The current Labor Government is the most anti-farmer government in our history because no government before has put an entire farming industry out of business.
A few weeks ago, the Government announced that the 4000 farmers in the live sheep export industry would be made criminals under Labor’s proposed laws that ban their industry.
An Australian Government has never legislated to ban an entire, existing farming industry.
When pressed on why it is doing this, the Government rests back on the excuse that it was an “election” commitment?
Why did Labor make the election commitment?
Well, the Animal Justice Party say that it was so Labor could get its preferences.
After the recent Dunkley by-election they put out a media release claiming that they delivered “the knockout blow” to the [live sheep] trade “by demanding the end of live sheep export as a requirement for our preferences at the Dunkley By-election in March.”
While the 4000 farmers are all in Western Australia, far away from us, if Labor can shut down an industry because it is electorally convenient, what is stopping them doing the same to Queensland’s live cattle industry?
The Animal Justice Party are already looking for their next target, announcing recently that they are in preference negotiations aimed at “making the end of live cattle export the next AJP policy and political win.”
All of this explains why the National Farmers’ Federation recently passed a vote of no confidence in Labor’s agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, the first time they had done so in 40 years.
And, it is not just the fact that this Labor Minister is putting farmers off the land, it is how he is doing it too.
At Senate estimates hearings last week, the government claimed there were no estimates of how many live sheep farmers would exit sheep farming due to the impending ban.
Yet when I put to them that a government commissioned report found that 14 to 44 per cent of farmers could leave the industry, it was soon revealed that the Minister had not even read the report his Government had commissioned.
The Minister was also unaware that this report had found that 40 per cent of truck drivers could exit the industry or that many shearers could leave too because of the knock on effects to the wool sector.
What became clear was that Labor politicians are ignoring any inconvenient truths about their plans to make farming illegal.
The last time a Labor Minister acted with this level of reckless indifference was when Joe Ludwig banned the live cattle industry.
At least Joe had the excuse of acting in the panicked fallout from the Four Corners documentary.
Joe Ludwig’s reckless indifference was an act of passion, Murray Watt’s reckless indifference is premeditated.
The Government is offering just $64 million to help farmers, truck drivers, shearers and others to transition away from live sheep exports.
That works out to be just $16,000 per farmer.
How can a sheep farmer start cropping for an amount of money that wouldn’t even buy a Suzuki Swift, let alone a tractor?
What’s worse is that it appears that farmers will have to compete against each other for these limited funds in a Hunger Games type process.
The Labor party was formed in Central Queensland (in Barcaldine) to support shearers striking about their pay and conditions.
The modern Labor party is a long way from the tree of knowledge now that it actively backs laws to put shearers out of work.
