FEDERAL Member for Parkes Mark Coulton will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of farmers from across the country next week, in an unprecedented rally against Labor’s anti-farming ideology.
Mr Coulton said Labor is destroying agriculture and making life impossible for the nation’s producers of food and fibre, due to endless cuts to the regions, anti-farming legislation and unnecessary red tape.
“The Nationals 100 per cent support our farmers attending the National Farmer Rally outside Canberra Parliament House,” Mr Coulton said.
“This Labor Government has decimated our farming and agriculture industry in the Parkes electorate. It has been more than 40 years since farmers last felt so aggrieved to protest against a government.
“It’s easy to understand why our farmers are fed up, after being constantly attacked by Labor and its anti-farming policies, from water buybacks to reckless renewables and its senseless phase out of our live sheep export trade.”
The Nationals are demanding 10 key changes by Labor:
Reinstate the live sheep export trade;
Bring back the Agriculture Visa and fix Labor’s PALM scheme mess;
Stop Labor’s water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin;
Introduce a container levy (so our own farmers don’t pay for the biosecurity risk created by international competitors);
Reverse Labor’s cuts to regional infrastructure;
Stop Labor’s truckie tax and vehicle efficiency standard;
Create a mix of energy, rather than Labor’s all-renewables approach, which is destroying agricultural land;
Scrap harmful emissions profiles, or Scope 3;
Stop Labor’s proposed taxes on superannuation, which will impact family farms; and
Ensure the 88-day backpacker work visa remains in place for the agriculture sector.
“These 10 key areas are crucial to farming, agriculture and regional Australia,” Mr Coulton said.
“The Nationals will not stop fighting until common sense prevails and our farmers get a fair go.”
Meanwhile, industry body WoolProducers Australia has urged growers to attend next week’s National Farmer Rally, claiming out-of-touch Federal Government policy has decimated the Western Australian wool industry.
WPA said its encouragement to attend the rally followed alarming findings announced in the Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee report in mid-August.
The second forecast for shorn wool production for 2024-25, predicts a significant decline in Western Australia’s wool production to 44.7 million kilograms greasy, which marks a staggering 18.8 percent decrease from 2023-24.
WPA chief executive officer Jo Hall said the 10 September rally is essential to demonstrate that agriculture needs to be at the forefront of government policy decisions, not as an afterthought while chasing popularist votes.
“With many Australians already struggling to afford food, it makes no sense for the government to marginalise the agricultural sector further,” Ms Hall said.
“It’s a big gamble being taken in organising this rally, so we are urging all of those that can attend to make the effort.”
Ms Hall expressed concern over the declining sentiment among sheep producers, citing the May 2024 Sheep Producers Intentions Survey, that indicated a 24 percent drop in grower confidence compared to the previous year.
“The May SPIS findings on grower confidence seems to ring true where it reported projected declines in both breeding ewe and wether flocks, which will have significant repercussions for the national wool clip,” she said.
