 Welcome to our approved advisor webinar. My name is Pahir Cooper. I work for the Restoration Fund as Senior Engagement Officer. With me today, I have my manager, Tom Webster, and he'll also address everyone in a moment. So we've got about 14 people online. So thank you all for joining us. It should be a pretty short presentation. Most of it is about new changes to the carbon farming advice scheme and approved advisor refresh training that we're running right now. So I will get started. Hope, can everyone see my PowerPoint and can hear me fine? No worries. There is a chat function. So if you do have any questions while I'm going along, please feel free to enter your questions, Tom, or I will see if we can get to them. But there will definitely be a moment to ask questions at the end. Before we begin, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians in the land on which I am today, which is in Brisbane, the Terrible and Yagura people on which we meet today and their elders both past, present, and emerging. We are recording today. So if anyone has any issues, please turn off your camera and we will be using the recording, possibly on our website or just through an email to the other approved advisors so that they can get the same information. And yeah, so lastly, the slides will be available on our website for the other approved advisors. So what we're gonna cover today, approved advice of refresher training, some of the changes that we've made for the carbon farming advice scheme. Tom will take us through some tips on how you can best use the new scheme. We will talk a bit about the standards guidelines. So we've made that specifically to help you to give the best advice to our landowners. The new payment permit process, any claims and issues that you may have and how we'll deal with them. And then lastly, any questions that you have. So to start with, we are asking all of our approved advisors to run through a refresher training. So we've updated our online training. There's been lots of changes in the Australian carbon farming sector, the CHUB review. There's been updates to internally for the land restoration fund including our co-benefit standard. And then lastly, any of those changes to the carbon farming advice scheme that we're gonna talk about today are all mentioned in that new training. So all approved advisors need to go through the new training and send us through the completion certificate that you'll get at the end. And that has to be done by the 29th of September. So we're asking you to do that just so that everyone's up to date and giving the same advice to our landowners. Also, if you'd like to, go on and check the Q-Rider directory which is where landowners will go to find an approved advisor so that you can check that your details are up to date because that's the primary way landowners will find you to spend their carbon farming advice scheme assistance money. So that needs to be done. A lot of people have already done that and sent that through but that needs to be done by 29th of September. We will send out an email reminder if you have already got the link for that training. So now we'll get on to the carbon farming advice scheme. So we've run this twice now already and this is our third round. We've renamed it because we have made a couple of changes but the objective is still the same to assist landholders with the cost of accessing advice from LRF specific approved advisors about carbon farming on their land. So importantly, what we wanted to stress is it doesn't have to be for an LRF project. It can be for any Australian approved carbon farming project. The reason we're doing this is we want our landowners to have the best access to advice of carbon farming on their land. If it is for an LRF project, specifically with co-benefits, that would be great because they could get a lot more value from a project like that. So firstly, advice does not have to be for an LRF carbon project. The advice is for up to $10,000. Again, that's the same as previously, including GST. So they can mix and match advisors for up to that amount of money. So in our previous two rounds, more than 190 people have used this scheme. So we're really happy with the amount of people that are accessing it and hopefully the advice that they're getting. We do have a couple of changes to make sure that the advice is to the most benefit for our landholders and Tom's going to take you through that now. What's up on the head? Oh, can everyone hear me okay if I just speak through like that? Okay, great. G'day everyone, my name's Tom Webster and I'm one of the managers with the Land Restoration Fund. So as Pahia mentioned, we've made a couple of changes to the scheme and that follows an evaluation that we did in the past two rounds. And I should start by saying that for the most part, the results of that evaluation showed that the scheme's working quite well. A lot of the advice going out was of a really high quality. We spoke to plenty of landholders who were happy with the advice they had received. But a few things came out that showed we had some issues with the scheme that we needed to tweak. And the first of those was there was a variable quality of advice. And that told us that advisors needed some more information and guidance from us in order to create consistent, high quality reports. So to that end, we developed a standards guide, the carbon farming advice scheme. And that sets out exactly what we expect to see. In fact, what we must see in the reports that go to landholders those expectations are different depending on what sort of advice you're providing. So take a close look at that carbon farming advice standard so you know what's expected when you submit your report. The second thing that we found was that out-of-pocket payment was an issue for some people, especially in the First Nations space. And as a result of that, we've changed the payment process. So now approved advisors, you guys will be paid directly by Q-Writer. Once your report has been submitted and reviewed and approved by Q-Writer and the Land Restoration Fund, we'll pay you directly. Landholders will not pay any money out-of-pocket. So even though the invoice will be to them, the landholder just uploads that to the Q-Writer portal and Q-Writer makes the payment. So there's no exchange of funds from the landholder to approved advisors. And here we'll talk about this process a little bit more shortly. But that's an important one because we need to make sure that there isn't confusion around the payments with landholders paying and then Q-Writer paying. It could get messy. The third thing that came out in the conversations we had with landholders was that some landholder participants weren't necessarily familiar with their entitlements under the scheme. So we spoke to some farmers who didn't feel like they needed the advice to start with. We spoke to some who didn't think they were particularly interested in carbon farming. Some had been told they needed to sign up to a future carbon farming contract in order to get the advice. And all in all, it probably showed that it was a not particularly well-informed consumer group and that there are a couple of advisors out there that were taking advantage of that a little bit. So this round we attempted to address that issue with farmers not being clear about what the scheme is for and what they can get out of it in a few different ways. Firstly, we're providing landholders with better information on the scheme. So this time around, we've created a value for money document that's specifically for landholders but it'll also be of interest to approved advisors because that value for money document sets out questions that we recommend landholders ask approved advisors as part of the sort of process of understanding what advisor to work