The Greens have warned now is a dangerous time to be distracted from the real climate action needed to support farmers and have urged the National Farmers Federation to hold The Nationals to account ahead of their meeting today.
Greens spokesperson for agriculture, Peter Whish-Wilson, said trying to appease The Nationals is a fool’s game.
“Since forming government the LNP have ripped up nearly all existing climate policies such as the carbon price and clean energy package, ramped up fossil fuel exploration and production, whilst not providing a single credible policy that will tackle global warming.
“Now is a dangerous time to be distracted from the real climate action needed to support farmers. The NFF needs to hold the LNP to account.
“With the right policy settings and investment, agriculture is one of the few industries that can become not just carbon neutral, but carbon positive.
“Many farmers are still putting off implementing carbon farming techniques, partly because of a lack of policy support or information about effectiveness. We need to change that. Without a price on carbon, demand for carbon drawdown will remain limited; it would be good to know where the NFF stand on this.
“The Nationals have admitted to no longer representing farmers and their anti-climate ideology is utterly offensive to farmers facing the real-world impacts of climate change, which is currently costing the average Aussie farming family $30,000 a year.
“Carbon sequestration alone is not enough. There are huge opportunities for Australian farmers to change their practices, regenerate their land and create new revenue streams by selling carbon abatement to the carbon market; just like they did before the carbon price was abolished.”
