Farming

Farmers are urging federal and state governments to drastically increase funding for rural road infrastructure as vital roads remain damaged, restricted or even closed three years on from the first major flooding events in the Northern Rivers. NSW Farmers President Xavier Martin said federal and state roads and bridges were crumbling across NSW, and locals no longer believed repair was on the horizon.

Preventing rural crime against farmers and rural industries is one of our priorities for Crime Stoppers and the NSW Police Force. Crime Stoppers has invested over $250,000 in a range of marketing material to assist farmers, by helping to encourage reporting but also to prevent crimes ... When a crime is reported, particularly promptly, there is not just a greater chance of catching the perpetrators, but it increases the chance of recovering the stolen goods for our farmers.

The Malinauskas Labor Government and Greens have joined forces to block pastoralists from making up 50 per cent of the Pastoral Board membership in a disgraceful move. The disappointing alliance gave Labor and the Greens power to vote down the crucial amendment to safeguard the Pastoral Lands Management and Conservation Act against hands-off land management.

Victorian and Tasmanian farmer peak bodies have produced a policy for developers who want to build infrastructure, such as transmission lines for renewable energy, across their farmland. They warned that since the year 2000, Australia’s available arable land had been reduced by 15 per cent, much of it lost to infrastructure development and urban sprawl. The policy has been released as Gippsland farmers face plans for pipelines and transmission lines across their land as part of the state government’s energy policy, which aims to link offshore wind farms to the Latrobe Valley energy network.