VLPA Update (Issue 58)
PETER MCCLUSKY provides an update on the Victoria Limestone Producers Association.
AGM AND CONFERENCE
It is currently planned to hold the AGM and conference at the Warrnambool Bowling Club on Tuesday 15 November 2011. Members have recently been sent an initial email and indications are that these arrangements are suitable. Further communications will be sent nearer the date when guest speakers are firmed up. However it is expected we will have a run down on the various field days and seminars on combating acidic soils particularly in western Victoria.
SUBMISSIONS TO GOVERNMENT INQUIRIES
VLPA has made submissions to several recent inquiries:
- Importance of geological exploration
- The ministerial review of the Victorian planning system.
The main points emphasised applied to both inquiries, i.e. that exploration is the R&D of the minerals industry, planning proposals near known extractive deposits should be compulsorily referred to DPI minerals regulation before Councils make determinations on planning applications; appropriate buffer zones be maintained between encroaching development and extractive sites; and that the system is currently too long and costly and that statutory endorsement of work plans by DPI (currently proposed) would avoid Councils re-referring applications back to agencies.
CARBON TAX
National Aglime Association had requested interpretation from the appropriate Commonwealth Department of various parts of the supply chain from mine/quarry to on farm spreading etc. and how the carbon tax might apply or not apply. The point of interest being that VLPA & NAA are part of the agriculture supply chain and as such, policy documents are telling us that agriculture would be exempt from the tax.
The Commonwealth Department took a month to send answers and in essence it is intended to amend the Fuel Tax Act 2006 to include a definition of agriculture as “cultivation of the soil”. The tone of the answers to the questions is that transporting and especially spreading the likes of lime would not be “agriculture” under this Act. Not the sort of interpretation our industry would want to hear. So we will continue to oppose the concept of this tax.
ACID FIELD DAYS
A further field day is planned for the Bass Coast area in late November 2011 where VLPA will work with Bass Coast Landcare and DPI to publicise the importance of using lime to combat acidic soils and raise pH in the region.
This follows on from two very successful field days at French Island and Poowong North covering the subjects of soil pH and soil carbon in which VLPA recently worked with Westernport Catchment Landcare Network.
For further information contact Peter McCluskey 0408 496 588
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