North Coast farmers say a land tax grab could force rental homes off the market in the middle of a housing crisis. This week, they take that fight to the state’s biggest farming forum.
More than 300 farmer delegates will pack into Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney on Tuesday, 21 July and Wednesday, 22 July for the NSW Farmers annual conference. A new president will be chosen, 105 motions will be fought out, and branches from the Far North Coast to the Manning Valley are pushing some of the biggest.
“Our Annual Conference is about hearing directly from farmers about the issues in the paddock and deciding on the solutions needed,” said NSW Farmers CEO Annabel Johnson.
“Our members decide on the issues we need to solve to continue to provide fresh local food and fibre and how best to use our united voice to grow the future of farming.”
Land tax is the Far North Coast branch’s big target, with three motions on the paper. It wants the dominant use test decided by how much land is farmed, not how much income it earns. It wants rent from farmhouses kept out of the equation. And it wants land set aside for the environment, or locked up with timber that can no longer be harvested, to stay exempt.
The stakes reach well beyond the farm gate. On smaller properties, the branch stated, rental income from farmhouses “can equal or exceed farm income”. And the current rules are already backfiring.
“There is evidence that farmers are now withdrawing farmhouses from the rental market due to concerns about becoming liable for land tax, further reducing housing availability in rural areas,” the branch stated.
The branch also wants weed control freed from vegetation protection laws, pointing to invasive trees such as camphor laurel that can need council approval to remove, “with no guarantee that consent will be granted”.
In the Manning Valley, the Wingham branch wants governments to urgently expand reliable baseload power, arguing food and fuel security depend on it.
Fuel worries run right through the conference. The Far North Coast branch has joined a statewide push for Australia to make more of its own fuel and fertiliser, with backers pointing to “instability in the Middle East disrupting supply routes and driving up fuel costs”.
That hit is still stinging, according to Ms Johnson.
“Our farmers saw their profit margins evaporate almost overnight due to the Middle East conflict, which also exposed the vulnerability of our fuel and fertiliser supply chains to global shocks,” Ms Johnson said.
“Protecting the supply of food, fuel, and fertiliser requires urgent policy action, including onshore fuel reserves.”
“This will be one of the key issues at this year’s Conference and aligns with its theme of ‘A Stronger Farming Future – Grow your Voice, Grow our Future’.”
Ms Johnson will join industry experts on Monday evening for a pre-conference panel on future-proofing food, fuel, and fertiliser supply chains.
“It’s a critical time, with the State election coming up in March next year and no shortage of challenges currently facing farm businesses and rural communities in 2026,” she said.
The wider paper ranges across the state’s water wars, drought support, sheep tagging, and the renewables rollout, with nearly half the motions under the environment banner.
There is a changing of the guard too. President Xavier Martin will chair the conference for the final time before delegates choose his successor, along with a new vice president and three board directors.
Premier Chris Minns, Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, Climate Change and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe, and Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane will all front delegates across the two days. The conference runs from 8am to 6pm each day, with a livestream available here.
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