Greens debate Nationals at Gunnedah Agquip Field Day

Over 250 people attended The Land newspaper stand at Agquip to watch the Greens debate the Nationals, facilitated by local ABC presenter Kelly Fuller.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to have a frank dialogue with Nationals, farmers and locals in Gunnedah,” said Ms Rhiannon.

“It was a wide ranging discussion with most of the questions directed to the Greens on issues such as preferences, climate change, estate taxes and rural transport issues.

“I spoke on key regional Greens campaigns, such as saving rural rail branch lines and protecting prime agricultural land from mining damage.

“Some of the stereotypes that still exist about the Greens were combatted today. 

“I explained that the Greens estate tax policy includes a provision to protect the family farm, the family home and small businesses.

"I also cleared up a misunderstanding amongst the crowd about the Greens’ carbon tax proposal, explaining that agriculture will be exempt from the Greens' carbon tax.

“If we don’t put a price on carbon and invest that revenue in renewable energy, the cost to farming communities will be much greater.

“The Greens are proposing a carbon tax so future generations are able to continue to farm the land and provide food security to Australia.

“The Greens would quarantine some of the carbon tax revenue for a land stewardship program to assist farmers who are already working on best practice in tillage, feedstock and water management to address climate change.

“I look forward to the prospect of working with regional and rural communities and taking their voices to Canberra if I am elected to the Senate,” said Ms Rhiannon.

Lee's notes for her speech at the debate

Thanks to Ag Quip for hosting this debate.

We appreciate opportunity to put on the record Greens policies and campaigns that have advanced the interests of regional NSW, and the protection of farming land and associated water resources.

One of the things I value about my years as a Greens NSW MP is the opportunities I have had to travel to regional and rural areas, to meet with community groups and farming communities to support their campaigns to maintain local services and protect the environment.  Support for the Greens has grown in recent years, and part of that growth has been in regional areas. 

In 2004 the NSW Farmers Assoc invited me to join their campaign to save rural rail branch lines and we did have a win, though there is a lot more to do.

Last month I was in Orange with Senator Bob Brown meeting with apple farmers concerned about biosecurity. And as mining spokesperson for the Greens I have had the opportunity to work farmers with whom we share a commitment to protect farming land from coal mining.

The Greens have worked broadly to improve public services – transport, health and education.

Freight on rail is one of our state wide campaigns. We have strongly criticised federal Labor’s transport budget that favours inner city motorways, and favours rail projects that move coal over a modern integrated freight and commuter rail service.

Our work with rural communities on retaining hospital and aged care facilities has also had some wins. When I was in the NSW parliament we worked with the Hunter community at Wallsend and the Riverina community in Carramar to save their aged care facilities. The Nationals supported our action. Wallsend Aged Care is no longer slated for closure.

I mention this as I would ask you to judge the Greens on our record working with rural and regional communities not on what others say about us.

Yes there are areas of difference, but we share many concerns, and public co-operation between farmers and regional communities and the Greens can help deliver solutions.

The Greens approach to farming issues is that Australia needs a food security plan. Men and women on the land should be appropriately rewarded for producing food. Land and water should be treated as strategic resources.

I acknowledge that food security issues are coming onto the agenda of Labor and the Coalition parties but in the main it is about consumers and prices. It has to be about keeping farmers on the land and preserving our agricultural land.

Farmgate prices are often too low. I know sometimes farmers are forced to grow food below the cost of production. And then there are the cheap imports, the result of so called free trade agreements.

The Greens address issues that make it hard for farmers to stay on the land and for young farmers to buy in.  In the Senate, Greens Senator Christine Milne sits on the Regional and Rural Senate Committee.  She campaigns for a better price for the food farmers produce, works to raise consumer awareness of the supermarkets duopoly in Australia and its negative impact on farmers.

There is tremendous support for farmers in our cities and towns. People want fresh, local, seasonal food and they want to support our farmers to produce it.

The Greens recognise that a major problem is that farmers often do not receive a decent return for the food they grow. Fair prices vanish under pressure from cheap overseas imports and the Coles and Woolworths duopoly.

It is tough or impossible to negotiate a decent price when you are up against powerful processors and supermarkets.

We need to change the World Trade Organisation rules that are currently stacked against Australian farmers because farmers in other countries can subsidise their products with low wages and poor environmental standards. It is disappointing that the Nationals in the federal parliament have not joined with the Greens in challenging free trade agreements, a mechanism that dogs farming life every day.

And now the price of land is being driven up by 100 per cent tax deductions for managed investment schemes. These schemes are designed by the city for the city and it is time the government and the opposition parties put in place the required restrictions.

These policies are leading to more foreign interests coming in and buying Australian land and water rights.

It is time the Foreign Investment Review Board actually took an oversight of who's already bought up the land and water because in the long term this is about making sure we grow food for ourselves as well as to export.

