Forget Shakespeare
Forget Shakespeare Not even the great conveyer of love, loss, heartbreak and betrayal would dream up something as outrageous as we have seen from The National Farmers Federation (NFF) and former Minister for Water and now Minister for Agriculture...
By Lloyd Polkinghorne
Not even the great conveyer of love, loss, heartbreak and betrayal would dream up something as outrageous as we have seen from The National Farmers Federation (NFF) and former Minister for Water and now Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud.
The first NFF list on their website
‘The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) is the peak national body representing farmers and, more broadly, agriculture across Australia. It is one of Australia’s foremost and respected advocacy organisations.
Since its inception in 1979, the NFF has earned a reputation as a leader in the identification, development and achievement of policy outcomes – championing issues affecting farmers and dedicated to the advancement of agriculture’
The second is the Morrison Governments Agriculture Minister, holding the highest honour of representing our national agricultural interests, Minister Littleproud represents the National Party, there website
‘We believe the future of regional Australia is critical to the future of our nation.
Our priorities are building stronger regional economies and secure communities, delivering opportunity and prosperity for all regional Australians, and ensuring a sustainable environment.
Stronger, more secure, sustainable local communities that provide the opportunity for everyone to prosper will deliver a stronger, more secure and sustainable nation.
The Nationals commitment to the national interest does not stop there. The Nationals provide a considered and commonsense perspective on all elements of Government policy and a balance between Australia’s political extremes’
It all reads well, strong statements about what they stand for, who they are and what they want for rural and regional Australia.
So where did it go so wrong?
I watched, like many people the 60 Minutes segment on food security. Chris Brookes Chair of Southern Riverina Irrigators highlighting the reduction in irrigated agriculture, the fall of our commodity and the ability for our regions to respond.
What I did not expect was what appeared to be co-ordinated efforts of the NFF, lead by Fiona Simpson and Minister Littleproud to attack the claims of food security issues with Tweets, Facebook post, Newspaper articles, press release and radio interviews.
“We grow enough food to feed 75 million people” was shouted from the roof tops. Where did these figures come from? The Bridge emailed Minister Littleproud office at the time and did not receive a response.
The figure appeared to be based on the statistic that we export two thirds of our agricultural product and therefore consume one third. We are a population of 25 million people, therefore we can feed 75million?
ABARES then published a report on 17 April 2020 that said Australia exports 70% of its agricultural product. This was reported widely and uncritically in several outlets https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coronavirus-no-risk-to-australia-s-food-security-littleproud-says-20200416-p54kip.html
The narrative had changed though, we no longer fed 70 million people we exported 70% of our production. That is a lot of export, but it’s not all food staples……
The 70% agriculture exports includes non-edibles such as fibre (wool and cotton), forestry, wine and sugar. Since 2000, between 24 and 32% of Australia’s agricultural exports were not food.
It also represents the highest amount of historical exports, which also coincide with wet years (as opposed to the current dry years).
Maybe they forgot about the figures and ABARE quotes in the ABC article https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-03/farm-incomes-set-to-drop-as-drought-coronavirus-shrink-exports/12011854, here’s a couple
“In its latest outlook, released today, ABARES found billions of dollars had been stripped from the farm sector in recent years, falling from a record high of $63.8 billion in 2016–17 to a forecast $59 billion in 2019–20.
The total volume of farm production has also tumbled, down 18 per cent from the 2016–17 record”
Even Rice Growers of Australia who are a members of NFF, had to come out to counter the rosy picture being painted “ABARES gives false comfort on COVID-19 risks to local and international rice supplies” https://www.rga.org.au/Public/Content/News/Media/2019/20200417_ABARES_false%20comfort_COVID-19.aspx
I cannot lay this this at Shakespeare’s feet, the story is about as well thought out as the drunk at the bar that listens to your well thought out argument and states “is not”. The very real concern is though this is the behaviour of National Farmers Federation and our Federal Minister for Agriculture.
The people on the ground are waking up, this week’s poll by Member for Murray Helen Dalton asked a simple question
“Does the National Farmers' Federation do a good job representing all Australian farmers?” at the time of writing there were 2,100 respondents with 96% selecting NO and 4% selecting YES.
The real tragedy is they hold the privilege of advocating on the behalf of people on the ground, people who face real impacts by the decisions made in Canberra.
I’ll leave you with a question, if someone is prepared to make these ridiculous statements against your position publicly, what do they say behind closed doors?
