I was almost going to say that the government had taken a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ approach to the Murray-Darling, but, while they’ve definitely done the former—they’ve taken a shot at Australian farmers—they actually haven’t even bothered to ask the question later. They haven’t done that part of it. They’re just shooting wildly at Australian farming policy and our agricultural development without asking any questions or going out and talking to farming communities about the impact.
We’ve heard from other speakers how the government worked to ensure that the Senate inquiry into this bill held no hearings in parts of the Murray-Darling where farming occurs. The only hearing that was held was here in Canberra, which is notionally part of the Murray-Darling but is not really renowned for its strong farming community and is certainly not renowned as an economy based on the use of water for agricultural purposes. The government asked no questions. They didn’t allow the Senate to get out there about the bill. Then they came into this place and moved a huge number of amendments to the original bill. I’m told by Senator Roberts there were 20-odd amendments here and 30-odd in the other place. Those amendments haven’t been subject to scrutiny or review.
We’re only talking about our country’s ability to grow food. It’s not that important, is it! We’re only talking about our ability to have food security for Australians. The Murray-Darling is our nation’s food bowl. It produces over 40 per cent of our food. Over 70 per cent of our peaches, our apples and our oranges come from the Murray-Darling Basin. This is very, very important, and yet the government has not even gone to places like Griffith, Shepparton, Renmark, Deniliquin—where Senator Davey is from—or Moree, Dirranbandi or St George in Queensland. It hasn’t gone to any of these places to actually work out what’s going to be the impact on our ability to grow food, on the costs of manufacturing our food and on the price of food for everyday Australians. They haven’t done that.
So I support Senator Roberts’s motion, albeit that it is late to be doing this. We should have had this committee before passing the bill. It is still better, if you have a shot, to ask some questions—to ask some questions about whether those shots are actually effective, because certainly Australian agriculture and Australian farmers feel like they are under the gun from this government. They feel like they’re in the government’s sights. Almost everything the government is doing is about taking rights away from farmers, hurting farmers and making their life harder than it already is. It’s a very hard life being a farmer, but this government is making it harder and harder. That’s the feedback we’re getting from farmers and it’s the feedback from polls of farmers who don’t support the government’s agenda.
It’s hard to identify anything positive at all that the government is doing to help and support farmers. They’re taxing them more to pay for biosecurity and they’re imposing more red tape and regulation on farmers. Here, they’re taking away people’s ability to grow food. They’re stripping the economic rug out from under these communities. The government won’t even give them the right to have their say to their nation’s parliament and to the representatives of that parliament.
A regrettable decision was made not to have hearings out in the Murray-Darling. I think it was referenced by Senator Ruston, Mr Rowan Ramsey from the other place and me. Mr Ramsey is the chair of the coalition’s agriculture backbench committee, and I’m the secretary. We took it on our own and said, ‘Let’s have our own hearings.’ We don’t have the resources of the Senate. I think we live streamed all of our discussions, but we didn’t have the resources to transcribe them and those sorts of things. But we took it on our own to get out there and listen to people and to give them some say about what is going on. I want to give credit to our shadow water minister, Senator Perin Davey, who joined us for those visits, and to the local members of parliament like Sam Birrell, Tony Pasin, Anne Webster, Mark Coulton and Sussan Ley—I think I’ve got them all—who came to those hearings. I should say I think we had some senators there as well.
That was good. It wasn’t as good as having a Senate inquiry, but having those discussions was worthwhile. We went to the Shepparton Preserving Company, where we heard in discussions with the head of SPC that the government’s changes, the government’s plans to buy that water from people, will force up their costs of buying water because less water will be available. The average cost of delivering water in the Shepparton district will be higher, so their costs will go up. And, if your costs go up, as the CEO of SPC said, they’ll have to pass them on. That means higher prices for consumers for basic food items in their shops. We heard this story all around the place.
And multiple people in the basin are having to pay more for energy now because the government has mismanaged that issue. A lot of food production in the basin is very energy intensive, especially manufacturing, dairy and refrigeration for perishable goods. So they are having to pay higher prices. I’ve met three different businesses who have in the last year installed diesel generators not just to save them money; it’s more to make sure they have a secure supply. They can’t have their fridge go off during blackouts, which we’re warned may happen this summer. So they’ve invested in that security at their own cost—adding more costs to their food production process by having diesel generators.
Some of those businesses are actually bidding to sell that diesel generation back to the energy regulator, AEMO, who are currently out there seeking secure energy supplies to try and gaffer-tape our electricity system back together in case we have blackouts this summer, as they’ve warned. That warning was made a few months ago in an official report, the so-called Electricity Statement of Opportunities—the ESOO—outcome statement, and that warning made in the ESOO that we face blackouts this summer triggers this auction process to try and get reliable supplies of energy through the system.
Isn’t it amazing that, if we go through summer without blackouts, it will be thanks to diesel generators running on imported fuel from overseas? Isn’t it wonderful that the internal combustion engine will come back and save the day again? But it will be very high cost. It won’t be that wonderful once our power bills turn up. Diesel generation is one of the more expensive types of power, especially where petrol prices are right now, and, of course, if you want to use these terms, it’s the dirtiest power. It’s even worse in terms of carbon emissions than coal, and yet the government will be relying on diesel generation to keep the lights on this summer. It’s an absolute embarrassment. It’s imposing more costs on our farmers and our farming communities, and that’s why they’re so frustrated with this government. This government has lost control and is doing nothing to help support their livelihoods and their jobs.
The least we could do for our farmers is to hold an inquiry. Let’s have an inquiry. Let’s get out there and go to these regional towns. Let’s get out of this camera bubble and not just spend all our time here. Let’s get out of the bush. It’s not going to hurt you. There are no snakes out there that will bite you. You’ll come back safe. There might be some people that are scared about that, but it will be okay. You can get a really good coffee in Griffith. Senator Perin Davey will be able to take you to Bertoldos. It’s a beautiful place and a lovely bakery. There are lots of lovely places in regional Australia that I know Labor and the Greens are a little bit worried about going. So get out there and support this motion and listen to the Australian people.
