CATEGORY

Opinion

There is a labour shortage in Ukrainian agriculture

Labour shortage is becoming a big problem in Ukrainian agriculture. By the end of 2023, 10 per cent of agricultural enterprises indicated a lack of labour as the main factor hindering business development. This was the highest value since 2013 ... The war created a problem. But war can solve this problem.

James Lister speaks out: wind farms blow the seeds of community division

James Lister MP. Recent talk of more wind farm developments in our electorate of Southern Downs has stirred up all kinds of anger and ill feeling in the community. The fundamental problem is the exclusion of local input from state government level decisions over where wind and solar farms should be.

Banking’s big business

I had a quiet moment of reflection after watching Bendigo Bank’s new commercial featuring Wakool farmer and butcher extraordinaire Hayley Patterson. The ad campaign titled Bigger for You points the finger at the ‘big four’, citing the Bendigo Bank is “Bigger for the community I care about”. It's a great line ...

Regional renovate to rent

Every country town has at least one building that lies abandoned or underutilised which could be turned into a house or unit that could attract another worker or family to the community. We have old train stations and roads boards buildings, there are abandoned shops in the main street, empty pubs, unused halls, even farmhouses close to town left to deteriorate.

Need a business? Build it and they will come

Don’t have a plumber, electrician, aircon mechanic, car mechanic, tyre shop, independent ag mechanic, hydraulic shop etc in your town? Then do something about it. The council or a group of farmers should get together to buy an industrial lot, build a lock up shed, offer it out for $1 a year then stand back and watch the rush.

Forest Wars – What lies beneath?: Peter Rutherford

Peter Rutherford. After reading Mark Poynter’s brief critique of The Forest Wars and the David Lindenmayer response, a few points seemed to need further exploration ... Many SETA members and others working in the forest industry have been curious as to what appear to be strong connections that Mr Lindenmayer has with a number of media reporters, who regularly report his opinions on native forest issues.

Tamsen’s Territory – the U.N. and its new world order

The United Nations is quietly encouraging a policy of making all countries adopt a host of new laws and regulations aimed at creating a new world order with international control by its target year of 2030. Evidence of this is provided by various U.N. management reports calling for a different world direction away from the post-World War II way of life and the way people have been governed by individual States. These reports claim that the U.N. intends to “reshape the world for the better,” by means of a common (U.N.) agenda driven by solidarity as prescribed by its declarations on human and associated rights, such as those for reparations for indigenous people.

Don’t cry for me Albanese

Argentina has long interested me. Just how a country blessed with their natural assets and European colonial history has managed to turn itself from being one of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world prior to the first world war to 65th in the world is a case study of the failings of popularist socialist government policies ... Imagine paying out $50 per tonne tax for the privilege of growing a tonne of wheat and then having to pay tax on any profits you manage to make.   It may sound mad but it's not that far from Albanese's new biosecurity tax on farm gate production.

BCCM says Fonterra sale another blow for Australian dairy farmers

Melina Morrison. "The announcement by Fonterra that it intends to sell its Australian dairy processing assets is yet another blow to dairy farmers and a reminder about the precarious nature of our food security when staples like milk are passed around like commodities. This move, if it results in greater concentration of ownership of Australian dairy assets, will impact not only farmers but also consumers at the supermarket checkout."

Federal Budget ignores Mallee again

The Albanese Government has yet again ignored Mallee in last night’s Federal Budget, delaying local infrastructure projects, failing to provide new money for Mallee programs and refusing to fix Labor’s self-made cost-of-living crisis, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says. “The Prime Minister said when he was elected two years ago, ‘no one would be held back, no one would be left behind’, but that’s only if you live in a capital city and not in Mallee,” Dr Webster said. “I have pored through the budget and found no references to any projects or benefits for Mallee, Wimmera, Sunraysia or the Grampians.

Murray Watt is a wounded Minister

Yesterday in Canberra, the WAFarmers and the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) joined a walk out of the federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt during the budget breakfast, with industry leaders wearing a ‘Keep the Sheep’ tee shirt. The Minister was not impressed ... The farmers might be irrelevant to the ALP, but the voting public are suspicious of governments that are seen to sell out the farmers that grow the grain used to breed the geese that feed the workers that mine the gold that the government uses to buy votes.

