CANEGROWERS Mackay Submission

The sugar industry has 72 percent of its cane growing land benchmarked in the Smartcane Best Management Practice, BMP, program, and climbing. The BMP is not easy for Growers to complete, it takes time, however it is outcome focused and it is fair, and it now has international recognition.

Cane farming families fully understand their stewardship responsibility in caring for our land and thus caring for our Reef, having for a long time focused on three key elements regarding the fertiliser and pesticides/herbicides they use: 1. Maximising incorporation into the soil 2. Maximising uptake by the plant 3. Maximising retention of all inputs into plant growth and health on farm

We need to be focused on the whole of communities’ collective stewardship responsibility and actions to the Reef and understand that Cane Growers have been in a state of constant change and improvement for decades. They take their custodial responsibility to the Reef seriously and know that there is a pathway to having a strong, environmentally and economically sustainable sugar industry.

Even the Marine Park Authority, GBRMPA, advises that positive actions may take years, sometimes decades to be reflected on the Reef and in data and reporting.

Long-term monitoring has shown that 10 years after Hamish caused widespread damage in the southern region, particularly in the Capricorn-Bunkers in 2009, these reefs are still recovering.

• Coral loss has also been attributed to Tropical in 2017 and the current crown-of-thorns-starfish outbreak • Some outer-shelf reefs of the Whitsundays increased coral cover and remain in good condition, but others closer to the coast were more severely impacted by TC Debbie and have lower coral cover.

Recent reports and researchers also advise that the Great Barrier Reef is still beautiful in large areas across the length of the Reef and it is resilient, evolving over time.

We need to recognise that under the existing frameworks, be it for funding or policy decisions, that we find all are operating with isolated systems, including Paddock 2 Reef report cards and others, which do not correlate with the strongly supported outcomes of the Smartcane BMP, for reporting impacts/improvements measurements. This is further expanded upon in the CANEGROWERS Queensland submission.

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CANEGROWERS Mackay is also concerned at the age of the data being used to form the report cards, policy and therefore legislation that judges and then prescribes action to be taken against the Agriculture sector specifically. If regional report cards, such as The Mackay/Whitsunday/Isaac Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership, a State Government supported initiative, is able to report on data collected between July 2017 and June 2018, then why are all report cards and data used to make decisions not based on far more recent data?

CANEGROWERS Mackay further submits that there needs to be a focus on the interrogation of farming practices as a holistic system to integrate existing knowledge into an effective resource management toolkit to inform governments and industry bodies with the information to better shape policies and regulations, thereby achieving better environmental and productivity outcomes. CANEGROWERS Mackay also wants to emphasise its continued support for and belief in the Reef projects that have gone before and that will be implemented in the future.

A key consideration of said projects needs to focus on maximising the funding that reaches the Grower, rather than being filtered through multiple hands/ consultants, plans etc and hence significantly reducing the ability of Sugar Cane farming families to implement change.

Growers are not scientists yet expect the fullness of science to be pure and focused on the collective good that may be achieved by the research and outcomes. In the current debate Growers are left confused by a scientific community that does currently contain opposing views that are defended by the scientific parties involved with an almost vitriolic passion directed against each other and a perception that the entire process has an air of being politicised. CANEGROWERS Mackay fully supports the submission by CANEGROWERS Queensland, as included below.

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