Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann has been urging the NSW Government to regulate the intensive horticulture industry, citing issues with land-clearing, excessive and illegal chemical use, soil erosion, spray drift, and the potential for worker exploitation.
This news was doubly depressing for me, having initiated the Clarence Environment Centre’s (CEC) unsuccessful campaign to have the industry regulated 18 years ago, following illegal clearing near Halfway Creek which caused major erosion and river pollution.
By 2016, the problems could no longer be ignored, resulting in the formation of the Inter-agency Blueberry Working Group which reported all the problems Ms Faehrmann has identified as still occurring today.
As for achieving any control over the industry, the working group was a failure, able only to provide advice and “encourage” best practice. Its existence did, however, provide politicians with a convenient response to complaints that continued to flood in.
There were successful prosecutions for illegal land-clearing and water usage, including repeat offenders, evidence that some growers simply treated fines as “a cost of doing business”.
The failure to regulate the industry is no accident. All of CEC’s complaints over the years were brushed aside, with one Planning Minister saying he was against regulation because “it encourages non-compliance”!
The State Government even changed laws to allow the building of more and larger dams, seemingly in response to fines imposed for illegal dam-building.
NSW Government agency Local Land Services claimed to be powerless when granting permission to a blueberry grower to clear what they deemed to be “regrowth forest” on a property where some $10,000 of taxpayers’ money had previously been spent on bush regeneration.
We also had battles with Water NSW, one over evidence we presented of water theft not being acted upon, and secondly over a planned massive blueberry venture where water availability was an issue. The latter case went to a tribunal hearing where Water NSW’s taxpayer funded lawyer was brought in to prevent me giving evidence on behalf of the CEC.
We wish Ms Faehrmann’s campaign well but doubt it will achieve much. There are powerful political forces working to maintain the status-quo.
- John Edwards
Originally published under the title "Blueberry Free-for-all" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 29th October, 2025.
