Federal Labor's insistence on city-centric election promises shows how it's willing to throw ag under the bus

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has been front and centre in recent weeks, be it his lashing out at the legal teams representing producers from the 2011 cattle live export ban, his refusal to acknowledge that Labor's plans to ban live sheep exports are contributing to poor sheep and lamb prices, or that Labor is dragging its feet on delivering its election promise on the use of meat terms on plant products.

On live sheep exports, he did admit it was affecting producer confidence, but to ignore the compounding affects of phasing in a live export ban in a drying season at a time when supply was already high is just a poor attempt at saying "nothing to see here".

This stance, that the government's policies are not impacting on agriculture, is having the affect of further undermining the sector's trust in the government.

It is this way in which Mr Watt - and other ministers in the federal government, such as Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek on other issues such as water buy-backs and environmental reform - are pushing back, instead of trying to listen and understand, that is digging a deeper hole for themselves.

It also sends a message that they're not interested in rural concerns that might get in the way of them delivering policies they promised to their city voters "on time and in full".

Consultation needs to be more than just a box ticking exercise, which is so far all it has been, and needs more accountability. However, so far, so long as the collateral doesn't affect the core city base that voted Labor in, then they're clearly not insterested.

This is evident through Labor's absolute lack of nuance in its responses to the agriculture industry's concerns.

That Mr Watt should appear surprised at the National Farmers' Federation's campaign, Keep Farmers Farming, which launched last week, either shows just how out of touch he is with the grass roots of agriculture, or is an applaudible effort at feigning innocence.

Either way, Labor has been crystal clear that it is willing to throw agriculture under the bus "to deliver election commitments".