[Greens-Media] WA Greens - Oil mallee fuels agricultural land recovery - Paul Llewellyn

[Anderson, Sonia]

19 November 2008

OIL MALLEE FUELS AGRICULTURAL LAND RECOVERY

Greens MLC for the South West Region, Paul Llewellyn, has welcomed the Oil Mallee Industry Development Plan announcement.

"This presents an important opportunity to revegetate the over-cleared Wheatbelt region and to breathe new economic life into rural communities.

"The Greens propose that 20% of the 17 million hectares of Wheatbelt land needs to be planted out with oil mallee species, and the development of an implementation strategy must ensure that plantings are targeted to achieve both economic and land care benefits.

"The oil mallee industry will not thrive unless there are clear economic drivers such as Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and favourable carbon trading arrangements.

"The Greens WA will continue to advocate their 20% by 2020 Renewable Energy Target legislation to drive investment in bioenergy projects based on oil mallee, and will promote a carbon trading formula that will ensure that farmers who do the right thing will be financially rewarded.

"Our regional areas will benefit from carbon farming, renewable energy farming and biodiversity farming.

"The oil mallee industry has a major role to play in the restoration of our agricultural land, but it needs to be carefully regulated to ensure integration of economic and ecological objectives, and avoid the pitfalls of the blue gum and pine industries," said Mr Llewellyn.

For more information contact Paul Llewellyn on 0428 317 182 or 9848 1555