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Farmers battle with cost of compliance
20 Oct 2003
The cost of compliance with Government legislation and community expectation is putting increased budgetary pressures on rural producers. The problem is worsened by the fact that farmers are being hit with these increasing costs at a time when they're dealing with the drought, says Queensland Dairyfarmers' Organisation president Wes Judd. Mr Judd said many farmers have to readjust their operations to cope with the increasing hours of office work associated with the plethora of government-induced paperwork and requirements, including GST, QA, property plans, food safety, permits, licences etc.
In 2004, the Queensland Division of Workplace Health and Safety will be auditing rural mobile plant on 500 properties across 12 agricultural industries. Twenty-two inspectors will be targeting mobile plant such as tractors, Power Take-Off equipment, ATVs, agricultural motorbikes and some designs of elevated work platforms. Mr Judd said initial indications show the audits will take about two hours, with producers given just a day's notice.
Mr Judd said as government-induced time commitments mount up, "it's about time rural industry began thinking about sending an invoice back, charging for the time and expertise the farmer contributes to the process".
Queensland Country Life, 18/10/03.
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