Agricultural Tenancies Act 1990 (NSW)

Agricultural Tenancies Act 1990 No 64

An Act to regulate the rights of agricultural landowners, tenants and sharefarmers and to provide for the resolution of disputes between them; to repeal the Agricultural Holdings Act 1941; and for other purposes.

Part 1 Preliminary

1 Name of Act This Act may be cited as the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1990.

2 Commencement This Act commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation.

3 Objects The objects of this Act are— (a) to encourage agricultural landowners and their tenants and sharefarmers to have regard, in farming practices to the principles of ecologically sustainable development (as described by section 6 (2) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991) insofar as they are capable of applying to those farming practices and, to maintaining sustainable agricultural production and preventing the degradation of the environment, and (b) to encourage the use of written agreements for agricultural tenancies and to set out terms that are taken to apply to all agricultural tenancies, including terms setting out rights of the parties, and (c) to provide a mechanism for settling disputes between parties to agricultural tenancies through applications to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal. (d) (Repealed)

4 Definitions (1) In this Act— agricultural purposes means grazing, dairying, pig-farming, poultry farming, viticulture, orcharding, bee-keeping, horticulture, vegetable growing, the growing of crops of any kind, forestry, or any combination of any of those things. exercise a function includes perform a duty. farm means a piece of land not less than 1 hectare in area occupied or used by a tenant and which is wholly or mostly used or intended to be used for agricultural purposes. function includes a power, authority or duty. improvement means any work or thing carried out on a farm in the course of a tenancy, being a work or thing that would be of value to an incoming tenant, but does not include the repair or replacement of any work or thing on the farm when the tenant first became a tenant, except as provided by this Act. owner means any person for the time being entitled to the rents and profits of a farm. sustainable agricultural production is agricultural production that complies with the following criteria— (a) responsiveness to consumer needs for food and fibre products that are healthy and of high quality, (b) the taking into account of the cost of production, including environmental costs, and pricing that reflects those costs, (c) the protection and restoration of the natural resource base on which agricultural depends, (d) the prevention of adverse on-site and off-site impacts on the environment and any sector of the community, (e) be flexible in order to accommodate regional differences and changing economic, environmental and social circumstances such as drought or terms of trade, (f) financial viability. These features of sustainable agriculture should be considered as a package, and no single feature should predominate over the others. tenancy means a lease or licence, an agreement for a lease or licence, a tenancy at will or a sharefarming arrangement or any other arrangement by which a person who is not the owner of the farm has a right to occupy or use it. tenant includes a sharefarmer and any person whose right of occupancy or use of a farm is derived from the tenant, but does not include a tenant employed by the owner. Tribunal means the Civil and Administrative Tribunal.