NGINA Advocacy and Policy Development

NGINA actively represents the interests of the green industry employers in legislative and regulatory affairs.

Our goal is to advocate the industrys unique interests before government with integrity and competence, providing our members with a favourable legislative and regulatory environment in which green industry growers, distribution and retail firms, and landscape professionals can prosper.

Whether the issue involves your businesss need for a legal, reliable labour supply, access to critical agricultural programs, or legislation that would affect the day-to-day operation of your green industry business, the NGINA ensures that the return on your membership investment is the promotion and safeguarding of the business that you have worked hard to build.

Policy Platform - Green Industry Priorities

Repeal or scale back anti-business laws and regulations and demand greater scrutiny of the impact of new regulations.

Encourage investment in plants and the managed landscape. Plants and landscapes purify air and water, reduce energy consumption, add to property values, and improve quality of life. NGINA support NGIA who are pushing for research to better quantify benefits of plants and managed landscapes, and for greater public and private sector landscape investments.

Ensure a stable, reliable, and affordable workforce. NGINA have made submissions to two committees on education in the sector to ensure that the Government continues to support investment in training initiatives for our industry and that the school curriculum gives students the understanding and basic tools that will enable them to consider our industry as a career choice.

Tools for the future. The research initiatives funded through the pot levy, tools and resources to attain nursery certification, a continued push for nursery registration are some of the ways NGINA are focused on creating a green future for the original green industry.

NGINA Policy Work

Recently we have made the following submissions:

Nursery & Garden Industry Structure Review

Nursery & Garden Industry Network Structural Change Advisory Committee Terms of Reference

Review of Nursery Award

We have been working in conjunction with Australian Business Lawyers (ABL) as part of our membership of the NSW Business Chamber to assist us in the two year review of the Awards that we manage with our membership. The primary award is the Nursery Award and since its inception in 2010 there are clauses in it that relate to the transitional arrangements from the various State Awards.

The main review is to ensure that changes to these clauses do not bring about any misinterpretation of the awards application. A submission has already been made that dismisses many of the ambit claims that the union wants to insert into awards.

Download the full submission document that ABL submitted

The final submission will go to the Exposure Draft which will be submitted soon. The State and National CEO’s of the NGI have been reviewing the documents so there has been really strong representation nationally on this review.

Biosecurity

As part of the development of the materials to support the NSW Biosecurity Act 2015, a number of discussion papers on proposed management relating to certain/specific situations posing a biosecurity risk have been posted for public comment by NSW DPI on how best to achieve a regulatory framework that can respond to and manage biosecurity risks.The NGINA reviewed 8 discussion papers with 3 formal submissions regarding: Weeds; Abandoned and Neglected Horticultural Enterprises and Citrus Red Mite, whilst 5 submissions (Banana Industry, Beekeeping in NSW, Grapevine Phylloxera, Potato Industry and Queensland Fruit Fly) were made online via the “survey monkey”.

The 3 formal submissions can be found below with support for improved resources, education of the general public, support for a registration and education scheme for the nursery and garden industry to reduce the potential biosecurity risk for NSW.

To review the discussion papers go to go to www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/biosecurity-act-2015/discussion-papers

Training