Tax deductions for environmental gains

By: "Farm Tender" News
Rural Property News
Oct 09, 2018
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By George King - Coombing Park”

Two things this drought has highlighted:

1. The marginal profitability of farming across Australia.

2. The fragility of the farming landscape and lack of any resilience in our agricultural sector.

These are really big problems which are not unique to Australia. If humanity thought rationally it would see this as a whole of civilisation problem.

The only thing to blame for all of humanities problems is "management". Fossil fuels are not a problem, it is our management of them. Chemicals are not a problem, it is our management of them. Agriculture is not a problem, it is our management of our agriculture.

Farmers are a small, non-essential voting group with insignificant influence in Australian politics. There is no leadership from industry, politicians or celebrities on the issues I'm raising here. These well-intentioned groups and individuals can only follow the popular masses. Our only option for positive change is grass roots education and collaboration.

To fix a problem we must address the root cause of the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. Drought and flood damage are a symptom of poor land management. Desertification is a symptom of poor land management. Poor commodity prices are a symptom of a lack of consumer connection and commodification of life sustaining food and water.

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Australia has approximately 130,000 farmers responsible for the management of 61% of our land mass. Environmental stewardship should be seen as a national priority. Perhaps this is too much of a leap given private land ownership overlaid by individual businesses? A first step to massive environmental outcomes for our nation would be an annual 200% tax deduction for farmers carrying out environmental works on their land.

For the benefit of all Australian’s, this incentive will encourage farmers to invest in environmental projects building resilience into the landscape and rural economies. A 200% deduction in the year of the expense should extend to farmer education, grassland establishment and water and fencing infrastructure to enable better grazing management. We should encourage riparian stream repair and re-hydration, repair and re-hydration of erosion gullies and the strategic planting of trees. Local businesses will benefit from these projects and will in turn increase the tax they pay, which will provide more employment opportunities in rural communities. The loss of initial taxes from farming operations will be more than covered by production increases, plus the multiplier effect in the rural communities.

The productivity, sustainability and viability of every participating farm will be improved. Improved grazing management will build resilience into agriculture and help moderate the Australian climate and provide more nutritionally dense food to our consumers.

The Federal Government is the Australian people and they should shoulder the load in repairing the one million kilometers of degraded water ways in Australia. Our rivers, creeks and dry water courses should be weired to near full capacity. Additional water, would then be stored sub terainously in the flood plains, which could increase river flows by up to 30%. The weirs could be left open until there was a significant rain event such as the recent 2016 wet season.

As grass root producers, we must encourage our society members to press government to address core problems and avoid treating symptoms. We have such fine profit margins in agriculture that we cannot afford to bear the costs of environmental works for the good of our nation. Farming with fine profit margins in a degrading ecology is providing a vicious feedback loop of degrading social, economic and ecological foundations.

Encouraging ecological outcomes through tax incentives will translate into economic benefits to farmers. These economic increases will flow through to higher spending in local communities, which in turn will increase the taxable income of ancillary businesses and improving the prosperity and employment opportunities of rural communities. The social benefit of giving farmers hope that they can improve their farms whilst providing a living for their families is PRICELESS.

George King

“Coombing Park”

CARCOAR NSW 2791