Greens challenge Nats on ag

The policy was launched on Tuesday at the farming field day AgQuip, Gunnedah.

Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said he was surprised when he entered State parliament three and a half years ago the Greens didn’t have a stand-alone agriculture policy.

“To be honest, there are other places we could go to win votes, this is hard territory for us,” said Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham.

Mr Buckingham saw Gunnedah as traditionally strong NSW Nationals’ territory – “coming to AgQuip… this region was one of the worst regions for us in terms of votes in Australia. (It is) Nationals heartland.”

He saw the move into such areas as dependent on the development of good ideas and policy, rather than chasing votes.

“We’re under no illusion that we’re going to elect the member for Tamworth at the next election, maybe down the track we just might if we keep turning up and we keep talking to people and have locals joining us and sharing their ideas,” he said.

“I think the Nationals need to be held to account, regardless of whether people vote for us or not, we’re going to give them a contest. We’re not just going to let them have a rails run. We’re going to make them earn it.”

He said in the mining space, regional development and food the Greens would aim to create more contest.

The party’s new agriculture policy was ratified at the Greens’ State conference at the weekend and “was well received and shows the Greens from across the State at our State conference came together and thought this was an important document”.

“That I think is a really important part of us being serious about our engagement with rural Australia,” he said.

Principals of the policy include access to food and clothing is a fundamental human right; sustainable agriculture is essential to food security; rural land use should contribute to biodiverse and native landscapes, clean water, clean air and be sensitive to Aboriginal cultural values and land use; government policy should not compromise the primacy of sustainable food and fibre production and sustainable food and fibre production cannot be delivered without healthy rural communities.

“The Greens understand that we need people out there in the landscape managing the landscape in a sustainable way. Seventy per cent of Australia’s landscape is actually a farm and we need to make sure that we’re giving farmers the resources, the policy settings and the tools…so that they can feed us, be productive, be profitable and that they can do it in a sustainable way,” he said.

He said the dichotomy between environmental and agricultural ideals needed to be brought to an end.

“I think we can do that and I think we can do that by adopting ecological concepts.”

Ongoing education, innovation and research and development are essential to maintain and improve the sustainability of Australian agriculture and natural ecosystems.

“And that’s a really key point, the Greens are utterly opposed to cuts by the Abbott government and the Baird government to agricultural extension, the CSIRO the CRCs (Co-operative Research Centres) and the like.”

He said these were needed for a better, smarter farming system.

Mr Buckingham said it was “an abysmal effort by the Abbott government to cut so much out of NRM (natural resource management) and Landcare and the Greens would re-instate that money”.

The spread of invasive pests, diseases and weeds were considered an opportunity where the environment movement could work with farmers where it had failed to do so previously.

This included a tenure free approach to weed management, which included holding organisations such as national parks and crown lands accountable for weed control.

“One of the key things we can do for biodiversity is to help farmers reduce the impact of pests and weeds on the landscape and we should that regardless of whether it was national park, crown land, farm or the like.”

He said regions such as Europe argued Australia’s agriculture was subsidised at the expense of its environment degradation.

“We have to recognise that we as a society put farmers under pressure, we demand they produce a lot with a little. There aren’t enormous margins for most of the commodities out there so we have to recognise that doing those other works, like becoming more efficient or conserving biodiversity do come at a cost and that’s a cost that should be borne by society as a whole.

“Agriculture is a special case because it sustains us. It’s what keeps us alive every single day and it’s the one industry we know we’re going to need for all time.”

The Greens has also developed a policy called a Regional Renewable Fund, through which it proposes to increase the royalties on minerals and coal.

“(These) are assets of the community that are used and exploited once and those funds go towards assisting regional communities, including (to help) agriculture conserve biodiversity, reduce energy costs… and moving to more efficient practices.”

“It’s something society has to be a part of.”