Protecting Prime Ag Land - A Nationals Priority.

NATIONALS WILL PROTECT PRIME AGRICULTURAL LAND - AND AQUIFERS

Monday 2 March 2026

The SA Nationals have declared their elected MPs will vote to impose a strong farmland preservation scheme as The Nationals introduce similar laws in Canberra today.  The SA Nationals will use South Australian legislative powers to block any development on prime agricultural land that is not compliant with strict new laws to preserve food and water security.

Lead Nationals candidate in the Legislative Council, Rikki Lambert said the threats to food and water security are too great to allow our best farmland to be turned into a mine or covered in bitumen and concrete.

"The world has become a very unstable place, as we have seen over the weekend," Mr Lambert said, "The world's population is growing, global farmland is shrinking, water is becoming scarce and supply chains are being shaken to their core."

"The SA Nationals are today declaring we will use our seats in Parliament, if elected, to stop mining, housing or energy projects from diminishing our prime agricultural land or groundwater.  Those projects, on prime agricultural land, will be non-compliant with state planning laws."

The SA Nationals say they will follow Queensland and New South Wales - and a federal proposal being introduced by The Nationals in Canberra today - to map and protect prime agricultural land.  Queensland, for instance, through regulations has declared multiple features that define their 'strategic cropping land' including ability to retain water, gradient and absence of rocky soil.  Existing SA mapping would be the first port of call for determining where the state’s prime agricultural land is.

"As we did with the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale regions with state preservation legislation, it is time to preserve our best farming land across the state for our food security and future generations," Mr Lambert said.

"It follows that the SA Nationals would not support state government funding into projects that will diminish our best farming land. Instead we will introduce Prime Ag Offsets - any prime ag land taken out of the system would need to be offset by bringing other land in close proximity up to a better producing standard."

“To be clear, nothing in this announcement will prevent a farmer undertaking a privately-funded project on their own land.” 

The SA Nationals confirmed that existing or nearby irrigation infrastructure, such as in the Riverland, will also attract prime agricultural land protection as irrigation substitutes for the lack of decent rainfall in drier areas of the state.

"Prime agricultural land doesn't just happen - it is cultivated, protected from erosion and nurtured by generations of farmers.  When governments tell, for instance, irrigators to get off their land and mothball it, the land quickly ceases to be prime agricultural land.  We need to get good irrigated land back in production for our food security," Mr Lambert said.

"I grew up on the Murray River at Berri and our economy was going much stronger with the cannery and healthy commodity prices - Labor's buybacks of water entitlements and mismanagement of biosecurity have seen the Riverland in unnecessary and, it feels, intentional decline under Labor.  We need to back our farmers for our future, not discourage people from working and improving the land."

The SA Nationals will also protect ground water and aquifers from adverse impact from developments.  Jonathan Pietzsch, SA Nationals candidate for Mackillop in the state’s south-east, said aquifers don’t respect property boundaries and water security must be preserved.

 “We need to place a default test on development - whether housing, mining or energy generation - that prioritises prime agricultural land and our aquifers over other competing demands,” Mr Pietzsch said

“We get one shot at leaving productive, food producing land for the next generation - putting housing on top of market gardens or undertaking mining activities that have widespread impact on groundwater in productive areas isn’t going to future proof our food or do the right thing by those that come after us.”