Australia’s peak farm body has called on delegates at the ALP National Conference this week to vote down a radical anti-farming motion backed by the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN).
 
Farmers say the “Climate, Clearing and Cows” motion, which calls for methane emissions to be halved in the next 6.5 years, is misinformed and in conflict with mainstream scientific opinion.
 
“This is not a sensible policy for a mainstream political party. Voting this through would be an open armed embrace of fringe views that are anti-science and anti-farming,” explained NFF President, Fiona Simson.
 
“It goes beyond the Government’s very recent commitment to the Global Methane Pledge, it massively exceeds the IPCC’s own advice, and it’s scientifically impossible without cutting herd numbers – something the Government is on record opposing.
 
“On land clearing, it deliberately fudges the numbers – conflating deforestation, land clearing and routine land management. Australia has rigorous, science-based laws to protect the environment which have largely stabilised vegetation cover for years.”
 
Ms Simson said farmers wanted delegates to understand the impact of the motion if adopted.
 
“This motion is about taking farms out of production, killing jobs and pushing up food prices. It’s as simple as that.
 
“We’re not just talking about farming jobs, but also in trucking, in stevedoring and of course in meat processing – our largest manufacturing industry.
 
“Delegates need to be clearheaded about what really matters to Australians and what the ALP stands for. Is it protecting jobs and tackling the cost of living? Or pleasing environmental outliers who have turned their back on science and common sense?
 
“We’ve seen governments globally fall victim to anti-farming policies which ignore the basic need to grow food and fibre, and the community backlash that follows. We don’t want that style of politics to take root here.
 
“We have every expectation that logic will prevail here, but we won’t mince our words when we see this sort of nonsense being peddled,” Ms Simson concluded.