$107 million to support phase out of live sheep exports by sea: Watt

The export of live sheep by sea from Australia will end on 1 May 2028, with legislation enacting the phase out to be introduced in this term of Parliament ... While the live sheep export industry has been in decline for many years, down from $415m in 2002-03 to $77m in 2022-23, the demand for processed sheepmeat both here and overseas has been rapidly expanding. This presents an opportunity for more processing to occur onshore in WA ...

Watts not working for agriculture: John Hassell, President, WAFarmers

What activists want Watt delivers. Watt farmers fear. What's next on Watt's hit list. What to do with Watt. All questions Western Australian farmers are now asking after last week's decision to move ahead with the live export ban. On the hookup when the Minister announced his plan, Murray Watt is quick to call me out when I questioned his motives claiming I was being personal.

TEDx talks in Maldon

Last Saturday saw the third TEDx event in Maldon ... Your Tarrangower Times correspondent attended the first of two two-hour sessions and witnessed eight stimulating 10-minute talks by a variety of speakers ... finding the confidence ... creative solutions ... take risks ... listen and learn from each other ...

Price control: Comment by Oscar Tamsen

Oscar Tamsen. We consumers throughout Australia are currently being swamped by multiple discussions over our current serious inflation levels, the mounting cost of living and the way certain commercial, financial and other interests are blatantly over-charging for their goods and services. As a journalist with an Economics background, may I suggest that the time has probably arrived for us to consider employing price controls...

Does WA have a new drought policy?

I was working for the WA Minister for Agriculture Ken Baston back in 2010, during the last big drought and, like Jackie Jarvis with the current dry, he had to deal with calls from industry for the Government to do something. At the time, as Chief of Staff, I asked the Department what the State's legislated responsibilities were when it came to dry seasons and the advice that came back was pretty simple - ‘soils and animal welfare', that’s it. Farmers were on their own when it came to subsidies for fodder or transport.

The class war against farmers

Traditionally when the Australian Labor Party gets serious about winning elections, it looks to the grownups in the right wing of the party to provide the leadership that will appeal to the centre of Australian politics. Unfortunately, it seems this time around, things are different, as Australia now has its first Prime Minister who hails not just from the left, but the hard left of the ALP.

The Forest Wars – review and response

Mark Poynter, a fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia (now Forestry Australia) reviews The Forest Wars. The author, Professor David Lindenmayer, responds ... "The Forest Wars  purports to portray the ‘ugly truth’ about what happens in wood production forests": Poynter ... "As I point out in the book there are some key problems with the industry": Lindenmayer.

National Day of Action as farmers stand against Biosecurity Protection Levy: NFF

Today Australian agriculture will band together to take a stand against the Biosecurity Protection Levy, calling on the Federal Government to #ScraptheTax and #KeepFarmersFarming. On this National Day of Action, the National Farmers’ Federation and its members, comprising all of Australia’s major agricultural commodities across the supply chain, will send a message to politicians and the public about why this tax is unfair and must be binned.

The hunter’s point of view

Glenn Falla. The aftermath of Covid 19 brought with it a lot of self-reflection for many people and an opportunity to look at current lifestyles and determine if there was balance ... Donald and its surrounding wetlands have a long history of supplying wild food for families around the state, and for that matter, for interstate visitors as well.

Transport subsidies vs live export: Geoff Pearson

Geoff Pearson. Two weeks ago 300 farmers from across the South West convened an urgent drought meeting to address what is one of the driest seasons experienced in living memory across what is traditionally the wettest part of Western Australia. It’s at times like these that the State and Federal governments need to step up and support farmers to rectify where they have made things worse through past policy mistakes.

Is Robbs coming back to rob WA farmers?

Robbs coming back to rob you, that’s Robbs jetty for those who weren’t born long enough ago to recall the smell of rotting hides at Cockburn. Those born even longer ago will recall the endless strife of the WA state-run meatworks that were a bastion of union bastardry. Why are they coming back? Well, the Federal government has committed Australia to borrowing billions of dollars off countries that are not handicapping themselves with mad Green left anti-fossil fuel regulations (think China and the Middle East) to invest in the Future Made in Australia program.

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