LABOR A DISASTER FOR FARMERS
16th October, 2007
Australian farmers would be in for a dreadful time if a Rudd Labor government were to come to office at the next Federal Election, according to the Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss.Mr Truss said Labor State Governments are treating farmers with contempt and a Rudd/Gillard Federal government would be even worse.
Under Labor, there would be no Minister for Agriculture in the Federal Cabinet. Kevin Rudd may even follow the British Labour precedent and submerge a junior Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as part of a mega Department of the Environment.
Labor’s recipe for rural Australia could be brewed by a former Tasmanian union official who knows nothing about rural Australia, answerable to Peter Garrett - the ageing, anti-farmer rock star.
Apart from inquiries and reviews, Labor’s only commitment to the farm sector to date has been a small fund to deal with unnamed global warming issues. Labor is determined to include farmers in its carbon trading system, clearly leaving open the option of imposing a flatulence tax on farm animals like New Zealand Labor tried to introduce.
Mr Truss said Labor governments are nowhere in sight when farmers are in trouble and need a little help. The Labor States did nothing to help dairy farmers and very little to support sugar farmers during their times of crisis. With the equine influenza outbreak, Labor governments had to be dragged into providing any assistance and even now their offers are paltry.
It has been Labor State governments which have downgraded services in country communities, closed rural rail branch lines, axed funding for rural research, closed Department of Agriculture offices and downgraded hospitals and schools as well as quarantine and veterinary services. It was Labor that banned tree clearing without compensation, ruthlessly increased the price of water, banned new irrigation dams, and is now abolishing local councils.
In years gone by, the States were wholly responsible for drought assistance. Now, the State Labor governments are contributing only about 2 per cent of the current drought aid bill while the Australian Government has moved at least six times to make its support for farmers and country businesses more generous and comprehensive.
The recent news that the New South Wales Labor government is to axe its farm financial counselling services program at a time when the State is 100 per cent in drought exceptional circumstances demonstrates how heartless a Labor government can be.
While Federal Labor has said it will honour the Howard/Vaile Government’s current commitments to drought stricken farmers, everyone in regional Australia knows a Rudd Labor government would do nothing more to help farmers if this drought continues or a new drought occurs in the future.
Labor still believes that farmers are rapers of the environment, destroyers of the forests, wasteful users of water, and polluters of the oceans. When troubles occur, Labor will simply blame farmers for their plight and write it all off as global warming.
Mr Truss said farmers would also suffer more than most from Labor’s inability to manager the economy. Every Labor government destroys the sound economy they inherited. Labor always turns Budget surpluses into Budget deficits. Interest rates are always higher under a Labor government than they would be under a Coalition government.
Labor has never negotiated a bi-lateral free trade agreement. Labor has never left a government in a better shape than when it was elected.
Mr Truss said no one should be fooled into thinking that a Rudd Labor government would be any better than past Labor governments or the Labor governments they currently have in each of the States.
The party that cannot run trains in New South Wales, cannot deliver water in Victoria, cannot provide hospital services in Queensland should not be entrusted with the vital task of managing our national economy and keeping our nation safe and secure.
Farmers simply cannot afford to risk Rudd.
ENDS
