“The revelation from the Australian Food and Grocery Council that Australia is now importing more food and groceries than we are exporting shows that it is not beyond our nation’s capacity to remove one of our greatest strengths, that is, to feed ourselves and others, “said Senator Barnaby Joyce.
“If you keep closing fishing grounds, if you keep taking away the property rights and the capacity to manage the land through measures such as the vegetation laws, if you centralize the markets so farmers don’t get a fair return for the work they do, if you bring in the Murray Darling Basin Plan which takes away the crucial element that produces the food- the water and if seasonal conditions go against you, then you’ll take our nation to a place where we rely on others to feed us.
This is a tenuous position because if the dollar was to depreciate because of a turnaround in the demand for iron ore and coal, then the question would be; would Australians accept the higher price of food in their trolley?
One of the greatest gifts Australia has is affordable, clean green food and we must reinvest in the right of farmers to produce it.
It would seem quite clear from the advice from the government solicitor that there are no ambiguities in the Water Act so the Guide to the Murray Darling Basin Plan should have taken a triple bottom line approach.
If the proposed cuts to water allocations go ahead in the Murray Darling Basin, our food bowl, we will lock in the trade deficit and the net importation of food.
The water cuts will lock in a permanent state of drought to our farmers and the inability to feed ourselves.”