Deputy Chair update, Summer 2023
We have published our Annual Report and successfully held our Annual General Meeting. As an organisation, we are in tip-top shape and are moving into 2024 with determination and vigour.
At the end of one year and the start of a new year, it’s good to take a step back and review our Vision, our Mission, and what we are doing with the wonderful legacy granted to us by the Coote Family.
Our Vision and Mission are simple – we want to assist and facilitate landscape and catchment remediation in Australia - but there are several challenges that slow this vital work.
There is some underlying cynicism about our new techniques and methods. We are solving this with science and evidence through the work of our Scientific Advisory Committee and our research teams – read more.
There is a lack of knowledge among landholders about our techniques and methods. We are solving this through our education programs. Our educators conduct workshops, bootcamps, mentoring, farm tours, school tours and university field trips across Australia – read more.
There is the time, cost and expense of implementing landscape remediation. We are solving this through Mulloon Consulting – providing landholders with the guidelines, plans, tools and experts to rehydrate and remediate their land.
And finally, there is regulation. Government laws, regulations, notifications and approvals that slow down or prevent landscape and catchment remediation in Australia.
The Mulloon Law Committee has been looking into this regulatory problem since 2019. At first, we conducted a review and audit of all laws and regulations that applied to this work and what approvals were necessary. Unfortunately, land and water usage is mainly controlled by state governments and state legislation. That meant if we wanted to make landscape and catchment remediation easier, we would have to deal with environment, planning, heritage, fisheries and water legislation with government departments in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, etc… no fun. No fun at all.
So we decided on a different tack – instead of amending 50 or 60 pieces of legislation, we would seek a simple and elegant one-stop solution – a national building code for catchment remediation structures. Our idea is that if a landowner follows the Code, the landowner would be exempt from the need to seek all the approvals, notifications and expert reports required by the various regulators in each state.
We asked the NSW Government to assist us in drafting the Code – but they declined. We then asked environmental consulting experts to assist, but we could not come to a satisfactory arrangement. So finally, we decided to do it ourselves.
Dr Gerry Bates, in conjunction with others, has drafted the attached Proposal for a National Code of Practice.
It is a significant document and a great achievement.
We are now taking this Code to all major environment and planning groups and leaders in Australia to seek their support. Then, with their backing, we will be approaching Minister Plibersek and the Commonwealth Government to encourage them to publish the Code and push it out to the States.
There is a long way to go, but we have a plan and strategy to solve these regulatory constraints. Can I encourage all of you to send the Code to leaders in your communities? The more the merrier!
Matt