A slap in the face for Australian Agricultural Businesses and Food Manufacturers
January 17, 2012
One month on since the first wave of new consultations on the Murray Darling Basin Draft Plan, irrigators, business people and their dependent communities are reeling from the revelations that nothing much has changed in the basin proposal since the fist disastrous release of the guide to the plan in 2010.
Dr Sharman Stone, Federal Member for Murray said, “The Federal government’s latest announcement about grants to the automotive industry is a real slap in the face for agri businesses, Australia’s food producers and manufacturers who have struggled to get the attention of the Gillard government beyond her desperate grab for their primary means of production – their water.
A quick look at the comparisons of the value and size of the workforce related to the two sectors puts issues and priorities in perspective.
“A study done in May 2009 indicates that a total of 329,000 people were employed in the automotive industry. This is just 3% of Australia’s labour force, while Agriculture supports the jobs of 1.6 million Australians, accounting for 17.2% of the national workforce”, Sharman Stone said.
The Gillard Government has announced to provide $34 million to Ford from the government’s New Car Plan scheme to see updated Falcon and Territory models in 2014.
This funding is part of the $3.4 billion Automotive Transformation Scheme in an effort to keep the industry’s big players, Ford, GM Holden and Toyota to continue their operations in Australia while investing in competitive innovation for a greener future.
“With Australian farms and their closely related sectors generating $155 billion a year in production and underpinning 12% of GDP, why are our local food processers and farmers not given the same support as the automotive sector?,” asked Sharman Stone.
“In relation to farm and food production, this Gillard government wants to continue to buy water off financially stressed farmers, thereby killing their future production potential, while its On Farm Water Efficiency grants are bogged down in red tape. There are also questionable choices by the Gillard government on who has been granted the right to deal with farmers in delivering these grants,” said Sharman Stone.
Agri businesses are not only facing great pressure on the home front through lack of competition in supermarkets and the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths who squeeze prices to farmers and factories but also internationally where magnificent Australian products are forced, and therefore struggle to compete in markets corrupted by subsidies.
“I am not suggesting the abandonment of the automotive industry; I am just baffled at the Gillard Government’s dismissing of the need of agri businesses which are under greater pressure both domestically and internationally, said Sharman Stone.
Dr Sharman Stone, Federal Member for Murray is calling on the Gillard government to stop playing politics with industry sectors in Australia. The government must acknowledge that propping up a never-to-be-competitive car industry is in a different ball park to ensuring sustainable food production that not only feeds the nation fresh healthy products but also employs a huge workforce that generates substantial national returns and contributes to the growing global food demands.