GEE AND KATTER LAUNCH PLAN TO PROTECT AUSTRALIA’S PRIME AGRICULTURAL LAND
On Thursday 17 April, Bob Katter and I announced a major new push to protect Australia’s most productive farmland, warning that without urgent action, vital agricultural land will continue to be lost to development and changing land use.
If re-elected, we'll introduce legislation, titled the Protecting Australia’s Prime Agricultural Land Bill, to safeguard Australia’s prime agricultural land, ensuring it remains dedicated to producing food and fibre for Australia and the world.
The need for action is clear, with urban expansion, explosion of lifestyle blocks, infrastructure and large-scale industrial projects rapidly consuming prime-quality farmland.
Food security is a key part of our national security. As the population of the world increases, food security is going to be a critical global issue and may even be a source of future conflict. It’s fundamental to the ongoing success and prosperity of our nation.
Once prime agricultural land is gone, we can’t get it back. It’s a strategic national resource. You can’t grow food once the land is covered in concrete.
Our legislation would help secure the region’s agricultural and economic future.
This is about protecting the land that’s sustained our communities for generations. This Bill backs our farmers, protects local jobs, and keeps the Central West one of Australia’s most vital food-producing regions.
The Protecting Australia’s Prime Agricultural Land Bill will ensure that prime agricultural land is preserved for agriculture while giving farmers agency and control over their land.
The centrepiece of the policy will be farmers deciding how their land is used, not governments or anyone else. It would mean that people buying rural properties containing prime agricultural land would have to use that land for agriculture.
It will take a strategic and nationally coordinated approach to supporting farmers’ rights to use and manage their land productively and ensure land use decisions do not undermine Australia’s future agricultural capacity and security.
Bob summarised this as follows:
“The French and the European Union have said, ‘if we remove the farmers, we have no one to look after the land’.
“Without farmers, the land turns into fire starters, feral pig pens and weed nurseries.
“Farms are carbon absorbers. Take sugar cane for example, in a 12-month period a vacant field becomes solid CO2 absorbing biomass. A hectare of sugar absorbs 50 tonne of CO2.
“If we lock agriculture out of our best grazing and food producing country then we will turn this nature wonderland into urban streets and industrial developments.
“This bill gives the farmer the power to say, “bugger off.”