Our Farmers Pay the Price for the Treasurer’s Rushy Lagoon Rush Job

MR RICK WILSON MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR O’CONNOR

10^th July 2026

Our Farmers Pay the Price for the Treasurer’s Rushy Lagoon Rush Job

Federal Member for O'Connor Rick Wilson MP has condemned Treasurer Jim Chalmers' decision to approve the sale of Tasmania's largest farm, Rushy Lagoon, to UK forestry investment giant Gresham House, describing it as a betrayal of Australian farmers, regional communities and the nation's food security.

The decision clears the way for almost 22,000 hectares of highly productive dairy and beef country in north-east Tasmania to be converted into a pine plantation for carbon sequestration purposes.

Mr Wilson said the approval set a dangerous precedent for productive agricultural land across Australia, including in his electorate of O'Connor, which spans more than 1.1 million square kilometres and is home to some of the nation's most important agricultural and mining industries.

"Rushy Lagoon has fed Australian families for generations. Instead of backing Australian farmers, Jim Chalmers has approved the sale of prime farmland to a foreign investment fund so it can plant trees and generate carbon credits," Mr Wilson said.

"This is ideology trumping common sense and the national interest."

Mr Wilson said he had joined a number of rural and regional Liberal MPs and Senators in writing to the Treasurer, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry warning about the consequences of allowing productive farmland to be locked away for carbon sequestration projects.

"We specifically warned that government policy settings were distorting the market and allowing corporations pursuing carbon projects to outbid local farmers and farming families for productive land.

"Unfortunately, those warnings were ignored."

Mr Wilson said the concerns raised by TasFarmers mirrored issues already emerging in Western Australia.

"In O’Connor, for instance, corporate interests seeking offsets for their safeguard mechanism obligations, own Sunnyside near Balingup, Cowcher near Pingrup, Sukey Hill near Cranbrook and a large property near Southern Cross, covering thousands of hectares of productive farmland as part of its carbon offset partnership with Greening Australia.

"Farmers across regional Australia are rightly concerned that more and more productive land is being taken out of food production and livestock enterprises and locked up for carbon projects."

Mr Wilson said serious questions also remained about the role of government-backed institutions in facilitating the Rushy Lagoon sale.

"TasFarmers has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving Steven Skala AO, who sits on both the Foreign Investment Review Board and the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

"The CEFC stands to benefit directly from the expansion of carbon sequestration projects such as this, yet the CEFC chair also sits on the body responsible for assessing the foreign acquisition.

"Australians deserve complete transparency about how this decision was made, what role taxpayer-backed financing played, and how any potential conflicts were managed."

Mr Wilson also criticised the timing of the announcement after repeated FIRB delays and immediately following Parliament's rise for the winter recess.

"If the Government genuinely believes this decision is in the national interest, it should release the full FIRB assessment and financing arrangements behind the deal," he said.

"We should be backing farmers to produce food and fibre, not pricing them out of the market and handing productive farmland to foreign investors for carbon plantations.

"This sale should never have been approved, and Jim Chalmers must explain how turning one of Australia's great farming properties into a pine plantation serves Australia's national interest."

ENDS

Media contact: Reuben Keyser

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