The Western Land Act post 2000

Abstract

In the past 100 years there have been substantial demographic changes in the Division, and in rural Australia in general. This has led to shifts in the political power base. Further, it has led to a split in the homogeneity between urban/rural understandings of landscape values and landscape usage. There is now a range of Acts apart from the Western Land Act that prescribes resource use in the Division. These Acts reflect a departure from the belief that the Western Division is somehow different from the rest of the State. There is also a range in international agreements that further impact on activities in relation to land use activities generally and thus in the Division. In today's global marketplace, the power and expectations of the consumer have begun to usurp the ability of Governments to control and direct change. Changes in farming systems and practices are now often generated as a response to consumer demands for a cleaner, greener or cheaper product, and not by legislation.

Thc consumer push for 'clean and green' and for the implementation of demonstrable environmentally sound management systems will eventually force lessees in the 21st century to do what the Western Land Act failed to force them to do in the past 100 years. Where the Western Land Board procrastinated, forgave and through a benevolent attitude failed to enforce lease agreements or eject lessees who were in continual breach of these agreements, market forces will instead be ruthless. Given the changes in the domestic social and political climate, and the requirements of international customers for the products of the Division, it is hard to see any role for the Western Land Commission in the future, apart from the administration of an antiquated and scarcely relevant Act.