The new head of a peak agricultural body warns renewable energy projects are ‘blanketing’ ‘s productive fertile areas, diminishing the nation’s ability to produce food and fibre.
National Farmers’ Federation President David Jochinke says cannot afford to keep rolling out renewables infrastructure as it has been at the expense of prime agricultural real estate.
‘ has lost over 15 percent of its farmland,’ Mr Jochinke told Sydney 2GB radio host Ben Fordham on Monday.
‘Over the next 30 we can’t afford to lose another 15 percent if we are going to feed a growing population here and abroad.’
Mr Jochinke said he had heard ‘frustration from the farming community for a very long time’ about the way renewables infrastructure was imposed on them without adequate consultation.
National Farmers’ Federation President David Jochinke has warned that renewables are taking prime agricultural land out of production
‘Agriculture is just sick of always being the place all these projects are put and we need to talk broader than that,’ he said.
‘We just wanted to make it very clear we are not opposed to renewables but the way the planning of these projects are being rolled out and even more so the transmission lines as well is completely frustrating the farming community.
‘As a nation we can do better.’
While Mr Jochinke admitted farmers did receive rent for hosting renewables on their land, he said the main benefit was to urban power consumers and rural and regional areas were left with the negative impacts.
He called for such projects to be ‘integrated into landscapes smarter, be put in places more appropriate and we have to share the understanding of what this impact is.’
‘We don’t want to see projects that either block access to land or change the landscape itself to the extent where we are taking risks or even worse, taking production out of that prime location,’ he said.
Mr Jochinke said that cannot afford to roll out renewables at the same pace as it has been
At the Federation’s annual major conference in Canberra last week, Mr Jochinke squarely targeted the Labor Albanese government saying they were pursuing ‘an avalanche of bad ideas that if seen through will see farmers walk off the land’.
In his first speech after being elected Federation president at the meeting, Mr Jochinke said farmers would begin campaigning against policies that threatened their livelihoods, harmed rural communities and pushed up the cost of living.
He accused the government of not making the production of food and fibre a ‘first priority’.
Among the campaign’s targets are water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin, the live sheep export ban, worker shortages, environment laws and land use conflict.
The said the Murray-Darling Basin Plan would devastate agricultural production.
‘Once you shut down an irrigation farm, it doesn’t come back,’ the new president said.
‘They’re trying to bulldoze through with a plan that will shut down farms, destroy jobs and increase the price of food.’
Mr Jochinke claimed the legislation would cost 1,500 jobs in small basin communities and $855million a year in farm production.
Mr Jochinke has also hit out at the Albanese government over water buybacks that he says could force irrigation farms out of business
He also said ‘unworkable’ industrial relations regulation could also force farmers to the wall.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt defended his government’s record, denied the basin plan ignored the social impacts involved and rejected the prospect of forced buybacks.
He also stood up for his government’s record on industrial relations.
‘The government was elected on a platform of lifting wages and delivering more secure work – including for farm workers,’ Senator Watt told the farming conference.
‘What is not true are claims that this will make it harder and more expensive for family farms to employ their workers.’
The minister said he was surprised by the campaign and the claim that his government hadn’t prioritised the sector.
Senator Watt also promoted his government’s sustainable funding of biosecurity and growing ‘s agricultural trading markets as major wins for the industry.