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QUEENSLAND’S leasehold land system has undergone a major shake-up with yesterday’s announcement of the Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014.
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In a win for producers, the reforms will provide greater security of tenure for leaseholders. The Bill will impact close to 6600 leases, worth more than $60 billion including rural and offshore tourism leases across the state.
AgForce has hailed the announcement as the "most substantial land reform measures in a generation".
Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said the "commonsense changes" would slash red tape, reduce costs and modernise tenure administration.
The reforms represent the first significant phase of restructure to Queensland’s land tenure system, and the Land Act since it came into effect in 1994.
“We promised at the election to grow agriculture and tourism as key pillars of the Queensland economy - and increased security of tenure will provide the foundations on which they can be established,” Mr Cripps said.
He said removal of red tape would also encourage investment opportunities in these sectors, generating economic benefits particularly in rural and regional areas.
AgForce general president, Ian Burnett, said the changes substantially improved lease security and had the potential to drive growth for Queensland agriculture.
“The reforms announced by Minister Cripps are changes which AgForce has been tirelessly advocating for on behalf of its members for years,” Mr Burnett said.
“They are commonsense and fair changes that primary producers have been crying out for and have potential to make significant changes to thousands of rural businesses.
“However what we now await is clarification as to how much rent lessees will be required to pay annually and what the cost of freeholding will be – these figures will prove to be the true test of how effective the reforms ultimately are.”
Mr Burnett said the Minister also foreshadowed these regulations would provide greater flexibility for government to deal with rents during times of hardship such as the current drought.
This will be achieved through removing the need for interest to be paid on deferred rents and automatically deferring rents on drought declared areas from 1 July.QUEENSLAND’S leasehold land system has undergone a major shake-up with yesterday’s announcement of the Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014.
In a win for producers, the reforms will provide greater security of tenure for leaseholders. The Bill will impact close to 6600 leases, worth more than $60 billion including rural and offshore tourism leases across the state.
AgForce has hailed the announcement as the "most substantial land reform measures in a generation".
Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said the "commonsense changes" would slash red tape, reduce costs and modernise tenure administration.
The reforms represent the first significant phase of restructure to Queensland’s land tenure system, and the Land Act since it came into effect in 1994.
“We promised at the election to grow agriculture and tourism as key pillars of the Queensland economy - and increased security of tenure will provide the foundations on which they can be established,” Mr Cripps said.
He said removal of red tape would also encourage investment opportunities in these sectors, generating economic benefits particularly in rural and regional areas.
AgForce general president, Ian Burnett, said the changes substantially improved lease security and had the potential to drive growth for Queensland agriculture.
“The reforms announced by Minister Cripps are changes which AgForce has been tirelessly advocating for on behalf of its members for years,” Mr Burnett said.
“They are commonsense and fair changes that primary producers have been crying out for and have potential to make significant changes to thousands of rural businesses.
“However what we now await is clarification as to how much rent lessees will be required to pay annually and what the cost of freeholding will be – these figures will prove to be the true test of how effective the reforms ultimately are.”
Mr Burnett said the Minister also foreshadowed these regulations would provide greater flexibility for government to deal with rents during times of hardship such as the current drought.
This will be achieved through removing the need for interest to be paid on deferred rents and automatically deferring rents on drought declared areas from 1 July.
Key changes within the Bill
- Rolling leases
All term leases (including agriculture, grazing and pastoral land leases including state forests and timber reserves) will be given rolling leases. This means that rural leases exceeding 100ha will not be required to enter into Land Management Agreements at the time of lease rollover. Instead, these leases will be extended (rolled over) for their original term of that lease – for example, a 30-year lease will be rolled over for 30 years and there will be no limit as to the number of times a lease can be rolled over in this way. Additionally, there will be amendments to allow lessees in the last 20 years of their lease to be able to roll the lease over. This will allow for the longest possible lease term without impinging on native title rights.
- Tenure Conversion/Freehold
Importantly the Bill puts in place a framework for conversion to make it simpler to move from term and perpetual leases to freehold by:
- Removing the need for term leases to become perpetual prior to being converted to freehold;
- Allowing for amalgamating of separate term and perpetual leases where they are adjacent;
- Allowing the state government to retain interest in commercial timber interests in land being freeholded through forest consent areas and forest consent agreements. The forest consent agreement will be registered as a profit a prendre.
- Removing current restrictions on corporations owning and individuals aggregating pastoral holdings.
More information is available at: www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/land/accessing-using-land/state-land/policies