This statement was made by NFF’s CEO Mike Guerin at the Carbon Credits Bill Inquiry on 30 October 2026.
Thank you, Senators.
The National Farmers’ Federation supports reforms that strengthen the integrity of the ACCU Scheme while ensuring it remains practical and accessible for farmers and landholders.
We welcome several elements of the Bill including enabling emissions avoidance and sequestration activities to be credited on the same parcel of land thus supporting the development of an Integrated Farm and Land Management Methodology. We also further welcome establishment of an independent Carbon Abatement Integrity Committee, adjustments to the Research and Development (R&D) provisions to ensure it supports industry innovation, and the revised Ministerial Method Transition arrangements which have now been softened to no longer compel proponents to transition on command.
However, we do not support the proposed expansion of Eligible Interest Holder (EIH) consent requirements in the current form. Our strong concern is that the proposed revisions lack any procedural safeguards necessary to ensure negotiations are balanced, fair, timely, and capable of resolution.
The Commonwealth’s argument of aligning the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme with the procedural safeguards afforded to Registered Claimants under the Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) is incomplete. The Future Acts Regime of the NTA explicitly codifies procedural protections in the form of reciprocal binding good-faith obligations, including a pathway for resolving negotiations that otherwise stall or fail (i.e., Right to Negotiate) after a specified timeframe. The proposed framework here fails to carry across these key safeguards, and it is simply unbalanced and unsupported by industry.
Similarly, Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) does not inherently confer a right of veto. The developing National Water Agreement signed by the Commonwealth expressly states this distinction. Nor did the Chubb Review recommend the specific expansion of the EIH definition contemplated under this Bill. The Commonwealth has also not adequately demonstrated what problem this expansion will solve or how the risks of indefinite delay will be addressed which continues to be a significant issue for the agriculture sector and barrier toward broader economic development.
We therefore seek amendments to establish a balanced framework with reciprocal and binding good-faith obligations, a defined negotiation timeframe, and an independent mediation pathway. Safeguards must also ensure negotiations remain directly tied to the proposed carbon project and are not used to relitigate other tenure arrangements. This has been the experience of some landholders.
These measures would properly align the ACCU Scheme with the procedural safeguards provided under the parent NTA, supporting meaningful engagement and broader trust in the agreement-making process. Thank you, I now welcome any questions you may have.