Nationals Leader, David Littleproud, said the appointment of a new Agriculture Minister won’t change the Albanese Labor Government’s litany of disastrous decisions that have impacted the agricultural sector in just two years.
Julie Collins has inherited the agriculture portfolio after the Prime Minister reshuffled his cabinet and moved Senator Murray Watt to Employment and Workplace Relations.
“During the past two years, Labor’s agenda has increased taxes, cut funding, abolished industries, and failed to stand up for farmers, which is driving up the cost of living for Australian families,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Julie Collins won’t change anything because agriculture is seen as a stepping stone into cabinet for Labor members and Minister Collins will toe the line.
“When Julie Collins was last Shadow Minister for Agriculture, she visited farmers outside Tasmania on two occasions over 18 months and could not detail one Labor policy in the election debate.
“Julie Collins has no interest in agriculture and has been punished for her poor performance in housing, so now not only farmers will pay but all Australians will pay through higher prices for their food and fibre from a government uninterested in agriculture.
“This Labor Government’s treatment of farmers has caused the industry to take an extraordinary vote of no-confidence in this government, Murray Watt and Anthony Albanese which hasn’t been seen for more than 40 years.
“Murray Watt and Anthony Albanese’s only lasting accomplishment was to unite ag industries in their disdain for the Albanese Government.
“From being slow and weak to take action on major supermarket gouging, to trying to push through a Fresh Food Tax and abolishing the live sheep export industry, this Labor Government has failed farmers time and again, and I call on the new Agriculture Minister to step up in Cabinet and start reversing the wrongs of the past two years.”
Mr Littleproud said amongst numerous policy issues impacting the agriculture sector, the 10 first priorities of the new Minister included:
- Reinstate the live sheep export industry that Labor abolished.
- Scrap Labor’s Fresh Food Tax, which taxes farmers for the biosecurity risks of foreign competitors.
- Take action against major supermarkets gouging farmers and families by delivering tougher penalties like divestiture.
- Reinstate the ag visa that Labor scrapped, and which deprived regional Australia of a critical workforce.
- Start protecting agricultural land against major renewable and transmission developers under Labor’s reckless race to 82 per cent renewables by 2030.
- Stand up in Cabinet against Labor’s Water Buybacks that will deprive river communities of food-producing water supplies.
- Bolster biosecurity measures against threats such as the Red Imported Fire Ants and Varroa Mite.
- Fix the damage Labor has done to the PALM Scheme.
- Stand up against Labor’s financial policies that impact family farming operations, like proposed superannuation changes and financial carbon emission reporting.
- Advocate in Cabinet for reversing Labor’s cuts and delays to road and rail projects that underpin productivity.
“Murray Watt has left a legacy of treating Australian farmers with contempt and ignoring their needs during his time as Agriculture Minister,” Mr Littleproud said.
“There won’t be too many farmers sad to see Murray Watt’s departure and if this Labor Government’s track record over the past two years is anything to go by, his successor won’t treat farmers much differently.”
