Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers

Tony Mahar is a seriously good operator, widely respected across the ag sector, but one suspects the government is hoping he’ll morph into their Lord Hee-Haw—a smooth-talking apologist who can help them roll out their 40 turbines a month, and thousands of kilometres of power lines across picturesque rural farmland   by 2030 ... The government must be worried as the bush is in revolt and the government's secret polling must have them worried.   Hence the roll out of the conservative version of Henry Kissinger to calm the locals.

Remember ‘terra nullius’ the legal term that rose to prominence in the Mabo case? ... my focus in this opinion piece is not on terra nullius and who owns the land but on aqua nullius and who owns the water ... the Albanese government shows no sign of learning from the referendum disaster and is pushing ahead with building indigenous veto powers into a new National Water Agreement plus revving up the Commonwealth's Heritage Act.

I have repeatedly pointed out that there is no empirical evidence to suggest that capping the number of firearms reduces community risk, unless that cap is zero. You can only use one firearm at a time ... the Government's heavy-handed restrictions undoubtedly impact the enjoyment and utility of firearms for passionate shooters, many of whom play an important role in vermin control ... we don't represent them - we represent primary producers.

We all know Woodside, Australia’s biggest gas producer, but many might not realise it is also one of the country’s biggest CO2 emitters ... the Australian energy sector has been all too willing to overpromise on what is achievable in reducing their CO2 footprint, as a result they are now desperately searching for solutions. This, unfortunately, is where WA farmland comes into play ... That win-win plan is to plant trees – lots of trees – on productive farmland and then lock that land up for the next 100 years so it no longer produces food or fibre.

We have all heard of Artificial Intelligence, and most of you have heard of ChatGPT and some of you may have even tried it ... I decided I needed to get up to speed and get on board and try out the new version ... I asked it to: "Generate an opinion article similar in tone and length to what Trevor Whittington might write in the Farm Weekly on the potential of AI to replace traffic controllers with their stop-go signs on country road construction sites" ...

John Hassell. On 16 July members of the ‘Keep the Sheep’ group of industry peak bodies fighting to retain the live sheep trade signed off on a letter to the WA Minister for Agriculture, Jackie Jarvis, in response to the Albanese government's disgraceful vote to put live exports to the sword. Now I won’t print the whole letter, but it is worth knowing what WAFarmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers, WA Shearers, Livestock Transporters, Stud Marino Breeders and the Live Exporters Assn are asking in the letter, so I'll quote the key bits ...

You have to hand it to the Russians; they are a resilient mob. I had started to write a story back in May about how drought, frost, labour, and parts shortages were about to combine and smash their next grain harvest but luckily, I didn’t, as my predictions would have been way off the mark. As it turns out, despite what all the global grain experts said at the time, about Russia facing a difficult year, it seems they are on track for another big crop.

Last month, I attended the AgZero - WAFarmers PowerShift Forum, where we got the good oil on the exciting future that awaits us as we turn off coal and gas and turn on renewables ... it got me thinking about the cost-benefit of taking our farms across to the green side of the electricity equation and cashing in on all this free sunlight we have.

Remember Live Aid back in 1985? You know the big concert organised by Bob Geldof to help the millions starving in Ethiopia 1983-85 in a famine that cost a million lives?   Well, the music artists might have moved on but there is still plenty of hunger in Africa ... It seems the Europeans have replaced imperial colonialism with green colonialism, something that is cheered on by the new elites of the Western left.

John Hassell. Western Australia’s farmers are facing ‘Walls of Legislation,’ which is exactly what our members and in fact every farmer across Australia are facing under this current federal government. Walls of Legislation… or as I prefer to call it, “Another Brick in the Wall, Stopping Farmers from Farming.”