Australia’s digital future
Access to improved telecommunications in regional, rural and remote Australia is imperative to facilitate economic growth across agriculture through innovation in production, improved market access and enhanced consumer connectivity. The regional/urban interface is critical with regard to transport logistics and trade – how goods are ordered and marketed, and flow in and out of cities. […]
Audit of Telecommunications Infrastructure Assets – Record Keeping Rules
Connectivity is at the heart of productivity growth for farm businesses and regional communities, and there is enormous latent demand for data in rural and regional Australia, including on farms. The NFF supports strengthening Infrastructure record keeping rules to increase accountability and information sharing around forward investment commitments. We also encourage widespread accountability and recommend […]
Feedback Request on the National Class 1 Agricultural Vehicle and Combination Notice Issues Paper
The NHVR issues paper clearly outlines that current regulations do not take into account the nature of the agricultural fleet, nor the quick decisions farmers need to make when managing crops. However, if adopted, the proposals contained in the NHVR issues paper would still require most movements of oversized agricultural machinery to be covered by […]
Best Practice Approaches to Regional Development, the Decentralisation of Commonwealth entities and supporting Commonwealth Decentralisation
The NFF agrees that regional Australia deserves its fair share of government services and opportunities. However, we are also conscious that some jobs are best done in the cities. Because of this, NFF supports the relocation of Government agencies to regional Australia where there is a net overall benefit, it is practical, is the best […]
Response to Review of RPAS operations Discussion Paper
The NFF strongly supports a system for remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) – commonly referred to as drones that allows farmers to increase productivity and efficiencies on farm while maximising safety. The NFF welcomes a regulatory system of RPAS that encourages the uptake of drones in everyday farming while, at the same time, ensuring that all […]
Regional Investment Corporation – Discussion Paper on Key Loan Setting
The NFF discerns that the establishment of the RIC is a significant opportunity to further the agricultural sector through the administration of farm business loans and the delivery of funding for infrastructure projects. To that end, the farming community is largely supportive of the proposed RIC. The concessional loans have the potential to lead farmers […]
National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy
The NFF believes that for a national freight and supply chain strategy to be meaningful in its legacy, it must do more than focus on individual projects and avoid perpetuating the politicisation of our infrastructure investments. The NFF believes solutions reside in the systems and architecture that governs infrastructure investment and coordination. The NFF is […]
Regional Investment Corporation Bill (2017)
The farming community is largely supportive of the proposed Regional Investment Corporation (RIC) and looks forward to furthering the agricultural sector through the administration of farm business loans and through a new mechanism for the delivery of funding for water infrastructure projects. NFF is of the view that the RIC should be independent and not […]
Consultation on the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Operational Efficiency) Bill 2017
Access to state-of-the-art agvet chemicals is crucial to improving the productivity and sustainability of Australian agriculture. This requires the efficient and timely processing of agvet chemical registration applications by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA). Accordingly, the farming community welcomes this consultation and is of the view that the proposed Bill would help […]
Australian Transport Assessment and Planning guidelines
Given the magnitude of freight costs for farmers, it is important that there is a robust modelling tool for agricultural freight that provides baseline data and that can be used to test a range of infrastructure investment scenarios. It is important that this tool is integrated into the broader Australian Transport Assessment and Planning guidelines.