John Williams pushed for review after hearing Richard Taylor talk on radio about clearing of grasslands

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A national review of how conservation laws affect the agriculture industry was prompted by a complaint on the radio from Richard Taylor – the brother of Angus Taylor – the former Nationals senator John Williams has said.

Williams says he pushed for the farm-focused review after he heard Richard Taylor speaking about state and federal investigations into alleged illegal clearing of grasslands on land he and the energy minister part-own in New South Wales.

Williams made the comments on Monday as the Senate prepared to vote down for a second time an inquiry into the conduct of Angus Taylor and Josh Frydenberg over the species at the centre of the investigation, the natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands. Labor’s motion was lost by one vote.

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Labor and the Greens have been pushing for the inquiry following a Guardian Australia investigation which revealed Taylor met with senior environment officials and the office of the then environment minister Josh Frydenberg in 2017 to discuss the listing of the grasslands as critically endangered under national environment law.

The meeting took place at the same time investigations were under way into whether the company Jam Land Pty Ltd illegally cleared land containing the grasses in the Monaro region of New South Wales. Richard Taylor is one of the director’s of Jam Land and Angus Taylor himself holds an interest in the firm via his family investment company, Gufee.

After Angus Taylor’s lobbying, Frydenberg’s office sought advice on whether protection of the grasslands could be watered down and if that change had to be published.

In April 2018, Williams gave an interview in which he spoke about his “disgust” at how farmers were being treated under federal environment law and how he was prompted to push for a review of the interaction between the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act and agriculture after speaking to Richard Taylor.

The Craik review was launched last year and its final report was released last month. A case study of the grasslands at the centre of the Taylor case was included in the review.

“I was driving down the road and I was listening to the Country Hour,” Williams told Guardian Australia. “They had Mr Taylor [Richard] on there saying he was facing charges under federal laws for spraying noxious weeds.

“I spoke to Mr Taylor [Richard] and said this is appalling. You’re spraying serrated tussock and African lovegrass.”

Williams said he took the matter to the National party room and there was a meeting with the Nationals, Frydenberg and a representative for the Department of Environment and Energy.

“We told Josh Frydenberg and Josh Frydenberg left that meeting in no doubt how disgusted we were,” Williams said. “He instigated a review and she [Craik] reported back months later.”

Williams said he was not aware of Richard Taylor’s relationship to Angus when he spoke to him and then pushed for the meeting. Williams could not recall the exact date of the meeting but said it was around 18 months ago.

“I didn’t know this Mr Taylor was Angus Taylor’s brother. I couldn’t care less,” he said. “Of course the politics now is blame Angus, which I think is very unfair.”

Williams’ hope from the agriculture review was that it would recommend a single set of environment laws that were managed by the states. He also wanted grasslands excluded entirely from protection under Australian environment law.

The Craik review found that despite a perception environment laws were placing a burden on farmers, only 2.7% of referrals for environmental assessment under the EPBC Act were related to agriculture.

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The natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands has been protected under the EPBC Act since 2000.

They were upgraded from endangered to critically endangered by the former environment minister Greg Hunt in 2016, but the requirement for federal assessment for certain levels of clearing had been in place for more than decade.

In documents obtained under freedom of information, produced around the time Taylor was seeking briefings with officials in March 2017, a clearly exasperated bureaucrat explained to Frydenberg’s office: “There is a perception of a significant burden, but the regulatory impact due to ecological community listings has historically been minor for individual landholders and the agriculture sector.

“Most EPBC Act referrals are for large projects in urban development, mining and other major infrastructure. There have been about 45 referrals for actions impacting the grasslands since 2000, mostly for windfarms and residential development around Canberra. There have been no referrals for agriculture in that time but there is one compliance case currently under investigation which covers a large area.”

The same briefing note said that the public consultation for the upgraded listing of the grasslands had been in excess of what was required under law and included emails to a “wide range of stakeholders, including all councils, local land services, and state agencies where the ecological community occurs, and the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) and NSW Farmers’ Association”.

“These farmers’ groups were contacted by the department’s environment liaison officer with the NFF, and the department met with the NFF to discuss the listing on multiple occasions,” the department said.