with and it also sets some expectations around what landholders should expect to see in their report. So it's intended for landholders but it's only four or five pages and well worth a read for approved advisors to start anticipating sort of questions you might get. The second process change is that we've made it mandatory for landholders to submit their own applications. So landholders need to lead the process of applying for the carbon farming advice scheme all the way through. That means you as approved advisors and other third parties can't submit the application on their behalf and that's a bit of a change because we did see for the most part last time around approved advisors led that application process. We're really trying to bring landholders into this process a little bit more so they understand exactly what they can get from the scheme. For our part, we've worked hard to make sure that the process is as streamlined as possible and that there's not a great burden on landholders to get through to that approval process and to upload the documents that they need but they will need to do it themselves in tick a box saying they've done it. So that's a change from last time. And the final thing that we've done to try and prepare landholders a little bit better and make sure they get good quality advice is we've made it a requirement that landholders seek and upload quotes from approved advisors as part of their application to enter the scheme. So if you're a landholder seeking advice from a solicitor or an accountant, you only need to upload one quote but any other category, so the majority of our advisors, landholders will need to seek out two quotes. So what that means for you is you can expect a few inquiries from people who are looking for quotes for broadly similar advice. So that they can finalize their application to get into the carbon farming advice scheme. So that means that landholders will have a better idea of the options and the prices out there but it also allows us to do a much better job of tracking the kind of advice that people are seeking and the kind of funds that are being asked for from the scheme before it gets too far along. So as I said, that means for you, you're gonna start getting some requests for quotes once this opens on the 17th of July. And the final finding I'll talk about from our evaluation process is that the LRF and Q-writer didn't have any recourse for withholding payment for ineligible advice. And as I said, most of the reports and most of the advice we saw was good. But we saw some that was blatantly ineligible or that charged a large amount of money for a small amount of advice and that landholder had already paid for that advice. So we had no way of turning around and saying the advice does not match the invoice or the advice does not match what this scheme is for. So under the updated scheme, that payment from Q-writer to the approved advisor will be dependent on your final report and invoice meeting the standards set out in that standards guide. I should say the standards guide is not onerous but here we'll talk about it soon. It actually should help you because it sets out some of the headings and information we want to see in reports. But you will be required to meet that standard in order for the payment to be made. Can you jump to the next slide? Thanks for here. All right, so this is just a recap. Changes for you, your reports have got to meet that CFAS standards guide. The second one is that you'll need to provide quotes to landholders before they can even enter the scheme. And that the third one is that the invoices, your invoices will be paid by Q-writer, not the landholder. And the main changes for landholders, they've got to submit their own application this time around and they'll have to upload the final report and the invoice from the approved advisor to Q-writer portal to trigger the payment to the advisor. So those are the main changes that we've had between the last two rounds and the one that's opening on the 17th of July. Thank you, Tom. So the CFAS standards guide is found on our website but there is a link through from the Q-writer website as well. So it's three or four pages, sets out the minimum expectations for written reports. These are the starting point headings. So all these headings need to be included but we're hoping that you'll really fill in with a lot of detail and give as much advice and value to our landowners. So the report standards, especially for environmental consultants, project developers and agribusiness consultants laid out pretty specifically and for solicitors and accountants, we have got standards for you as well. So payment can be withheld until these standards are met. Now we want to talk a little bit about if these standards aren't met. So first point of call, check the CFAS standards guide. If we do have an issue, we'll come back to you and we will negotiate. So we will get in contact with you and we can ask you to amend reports and send it out to the landowner and then payment can be, you know, go forth. So we'll talk about that in a moment. So the new payment process, the landholder applies with their two quotes. The landholder receives approval from Q-Rider, they've got an email saying you have conditional approval to proceed. The approved advisor then is contacted by the landholder and then gives the report and an invoice using those headings in the CFAS guide. The landholder submits their finished report and the invoice to Q-Rider. Q-Rider, are they also then, sorry, complete a short satisfaction survey. Q-Rider talks to us. So the LRO for Q-Rider together decide if the report and the invoice meet our standards. If yes, Q-Rider then pays the approved advisor. So we do not provide advice to a landholder before they have written an approval to proceed. So yes, there may be a couple of days between when they've submitted their quotes before they do get their approval from Q-Rider. So it's that email of conditional approval to proceed that will ensure that payment is given to the approved advisor if it meets the standards. The advice provided prior to Q-Rider approval is ineligible for payment. Did you want to add anything there Tom or us? So disputed claims when hoping that this won't happen if all of our extra additional resources that we have given to both landholders and advisors. If it does, we want to work with you and the landholder to make sure everyone has got the most for their money. LRF will contact advisors to directly notify them if their advice does not meet the minimum standards. Advisors will be given opportunity to amend their report. Then once we've reviewed that process, the landholder is happy, the advisor has amended the report, then we will allow payment. So advisors have the opportunity to review the decision through Q-Rider's review process as well. So it's not the end of the road if we do not, if the report does not meet minimum standards, it's just working with you and us. And again, the landowners, we want them to get the most value. So just if we keep that in mind, we'll get to the end of that road. So follow the CFAS standard guide and contact us in advance. If there is a reason your report cannot meet the required standards. So for example, if the property isn't going to be eligible and there's not a need for certain soil tests, et cetera, if you write to us and let us know that there may not be as much detail on the report as possible, then maybe we can come to an agreement. Anything you wanted to add there, Tom? No. So that's about all. I wanted to add that it's opening on the 17th of July. We've put out a lot of comms through our channels to let people know if you yourself would like to let landholders know that this is available. It will close in December or once the money allocated to it has been exhausted.