GRETA Valley Free Range Pork operators will take their fight for the right to farm to the Australian High Court after Wangaratta council imposed more than 50 conditions to their permit to farm.
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Kim Smith and her husband Brian have run the 100-sow outdoor piggery on 125 hectares since 2010 and were initially told they did not require a permit.
But last year they had to apply for a permit because council considered the farm an intensive animal husbandry operation.
Mrs Smith said the farm had Australian Pork Industry Quality Assurance Program certification and was audited yearly by an independent auditor.
“We’ll go to the high court, we will fight because we're doing nothing wrong,” she said. “The council should be supporting local farmers and they're not, they're supporting local greenies.”
There were seven objections, from five properties, to the application. Council’s development services director Barry Green said a permit could be granted only if there were no objections.
Where there were objections, a notice of decision to grant a planning permit could be issued instead, or the application could be rejected.
“We formulate the written documentation and send it to the applicant and all the objectors … Once it goes into this process it is in VCAT's hands,” Mr Green said.
“If a review is lodged council look at merits ... it is possible to have a consent order issued by the tribunal if all parties agree. Ultimately it would go back to the tribunal.”
Mr Green said the initial permit application lacked a lot of information council planners needed and many of the conditions could be met if the application included more information.
“If the application is not easily understood by all parties, perhaps doesn’t have quality documentation or quality plans of what is proposed, it can make it fairly difficult,” he said.
Pork Australia chief executive Andrew Spencer said the industry group would not talk about individual cases but said pig farmers were often hampered by planners who “don't have the necessary skills” to adequately assess piggery applications.
“We have examples where existing piggeries have gone in good faith to their council because there's confusion about their permits to operate,” Mr Spencer said.
“They've gone there without ever having a complaint against them and operating for years ... and they get ridiculous conditions imposed on them that just don't make any sense from a logical, scientific point of view.”
