Federal politics

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said Labor has turned its back on the farming industry today, after ignoring a delegation of Western Australian farmers and obtaining the numbers needed in the Senate to phase out live sheep exports. Mr Littleproud said Labor had once again treated farmers with contempt, ignoring pleas from groups including Keep the Sheep ... who spent the day at Parliament House in a last-ditch attempt to persuade Senators to save live sheep exports.

In a devastating blow to farming communities, Parliament tonight passed legislation to end the live sheep trade, disregarding proper process, extensive evidence and pleas from farmers across Australia. NFF President David Jochinke said the decision had been met with widespread dismay from farmers who had invested into significant reforms for the trade, resulting in world-leading animal welfare outcomes.

A nuclear power station at Loy Yang would create cheaper zero emissions electricity and generate regional economic development, according to the federal Opposition's nuclear energy policy ... Loy Yang is one of seven identified locations at a power station that has closed or is scheduled to close, around Australia ... "Each of these locations offer important technical attributes needed for a zero-emissions nuclear plant..."

Unable to turn their backs on disgraceful behaviour by the major banks over regional closures, a senate inquiry has lit a bomb under them. The pressure is now on the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones to accept all recommendations in full.

Well, thanks for coming today. It's important we've got Keep the Sheep Movement here. They have come from Western Australia. They're showing respect to this Parliament by coming in and trying to talk to Senators and give them the opportunity to learn of their lived experience of their livelihoods that are going to take to be taken away.

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.

Senator Canavan will ... introduce a bill to institute a Royal Commission into Australia’s Covid response. The bill has been jointly signed by Senators Antic, Rennick, O’Sullivan, Roberts, and Babet and sets out the arrangements and terms of reference to hold a Royal Commission into Australia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australian food producers are finding innovative new ways to limit losses and create alternative uses for waste, as evidenced in a new report titled Crop loss/waste on Australian horticulture farms, 2022–23 ... The report was commissioned by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, to fill specific data gaps on food loss and waste in primary production in the horticulture industry.

The Albanese Labor Government has ... launched a world-leading water ownership program for First Nations peoples in the Murray-Darling Basin, delivering on an election commitment. Under the Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program, the government has made $100 million available to buy water in the Basin, with First Nations representatives to determine how that money is spent.

The Albanese Government will strengthen the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, accepting all recommendations of a recent independent review into the Code as part of a wide‑ranging cost‑of‑living crackdown on anti‑competitive behaviour in the food and grocery sector ... The Review found that the current voluntary Code is failing to address the imbalance of bargaining power between supermarkets and their suppliers, including farmers.

Progress of research that will benefit the Basin and its communities for years to come has been shared at the third annual symposium of the Murray–Darling Water and Environment Research Program (MD-WERP). Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Chief Executive Andrew McConville said 35 projects developing Basin-wide knowledge have been completed or are progressing via the 5-year $20 million Australian Government funded MD-WERP.

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.”

House of Representatives. The Australian Parliament’s  Agriculture Committee  has presented its advisory report for its inquiry into the  Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024, which will end the live sheep export trade by sea by 1 May 2028 ... Committee Chair,  Ms Meryl Swanson MP, said: ‘The bill fulfils the Albanese Government’s election promise to end the live export of sheep by sea while providing time and money for the orderly transition of industry to new avenues of production and trade.’

“At the pivotal point of Pfizer's vaccine approval in December 2020, there was a gross misrepresentation in what was presented publicly. Instead of the six deaths publicly disclosed, four placebo, two vaccinated, suggesting a benefit of vaccination, there were in fact 11 deaths, with more deaths in the vaccinated arm, six. We found undisclosed deaths, especially in the vaccinated arm of this clinical trial, in contravention to legal and ethical obligations of trial sponsors": Dr Jeyanthi Kunadhasan.

The spectre of water buybacks, plus the absence of a targeted support package for Riverland grape growers, risk turning local communities into "economic wastelands", a local MP has warned. Liberal Barker MP Tony Pasin has labelled a $3.5 million federal funding package as "too little, too late" and accused both Labor governments of ignoring the crisis confronting inland wine regions like the Riverland.

Hugh Schuitemaker. Further federal government support measures will be needed to overcome current local wine industry challenges, according to two senior Riverland politicians. The Federal Government last week announced a $3.5m Grape and Wine Sector Long-term Viability Support Package, aimed at assisting the wine industry to respond to the oversupply of red wine.