In an overwhelming vote, delegates at the NSW Farmers conference in Sydney on July 23 and 24, supported the location of nuclear power plants at coal-fired power sites.
The federal opposition in June announced a policy to build nuclear plants on coal sites, two of which are located in NSW — in the Hunter Valley and Lithgow.
Farmer Ross Durham supported the coalition's plan, which he said would provide a baseline energy source for the state, while others argued there had been an over-investment in ‘unreliable’ renewables.
A motion for a moratorium on industrial scale wind and solar developments in NSW did not pass and was sent to an association committee to be reviewed.
Those in favour of the moratorium said there was a lack of transparency and safety concerns around projects, arguing they were only calling for a temporary halt.
Others argued the motion was based on ideology and renewable projects were critical for the nation's future power supply.
A motion to implement a $20-per-head feral pig bounty also failed.
Limited government resources, questions around a bounty's effectiveness, security and trespassing concerns and the risk of creating incentives for people to reintroduce or allowing them to breed to claim more bounties were reasons behind the motion failing.
Farmers will instead call for more resources and funding from the government for research into biological pig controls and support for coordinated eradication efforts.
Farmers also want daylight savings wound back in NSW. They say the practice, which has been in place in NSW since 1971, is unfair to those from regional communities.
However, NSW Premier Chris Minns, who addressed the conference on Wednesday, ruled out any changes to the scheme.
Charged up over renewable energy
The conference heard farmers want to force renewable energy developers to maintain the agricultural productivity of farming land, calling for more control over projects.
Producers have been frustrated by a lack of planning and consultation on the rollout of renewable energy including the location of transmission lines.
Delegates are also seeking payments to farmers hosting renewable energy projects to be extended for the life of the project and not the 25-year term currently being offered.
"Delegates are expressing their frustration ... most are saying in living memory they can't remember anything so badly thought through," re-elected NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin said.
"The impact on the landscape on some of our prime agricultural land is just appalling."
Mr Minns described land use challenges as “massive”.
"I don't have easy answers ... coal-fired power stations, that we don't own, are being closed down, progressively over the next 10 years, and there's a rush to get renewable energy generated inland to the east coast energy grid,“ Mr Minns said.
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