I have been chasing sheep and cattle around the hills of the New England and North West for nearly 40 years, but I cannot recall a year as good as 2016 with very high cattle prices, low fuel prices and interest rates and a pretty good season in the past six months.
Mind you, the season was awful up to June, but when reflecting this to a couple of retired farmers I remarked how unusual it was we had nothing to go crook about. They were quick to reply, saying ‘it might be okay for you, but we are only getting low returns on our invested money’, which proves you cannot keep everybody happy all the time.
It is always difficult to reflect on the year, so I need some licence to cover a broad range of topics that may appear unrelated.
Although Australian farms are still predominantly family owned, there is a trend toward the American model of big corporate ownership and our local district of Wallangra is sadly no exception with the loss of nine families over recent years. This has been on the back of an invasion from a Hong Kong based company, plus Macquarie Bank, and cotton farmers and western grain farmers amalgamating properties, all of which has greatly impacted on the numbers of people left in the district.
The political scene for farmers has been a mixed bag. With the federal Coalition scraping back into power with one seat majority and a licorice all sorts senate that is nearly impossible to get bills past, the notion of trading off unrelated issues to get them up does not bode well for the country. Thankfully agriculture is very much front and centre in the government.
I have also written regularly about media and Fairfax journalist Kate McClymont, whose ferocious pursuit of Eddie Obeid is a stand out example, with him now being sent to jail. This returns a small amount of confidence in our democracy, with the judge, when sentencing, saying "corruption sucks the life out of democracy”. But the reality was he would not have been prosecuted without the first class work of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
NSW Premier Mike Baird’s recent changes to ICAC have weakened it, as highlighted by two former commissioners who stated the reforms were a significant setback on a body that had enjoyed 17 years of bipartisan support. This is especially poignant, as it currently investigates nine Liberal politicians for alleged corruption. They now have a better chance of slipping through the cracks.
Yet, as a glass half full bloke, I always like to finish on a positive note, as I feel lucky to be a farmer – the noblest of professions, providing food and fibre to keep our nation going. There are regular setbacks, but having experienced a number of other vocations in my lifetime I do not want to do anything else. I feel deeply privileged to be a farmer and I wish all farmers and their families a very happy Christmas, relaxing break and another good year in 2017.
- By MAL PETERS
