23 Nov 2016
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) recently met with the Council of Mayors to discuss how industry and local government can work proactively together to ensure the South East Queensland (SEQ) Regional Plan continues to recognise the importance and significance of agriculture to their communities and futures.
The draft SEQ Regional Plan, ‘ShapingSEQ’, that was released in October 2016 retains many of the positive elements for agriculture from previous plans, but it lacks detail regarding implementation and monitoring outcomes in rural areas.
While the draft plan acknowledges the importance of rural planning and retaining the existing urban footprint, it does not draw the link between thriving agricultural longevity and prosperity, and lacks the frameworks required to support the sector. The removal of the Rural Futures Strategy that was adopted in 2009 is disappointing.
With the draft plan predicting that SEQ is expected to be home to nearly 2 million extra people by 2041, there is a need to more holistically value peri-urban agricultural land. Simple economic land values in dollar terms fail to appreciate the full suite of benefits including food security and quality through access to high-value perishable produce, environmental benefits reducing transport emissions and the recycling of urban waste and organics, and it grossly undervalues the sector’s worth to the region.
The edges of our cities in SEQ have traditionally been food-producing areas for sensible and practical reasons. A testament to this are the highly developed intensive industries such as horticulture, chicken meat, dairy and eggs which all have a significant presence in the region.
QFF has long advocated for the implementation of rural precincts within SEQ to allow intensive agriculture and significant value-adding industries to operate and responsibly grow while protecting them from urban encroachment. To date no council has applied the rural precinct model; QFF encourages councils to consider the opportunity this concept provides.
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