or housing, were established through the Magna Carta, under "Fee Simple" title - what is now Freehold title.

Quote: Fee Simple Absolute is historically and legally the most complete form of property ownership...The FSA owner holds the right to .....Use the land for whatever purpose the owner sees fit.........exclusive possession of the land. Unquote.

Webster Legal Dict: "FS is the highest form of land ownership avalable. Third party interference is prohibited to a property held in FS title."

Only the Crown has a final authority over this right - and that does not include Local Council or State Gov't. In fact, rates have been deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, because only Fed go'vt can levy a tax, and rates have been deemed a tax!

In this shire, the rate-payers are fighting a battle that is about to go to State investigation, because we are sick of any form of go'vt eroding our 'in perpetua' rights.

So, all this governmental interference is both a bluff and illegal. They are presuming on our right with our own land.

How do you think the Hutt River Province came into being? What was the premise of "The Castle"? Fee Simple title.

Have a look at your deeds and do a www search on Fee Simple. Learn your true rights and stand up for them.

“Preservation of the environment becomes persecution by a hundred little tin pot Hitlers to whom the legislation is God’s cloak of invincibility. Tales of hardship and pain are nothing more than spurious lies to circumvent their reign and undermine their precious cloak. The fact that generations of work and planning have to be sacrificed are expected and acceptable casualties, so words of discontent and hardship are dismissed without serious consideration.”, writes Craig Blanch.

Blimey Moses! What hope have we got if a significant portion of the population thinks like this (or fails to think and just jumps to the ludicrous extreme like this).

Craig, presumably you don’t advocate completely open slather for farmers to do just exactly what they want. But….any efforts towards mitigating this open slather are ‘tin pot Hitler’ activities. What would you have us do?

Every sort of regulation, except perhaps for the most simple type, has an element of inequality about it. That is just unavoidable.

If regulations are going to work, then they need to be enforced. But wait, enforcers are tin-pot Hitlers! But without them, the regulations are meaningless… and the farmers and the fishers and the miners and land developers and the rest, will just do whatever they please, to our collective rapid detriment.

Come on, if you really want to blame people for putting us in situations that require a high degree of regulation, then look at those who knowingly exploited the land and other resources and the past governments that allowed them to do it. Don’t denounce current efforts to deal with these issues. You can pick at the details, but give them credence for regulating activities that have shown to be in need regulation. Vegetation management is one of the big ones

Farmers in the US and Europe get enormous subsidies and farmers here are asked to compete with third world poverty.No wonder the National Party are considered a spent force.They have betrayed their own constsituency.

The Liberals suck up to multi-Nationals and feign concern for small business that is again required to compete with third world poverty with Govt and legal stupidity suffocating them.

It is time for a small business movement that includes farmers,small contractors,retailers and anyone who believes in the Australian ideal of the individual being able to rise from poverty to wealth.

Dumping oranges from Brazil or used "soaps" from the US does not give our industries a chance.How about some fair play and a real level playing field?

SuziQ.

Our constitution has little to do with the Magna Carta it does have a lot to do with a British Act of Parliament.

Do you really want a Magna Carta Fee Simple title where you could not sell your land?

Sorry the Crown does include State Governments, haven’t you noticed the Governor opening fetes lately; the governor is the Queens representative in NSW.

I think you are getting your facts a bit muddled, excises have been deemed illegal for states to impose by the High Court. (not taxes) Only the Federal Govt. can impose an excise. Of course rates are a tax but there is nothing illegal about them.

OK so now that the state govt. is “The Crown” they have final authority over your land as you have admitted.

I understand your annoyance at Govt interference but it happens if you have 400sq meters or 14,000 acres.

To take your argument to its logical conclusion anyone should be able to anything they like on their land, so I think I will set up a toxic waste dump, store millions of old tyres, grow GM canola and build a jet boat racing complex and wait to call the Govt’s bluff.

Ludwig, expressing my opinion would be a thought process, I would imagine. The ‘tin-pot Hitler’ scenario was, as you rightly say, an example taken to the extreme of generalisation. I agree that environmental laws are required if sustainability has any hope of success. It would be completely irresponsible to suggest otherwise.

What I was alluding to is the effect of the application of many laws regardless of their intent. Many posters, on this forum and others, are quick to demonise the farming community with little concession to the plight that they find themselves in because the rules are continually changing.

The farming community does have cases to answer in land management in certain areas. Cotton and rice being my personal bugbears. Then again, every consumer in this country has a place in the hierarchy of fault if that is purely what this thread is about. Blame does not create sustainability, only division.

I can only imagine that you have not come up against the bureaucratic brick wall that is the face of public accountability. They are not in every office of every department but if you imagine a world devoid of very tiny people with inordinate amounts of power then you have a vivid imagination indeed. I hope you never have the misfortune of dealing with someone whose coffee is more important that your problems.

I could, I guess, just hop on the farmer crucifixion bandwagon to validate my thought processes but independence of thought is a much-cherished right of mine.

Now that we have had our verbal spar, perhaps we can recognize that there are more instances of common ground than not. The environment is in need of protection and an empathetic approach to everyone’s position would be a reasonable point of departure for a comprehensive solution