The Labor Government has a standard mantra when asked what they are doing to help with the cost of living. The PM rolled it out on 4RO last week when asked by Aaron Stevens when he responded, “whether it’s cheaper medicines, cheaper childcare that began on September 1 … our energy price relief plan.”
Yet since Labor has been in power childcare prices have increased by 9 per cent and electricity prices are up by 13 per cent. Remember when they promised to cut our power bills by $275.
Now the Government is making another decision which will push food prices even higher. Labor has introduced legislation that would remove the cap that the former Liberal-National Government placed on water buybacks in the Murray-Darling.
The economics is simple. If we take water from farmers, they will grow less food and that will mean higher grocery prices.
The Murray-Darling is a long way from Central Queensland but it affects us all because it is our food bowl. The Murray-Darling produces 40 per cent of Australia’s food, and over 70 per cent of our oranges, peaches and grapes.
For the last two decades, governments from both sides of politics have sought to increase the amount of water in the Murray-Darling available for the environment. While controversial, a settlement had been reached in 2012 where a reasonable amount of water for the environment would be returned under the so-called Basin plan.
Importantly, the federal and state governments agreed to limit water recovery to ways that would not cause social or economic detriment to country towns. This is why the former Liberal-National Government placed a cap on water buybacks.
Water buybacks involve the government buying water from farmers so that it cannot be used to grow food. They are not so much buybacks from farmers as buyouts of farmers. Under this model, the farmer does ok, as they are paid out, but the town is left with less food grown and hence fewer farming jobs available and less custom for small business.
It is the poorest in these towns that do the worst, as jobs for fencing contractors dry up and customers dwindle at the local tyre shop. The Wakool region has lost almost half its population, 40 per cent of its dairy production and had a school close.
This is why the former Liberal-National Government capped water buybacks when it came to power a decade ago. We instead focused on investing in methods that could increase the efficiency of farming (laser levelling, lining channels and the like) so that water could be returned to the environment without reducing food production or economic activity.
The Labor party is now throwing away that consensus and seeking to restart the destructive buyback approach. The Labor party has not even had the guts to host Senate hearings in the country towns that will be affected. They blocked a motion we put to the Senate calling for such hearings.
So instead the Liberal-National party has taken our Backbench Committee to the Murray-Darling. As Secretary of this Committee I have spent most of this week there listening to farmers, small businesses and community members.
Their message has been clear. Buybacks will leave these great country towns high and dry. And, for the rest of us food prices will have to rise. As the great Australian company SPC told us water buybacks will mean that ” The cost of input to us would be higher and therefore, in order to recover cost and make a modest profit we have to sell at a higher price”
The only way to get the cost of living down is to help business produce more things. Increased supply will lower prices. The Government should reverse its attack on farmers before the cost of living crisis gets worse.
