WA farmers ‘hope like hell’ election ‘greenslide’ won’t make them scapegoats in the fight to reduce emissions

WA farmers fear the State’s $11 billion agricultural industry could become a scapegoat for hitting emission reduction targets after a “greenslide” propelled a record number of Greens MPs into the Senate. Farmers are “hoping like hell” Labor will not be “beholden” to the Greens in passing legislation, with the climate-focused party holding a record 12 seats in the Upper House and on-track to hold the balance of power. Labor has committed to a net zero emissions by 2050 target — as did the ousted Coalition — however it has set itself a more ambitious emission reduction target of a 43 per cent cut by 2030. The Greens, however, are determined to hit net zero emissions 15 years faster — by 2035 — and cut emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, targets they could push Labor towards if they hold the balance of power. There are fears any “unnecessary impost” put on farmers to achieve climate targets could make the businesses they have built for generations “unviable” and threaten food security. Industry groups are yet to learn the finer details of the Labor party’s plan for agriculture in regards to climate action, with WAFarmers grains section president Mic Fels cautiously optimistic, but concerned. “Because Labor are not so ideologically opposed to climate change (as the Liberals), they may have some more practical approaches,” he said. “With the last government, I think it was convenient to say, ‘agriculture is the problem and agriculture will fix the problem’. “We have a new government potentially looking for ideas, they might be in an ideas vacuum, so this is an opportunity to really put some ideas forward.” The Esperance grain grower said the biggest issue was any cost imposed on growers cannot be passed on through the supply chain. “We’re cost takers not makers,” Mr Fels said. “I’m anxiously awaiting to hear the words ‘carbon tax’ bounced around. “All that does is add cost to growers — we need to drive tractors and use fertiliser and something like that just makes us less competitive and viable in the global market. “Our costs go up but the returns don’t and for a lot of people, that will make it unviable.” Pastoralists and Grazier’s Association of WA president Tony Seabrook said the Government needed to be “very very careful” they did not implement anything which would hurt WA farmers’ competitiveness in the market. “We need our economy firing, our businesses profitable and we need to remain absolutely export competitive,” he said. “Anything that we do that detracts from those very simple goals will be shooting ourselves in the foot.” Mr Seabrook believed that there was “not a single thing” that Australia could do to significantly impact global carbon dioxide emissions, with other countries contributing much more to climate change. “Our contribution is so minute that even if we cut them by half it won’t make a difference,” he said. Mr Seabrook said farmers were “hoping like hell” that the Labor party would be able to govern in its own right so any “extreme” climate views held by independents or the Greens would not make their way into legislation. “It will simplify things enormously, because if the Labor government is beholden on independents to pass legislation, it makes the job of achieving sensible outcomes much more difficult,” he said. Former Agriculture Minister David Littleproud hoped Labor and the Greens acknowledged farmers had “done the heavy lifting already” in looking after their land, promoting biodiversity and carbon sequestration, and would “leave farmers alone”. With a new Federal Agriculture Minister yet to be announced, Mr Seabrook hoped it would be someone with experience. “What we don’t need right now is a newbie that thinks they know it all,” he said. Mr Fels said food security needed to be front and centre of policy makers’ minds, with drought in the northern hemisphere and the Russia-Ukraine conflict seeing global wheat supply plummet by more than 10Mt. Calling food security “sacrosanct” he said the importance of supporting food production was not to be taken lightly and unnecessary impost on farmers or pressure to convert productive land into revegetation blocks threatened that. He said “mass starvation” was a potential outcome of “meddling” with food production and global wheat supplies. “You don’t play around with food production for political points,” Mr Fels said. “We’ve had a run of good years, but it only takes one or two nasty supply shocks.... to be potentially fatal for millions of people around the world.” National Farmer’s Federation president Fiona Simson said the NFF “supported many elements” of Labor’s climate change policy and hoped the Government would continue to back farmers and support them in capturing opportunities of a reduced emissions future.