Irate landholders sick of bearing the costs of land clearing restrictions marked the new financial year with a tree chop protest, but is that the right way for farmers to get their message across.
AgForce understands their frustrations with the clearing laws but says chopping down trees in protest also puts at risk farmers' image among the wider community as responsible environmental managers.
The Commonwealth Property Protection Association, a NSW farmer group established to fight for fair compensation for the loss of property rights native vegetation laws have imposed, declared July 1 'National Chop a Tree Day'.
As such it called upon affected farmers to cut down one tree on Sunday in protest, and then progressively increase the number of trees chopped each day until the issue has been resolved.
But AgForce chief executive Brett de Hayr says chopping down trees in protest could re-ignite in the public's mind the imagery green groups used against farmers in garnering support for their push for land clearing to be banned.
Market research conducted by AgForce found that while the general public regard landholders as responsible environmental managers, the imagery of the anti land-clearing campaigns was still prevalent in people's minds as a negative stereotype of farmers.
"It's the one issue that pops into people's front of minds that can set you back. We have to be very careful we're not reinforcing that [stereotype] regardless of what you're trying to achieve," Mr de Hayr said.
However, Property Rights Australia chairman John Purcell disagreed, saying city dwellers were no longer attuned to the issue in the same way they were three years ago, but the acts of civil disobedience were a useful way of gaining government attention to the angst over the issue.
"It's clearly paying dividends because they've been invited by the NSW Minister (Phil Koperburg) to come and talk about the issue," Mr Purcell said.
What do you think?