Opportunistic politicians attack farmers

A number of city politicians have moved to use farmers as a political weapon to raise their profiles in an election year, Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said today.

 

When farmers across the country feel their most vulnerable from drought and flood they’re being attacked for politicians who have relevance deprivation. Politicians should understand they’re playing with real people’s lives.

 

“The Labor Party has moved to axe the cap on water buybacks; Centre Alliance wants to ban cotton exports and the Greens are aiming to create Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

 

“We’ve just had a Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan. The Greens had a chance in September to put a disallowance on the Northern Basin Review but didn’t, so this is nothing more than a cheap stunt

 

Farmers and basin communities finally had certainty after almost 10 years of argument when all states agreed in December on the neutrality test to recover water. But the Greens want to rip that away for a political witch hunt.

 

“The so-called Centre Alliance’s plan to end cotton exports would cost 10,000 jobs and would not put an extra drop of water into the river system. Farmers would use that same water to grow another less profitable crop.

 

“Some 90 per cent of our cotton is exported so Centre Alliance’s export ban would shut the whole industry down. Further, 90 per cent of Australia’s 1200 cotton farms are family owned and they produce 80 per cent of our cotton. Country people cannot risk Centre Alliance getting the balance of power because they’ll cost us 10,000 jobs.

 

“Centre Alliance claims exporting cotton is like exporting water because water is used to produce cotton. Well here’s a lesson for Centre Alliance: almost every farm export requires water and Australia exports two thirds of its farm produce. Australia’s economy would collapse without farm exports. Using water to grow things is called farming and feeding the nation. Does Centre Alliance want to ban all farming?

 

“Labor’s move to axe the 1500 gigalitre cap on water buybacks means it could buy back a whopping 650 gigalitres from rural communities, costing potentially thousands of jobs.

 

“Labor is introducing a Bill in the Senate today aiming to axe the cap on water buybacks in the Basin.

 

“Labor wants to start water buybacks and slash rural jobs again; the Coalition wants to save water by modernising infrastructure and save rural jobs.

 

“Buying back more water from rural communities kills jobs in those communities. Farmers with less water grow less food and employ less people.

 

“Labor hasn’t learned the lessons from when it was last in Government, when it smashed rural employment with water buybacks.

 

“It’s better to recover the remaining water through upgrading infrastructure so less water is lost.

 

“For instance, if we build a pipe where there was a leaky drain, the water we save can be given to the environment without taking it from a farmer. We protect jobs, we protect food production and we protect Basin communities.”