Once again, the wisdom of Ronald Reagan’s aphorism that, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Here in Tasmania, the Rockliff government is here to help us manage the perils of swapping home-grown produce. You may think you’re just offloading your surplus of zucchinis – think again! You may be spreading deadly diseases! Diseases! And those old jam jars packed with relish made to your gran’s own recipe? Practically a salmonella outbreak waiting to happen!
Lucky for us, we’ve got the government here to help.
Strict regulations are proposed for local community food swaps and sale of excess backyard produce, which could increase food insecurity in regional Tasmania.
It goes much further than that: under the proposed regulations, crop swaps, community gardens, roadside stalls and donations to local charities can all be classified as ‘supply’. That triggers notification requirements, a public register and the completion of a 30-page Food Safety Management Plan. Biosecurity Tasmania will inspect gardens ‘periodically’. Failure to comply attracts fines.
Remember that time hundreds of people died after old Merle in St Leonards sold some of her jams at the local Sunday market? Neither can I. But you can never be too sure, finger-wag the nanny-state bureaucrats.
The Food Safety Management Plan – essentially a lengthy form – bureaucratises backyard food production […] The template demands details which do not fit the scale and context of home food production.
It assumes pre-planning of what is grown and predicted harvest quantities, multiple risk assessments, policies and procedures, water testing, and verification of all inputs.
Submissions from phase one of the consultation warned exactly what would happen. Growers on Flinders Island and in the far south said they would simply stop sharing or stop growing. Excess produce would rot. Food insecurity in regional communities would rise.
Yet, the government’s own Food Resilience Strategy 2025–2031 talks of building a “resilient, community-led food system” that is “localised where possible”. These regulations do the opposite. They disconnect communities and shut down the very networks the strategy claims to support.
One Nation Tasmania has called for a clear exemption covering crop swaps, community donations, roadside stands and limited direct sales. Food safety rules should be proportionate to actual risk. Backyard growers handing over a few kilos of surplus should not be treated like major commercial processors. Tasmanians shouldn’t be forced to swap vegies in secret like they’re making drug deals in a Smithton back-alley.
Public consultation closes at 5pm on Thursday, 30 July 2026. After that, Nan may need a risk assessment and a management statement before the annual blackberry jam pass-around. And don’t even dare think of going blackberrying by the roadside. Black-clad officers with savage dogs will no doubt swoop (or, more realistically, judging by the average Tasmanian public servant, the likely scenario is a low-speed pursuit on their mobility scooters as they furiously wave their lunch-lady arms at you) and thrash you to within an inch of your life.
The government, after all, is only here to help.
Update:
Well, that didn’t take long. Within a day of the storm over the proposed rule-changes breaking, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff announced that the contentious ‘produce swap’ legislation would be amended. On his Facebook page, Rockliff anounced that he was telling the bureaucrats to pull their heads in.
No Tasmanian should have to jump through the hoops and pay the fees that are being proposed to share their extra produce […]
I could certainly use some stronger language, but suffice to say the current plan doesn’t pass the pub test, the smell test or any other test.
Common sense has got to prevail.
This morning, I can announce that the department have been directed to go back to the drawing board and come back with a better plan that does not impact backyard growers […]
No changes will be approved that makes it harder for Tasmanians to grow, share, donate or sell small amounts of fresh local produce in their communities.
