Question Without Notice No. 722 asked in the Legislative Council on 31 October 2017 by Hon Ken Baston
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
CARBON FARMING — PASTORAL LEASES
722. Hon KEN BASTON to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to an article that appeared on page 48 of The West Australian on 12 October 2017 regarding carbon farming in rangelands.
(1) Is the minister in favour of allowing the expansion of carbon farming on pastoral leases?
(2) If yes to (1), which steps will be taken to expedite the process of setting up the necessary regulatory framework?
(3) Has the minister held meetings about carbon farming; and, if so, with whom and when did the meetings take place?
(4) Has the minister's department done modelling on potential carbon farming initiatives; and, if so, will the minister release the modelling?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1)–(4) As the member was present last week at the Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen's Association event that I addressed, he would know that I certainly believe that carbon farming is something that we seriously need to contemplate in the mix of pastoral lands reform. We want an across-government approach to this issue, so a body of work in terms of carbon farming more generally is being led out of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, and we are all working constructively together to try to find a way forward.
I have had some meetings with people who are interested in carbon farming in conjunction with rangelands reform, and some of these people include Harley Lacy, director of Outback Carbon; Kent Broad, director of Carbon Neutral; Andrew White, director of Goldfields Carbon Group; and Scott Girdler, special counsel for Clayton Utz.
As I am sure the member remembers from his time as Minister for Agriculture and Food, a very comprehensive report was done by the Department of Agriculture and Food into the evaluation of the opportunities and risks of carbon offset–based enterprises in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia. I table this report for the edification of the member.
[See paper 804.]