We need a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in rural Australia.  It was pleasing to see that when Senator Bob Brown called for this register a few weeks back the Opposition's spokesman on agriculture and food security, John Cobb, backed his call.

There are reports of increased interest from private and institutional investors from UK and US in quality strategic rural properties in NSW. Chinese interests are buying farms at Watermark, the  Qatar Investment Authority  (a Middle East property developer) has purchased $40 million sheep properties in Queensland and Victoria.  In WA an Indian Government backed company is building a fertilizer plant which will send 90% of its production back to India.

Now some say it is ok to allow foreign companies to buy up our land as no one else is interested. I am sure there are many locals interested in buying Australian farms but high land prices make it impossible for many, particularly young farmers.

The Greens think we need to look at a range of ways to assist farmers - low interest rates to enable people to actually start up on the land; and we need long-term leasehold arrangements.

I know some of you also have concerns about the estate tax and I am happy to take questions.

The Greens position on climate change has also been misrepresented. We need to rein in human induced climate change. Failing to deal with this challenge will have enormous impacts and costs on farming communities.

Bringing in policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions does not have to be a cost burden on farming communities.

Surprising that the Nationals have failed to provide leadership by backing renewable energy targets that would bring clean energy to rural areas and provide opportunities for farmers to become even more self sufficient and in many cases provide a means to develop a supplementary income.

A key aspect of the Greens climate change policy is for a planned transition away from a reliance on coal fired power. This is not about closing down coal mines. It is about not opening up new coal mines and switching government support from coal fired power to renewables, energy efficiency and smart grids.

This form of energy delivery holds great potential for rural communities as energy creation and delivery can be decentralised and offers enormous opportunities for farmers to supplement their income.

Our commitment to protecting farms has been well demonstrated in our work in NSW to protect farming land from mining

When the federal Labor government introduced the Water Bill in November 2008 Senator Bob Brown moved amendments that once adopted would have required the protection of aquifers. This held enormous significance for the Breeza Plain and the plans of mining giants to explore for coal. With the support of the Nationals and the Liberals the Greens amendment was passed.

But to our shock the next day Senator Fiona Nash announced that the Nationals had decided they had made a mistake and the amendment was recommitted and the vote was lost with the Nationals receiving support from the Liberals and Labor to overturn this protection. This change of heart was music to the ears of the mining industry. Mitch Hooke from the Australian Minerals Council was reported to have met with Nationals MPs to lobby for this reversal.

Similarly in the NSW parliament we had an opportunity to defeat the Land Access Bill outright if the Nationals had voted with the Greens.

This Bill was one of the last dirty deeds of the former mineral resources minister Ian Macdonald. When the Liverpool Plains farmers won their Supreme Court case to stop coal exploration on the prime agricultural land of the Liverpool Plains, the minister tried to rush through legislation overturning the decision in one day. The Coalition, the Greens and the other cross benchers voted together to stop this push.

We clearly had the numbers to defeat this bill. So it was disappointing that the Nationals worked on a few amendments and then allowed the legislation to pass.

These two examples demonstrate an unsavoury aspect of National Party actions when the interests of their two key constituencies – farmers and miners – they go with the mining multinationals.

Farming land. We can’t afford to lose prime agricultural land to mining and development.

Food security should be a top priority of all governments and protecting farming land is critical.

We are ready to work with Nationals when their policies work for farming communities. When the Greens put up legislation in NSW to protect prime agricultural land we voted together. When we lost that bill by one vote the Nationals said that they would bring forward their own legislation. That bill is now more than six months overdue and I urge the Nationals to bring it forward to the state parliament before the end of the year.

What do Greens bring to the table and the farmgate when we consider issues that impact on the life of farming communities?

We bring a commitment to work with farming groups and other political parties on the critical issues of food security and protection of farming land.

The Greens have representatives in local government and state and federal parliaments already taking up these issues. We will continue to do this. 

And we bring links with city folk who want to break down the divide between city and country. Farmers’ markets are booming across our city suburbs. People want produce that is fresh and seasonal. These people are shocked when they hear that there is no legal protection for farming land. 

There is growing awareness that farmers deserve a fair income, which in some parts of this country is not possible on the land.  The Greens recognise the need for Land Stewardship where farmers are rewarded for sustainable management of land for food and fibre.

What we eat and much of what we wear is entwined with the land. We have to get this relationship right. I think Greens policies can make a significant contribution.

If I become a Senator I will continue to travel into regional and rural NSW, and where we can work together I will take your voices into the federal parliament on key issues like protecting agricultural land and water resources and regional public services.

My time in the NSW parliament has come to an end, but my colleagues will carry on my work.  Jeremy Buckingham is the Greens candidate for the NSW Upper House in the March 2011 state election.  He is a stonemason from Orange, has been the Greens NSW Rural and Regional spokesperson for many years, and he will be a strong voice for farmers and regional NSW.

I thank you again for this opportunity and I hope that you will come away from today with a broader appreciation for the values and the work of the Greens.