Resource Management and Duty of Care

Abstract

Australian external resources. controls farmers, They are or and legal bound private restrictions by land-owners common over law in the that general, way provides they face for use a range a natural wideof Australian external controls or legal restrictions over the way they use natural resour es. They are bound by common law that provides for a wideranging Duty of Care (DofC) to avoid directly injuring other people or their property (Bates, 2001). In addition, farmers have obligations under the various state environmental protection acts that govern the actions of all industries. Over and above these general obligations, farmers' management actions are constrained by provisions within various State land protection acts, and those who operate on crown pastoral leases confront a further array of land use controls that vary between states and territories (Productivity Commission, 2002). Despite the extent of the existing explicit legal obligations imposed on farmers, there appears to be a widely held view that, for a number of reasons, the current level of conservation and environmental protection undertaken on privately managed rural land is not consistent with the efficient management of the resources involved. The Productivity Commission (2003) provides a useful summary of this issue. As a result there is a view in policy circles that Australia as a whole is under-investing in the conservation of important resources such as biodiversity, land quality and water quality. In exploring ways that the deficit in conservation can be redressed some groups have suggested that the legal obligations of farmers to protect or improve the environment should be extended. In general terms, they argue that the current legal DofC that farmers and other land managers have to prevent damage to the natural resource base is too limited and should be extended by statute law. For example, the then Industry Commission (1998:75) argued that the extended DofC, '... should require those responsible to take all reasonable and practical steps to prevent harm to the environment'. More recently, the Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage (2001), the Wentworth Group (2003), the Victorian Catchment Management Council and Department of Sustainability and Environment (2003), and Young, Shi and Crosthwaite (2003) have discussed the possibility of redefining and extending the legal land management obligations of farmers. Young, Shi and Crosthwaite (p. 3), take the following position: