Federal politics

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud has welcomed the announcement of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) supermarket inquiry into price gouging, but claimed the Labor Government had to be shamed into calling it, after ignoring warnings and support to act on supermarkets for more than 12 months.

The Albanese Government will direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate pricing and competition in the supermarket sector to ensure Australians are paying a fair price for their groceries. We understand that Australians are under the pump and the cost of groceries is among the biggest concern for many.

Australian Government farm business lender, RIC (Regional Investment Corporation) announced the variable interest rate on all concessional farm business loans including AgriStarter, Farm Investment, Drought, and AgBiz Drought, will increase by 47 basis points to 4.99 per cent effective from 1 February 2024. The Plantation Loan will increase to 4.54 per cent.

For years, the price of fuel in the Clarence Valley and parts of the Northern Rivers has been some of the most expensive in the state, with prices varying by almost 30 cents a litre between the Lower Clarence and Grafton, but there is something everyone can do to bring this issue into the spotlight of the federal government.

Fire ants have been discovered in Wardell, south of Ballina, New South Wales, after Labor was too slow to act on its red imported fire ant response program. Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the latest infestation, 85 kilometres south of the Queensland  border, is another sign that Labor has lost control of eradicating the pest.

The Federal Government has shot an arrow into the hopes of Australia’s cattle industry by rejecting a counter offer in the long-running class action over the unlawful closure of the live cattle export trade in 2011.  NFF Acting CEO, Charlie Thomas, said the Government had ignored an opportunity to address years of financial and emotional pain, and allow claimants to put the saga behind them once and for all.  

Farmers are backing calls for the Federal Government to review community engagement on renewable energy projects to ensure smarter, safer and more sustainable solutions to power the nation ... “To date, many farmers have had a very disappointing experience with the community consultation – or lack thereof – around the transmission lines set to run through their properties," Ms Bowman said.

50 Australian agricultural producer representative groups have unified to send a powerful, collective message to the Federal Government about their strong opposition to the proposed 10 per cent biosecurity tax. These groups represent the views of tens of thousands of Australian agricultural producers across the full spectrum of farm commodities including grains, livestock, horticulture, dairy, forestry, seafood, etc.

Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Member for Traeger, Robbie Katter, said he is heartened by calls for the dilution of private corporate control over the provision of essential “public” services but that action could have been taken years ago had regional Queenslanders been listened to ... a “fifth pillar” in the banking sector was needed to curtail the market power of the so-called Big Four ...

Local MP’s have followed federal opposition leader Peter Dutton’s call for people to boycott supermarket giant Woolworths over its decision not to sell Australia Day merchandise. Both Federal Member for Page, Kevin Hogan, and State Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson, have followed Mr Dutton’s lead, calling for people to boycott the supermarket...

Tasmania's peak body for farmers says activists are not contributing to the resolution of animal welfare issues through their proposed protest on Tuesday.  President of TasFarmers, Ian Sauer, said we know that TQM, the government, and industry are resolute and will not tolerate breaches of the Animal Welfare Act any longer.  

The 2023 JS Collings Trophy for excellence in maintaining major water management infrastructure on the River Murray has been awarded to Mildura Weir by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) ... "Mildura Weir comprises 24 steel trestles, each weighing approximately 11 tonnes, that can be winched from the river to allow maintenance, or to allow the safe passage of flood waters": MDBA’s Executive Director River Management, Andrew Reynolds.

In 1938, during the Munich Crisis, British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain expressed his distaste for making war preparations over "a quarrel in a faraway land between people of which we know nothing" ... Like Neville Chamberlain, our Prime Minister shows no interest in getting involved in a quarrel between people of whom he has no interest; yet anyone with the slightest awareness of international relations would know that there is no longer such a thing as a faraway land of which we can afford to have no interest ... Yemen is en route for the ships that take our grain and livestock to key markets such as Egypt and Israel.

The draft legislation amends the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act 2001 and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to introduce standardised, internationally-aligned reporting requirements for businesses, to ensure they are making high quality climate-related financial disclosures ... Consultation for the draft legislation released today [12 January 2024] is now open and submissions will close 9 February 2024.

Jointly funded disaster assistance has been activated for communities impacted by the Victorian Floods and Storms that commenced on 24 December 2023, under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

NSW Farmers is calling for an ACCC inquiry into the supermarket retail sector as fair prices for consumers and farmers remain nowhere in sight ... “It has become increasingly clear that margins are not being passed through the supply chain in a fair and equitable manner, and it is farmers and families who are footing the bill”: NSW Farmers President Xavier Martin.

For an organisation that invests a considerable portion of their half a billion dollar budget predicting what’s going to happen in 100 years’ time, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has fallen short on the all-important, short term forecasts ... Farmers want less climate change lecturing on the doomsday predictions of global warming, and more lectures on the complexity of the dynamic system that actually influences the day to day, week to week, and month to month rain and temperature that impacts their annual production.

Predictions of the nation’s weather holds tremendous weight. In September, the BOM’s El Nino predictions and the subsequent media hysteria saw cattle and sheep markets collapse as growers responded to the best available computer modelling ... the monthly rainfall predictions took until January 3 to predict a wetter than average month.