Full property positions
PDF – complete policy positions across all property issues.
Private Property Rights
Practical positions. Clear principles.
Secure private property rights underwrite all human rights and allow strong democracies to flourish. The PGA exists to ensure that Western Australian landholders remain the primary decision-makers on their own land. Government agencies, corporations and others must respect the basic principles of land tenure; principles established as far back as the Magna Carta in 1215, which have since become the bedrock of legislation across Western democracies.
PGA of WA
We will continue to fight, with every available resource, to defend the private property rights of our members and ensure that those who produce food and fibre for the nation are protected, not persecuted
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Security of tenure is the prerequisite for everything else
Any government action that removes land from agricultural production, or significantly hampers the normal operations of a farming or pastoral enterprise, must trigger a right to fair compensation. For pastoral lessees, the PGA calls for a statutory right of renewal for compliant leaseholders; at the option of the leaseholder; to make pastoral leases genuinely bankable assets.
Heritage laws must facilitate coexistence, not create conflict
The PGA acknowledges the importance of protecting cultural heritage. However, legislative frameworks must be workable and must not grant powers that allow for the effective ransom of a farming business. Landholders must be genuine parties to any consultation, and cultural heritage must not operate as a blanket veto over normal farming practices.
Fair and equitable access to natural resources, including water
The PGA asserts the right of landholders to fair access to the natural resources of their land. Development opportunities; from irrigated agriculture to carbon farming, must be accessible to all enterprises, not just large corporate interests.
Landholders are managers, not merely users
Farmers and pastoralists live on the land with their families and employees. They are its long-term stewards; playing a critical role in biosecurity, pest control, fire management, and environmental and cultural conservation. Government policy should support and resource landholders in this role, not obstruct them with impractical regulations that ignore on-ground realities.
Gary Peacock
Chair of Private Property Rights Committee
Dave Wren
Vice Chair of Private Property Rights Committee
Margi Weir
Policy Officer
The Origins of Property Rights
1215 MAGNA CARTA
The PGA’s commitment to private property rights is not a modern political position; it is rooted in principles that reach back over eight centuries. When King John signed the Magna Carta, it set out to limit the powers of the Monarch, codifying the right to swift and fair justice, habeas corpus, trial by peers, and the presumption of innocence. Most critically for landholders, it established that no free person could be deprived of their property, liberty or livelihood except by the lawful judgment of their equals or by the law of the land.
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