Rachel Payne MP presented an adjournment matter on the use of lawfare as a tool to stigmatise and delay progress in Victoria’s hemp industry.

Wednesday the 13th of November 2024
Victorian Legislative Council

RACHEL PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan):

Earlier this year Legalise Cannabis Victoria tabled a bill calling for a standalone hemp act in Victoria. We were happy to see that following this the government responded to the inquiry into the industrial hemp industry in Victoria and supported almost all of its recommendations. In their response they acknowledged the need to develop the hemp industry in Victoria, the barriers that exist in the planning system and an openness to reform.

In the months since, we have continued to hear from hemp growers about their difficulties with getting their projects off the ground. This can come in many forms, but often it occurs at the planning level. It is here when neighbours and others object to an application, forcing it through an appeals process. In some instances this is undeniably a kind of lawfare: that is, the use of the legal system to damage hemp growers and stifle the hemp industry.

In one such example in my region a person is seeking to process industrial hemp grown on their farm to make a sustainable hemp-based version of a mud brick to sell to the building industry. Despite council support for their plans and the well-understood importance of these kinds of efficient and sustainable building materials, their plans have been stopped in their tracks. A victim of lawfare against the hemp industry, their project has been the subject of numerous objections from their neighbours, who have now appealed to VCAT. This series of objections has blown out the expected timeline for their project. They now estimate these objections will cause an 18-month delay.

People in the agricultural sector and those wanting to get into hemp inadvertently hear about all of these kinds of delays and decide that hemp is all too hard. Despite this government’s commitment to better supporting the hemp industry of Victoria, I remain concerned that this kind of lawfare will only grow unless the government protects growers and works to dismantle the stigma surrounding hemp. I ask: will the minister help ensure that hemp growers are not unfairly subject to this kind of lawfare?.

Response Received, 5th of Dec 2024:

I thank the Member for South Eastern Metropolitan Region for her question

The Victorian Government welcomes the findings and recommendations from the Parliament of Victoria’s Inquiry into the Industrial Hemp Industry in Victoria final report. In June this year, the Government responded to those recommendations and expressed support for eight of the nine recommendations, including the recommendation to consider defining hemp products as ‘rural industry’ in the Victoria Planning Provisions. The Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) is actively considering options to implement this recommendation.

The Planning and Environment Act 1987 enables third parties to participate in planning permit application processes, including through receiving notice of an application, and in some cases an ability to seek a review of a planning decision. These are important processes, and the government does not have a broad policy position that they should be removed altogether.

The Victorian Government has implemented important changes to the planning permit process to speed up planning approvals processes specifically for state significant development and for projects of a certain scale. The Development Facilitation Program is an accelerated assessment pathway for eligible projects to inject investment into the Victorian economy, keep people in jobs and create homes for people. Hemp-related land uses of a certain scale may currently be eligible for this pathway.

I have been advised that the proponent you refer to has received a favourable planning decision, but that is now the subject of a third-party application for review to be heard by VCAT next year. Despite this review process, I am pleased that the proponent has been able to progress the proposed development.

Hon Sonya Kilkenny MP
Minister for Planning

Related Resources:

> Debate adjourned but LCV still championing Industrial Hemp Bill – Rachel Payne
> If Allan govt is fair dinkum about a ‘Made in Australia Future’, it must support the Industrial Hemp Bill – Rachel Payne
> Hemp Industry Bill 2024 – Rachel Payne
> Industrial Hemp planning provisions – Rachel Payne