Patrick J. Byrne

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PRIMARY INDUSTRY: Pork farmers under attack on two fronts

Rural AffairsSeptember 10, 2005

Australian pork producers are under attack from the risk of disease-carrying imports and from subsidised imports, writes Pat Byrne. Australian pork producers have challenged pork imports on both quarantine and probable dumping grounds. In both cases, government agencies have been accused of adopting import-risk methodologies that allow imports to continue. A Federal Court judge recently described as “bizarre” the methodology used by Biosecurity Australia in recommending pork imports to continue from countries where Post-Weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome has devastated young pig populations. The judge’s ruling, however, is being appealed against by the Federal Government before a full sitting of the…

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SUGAR INDUSTRY: Ethanol coming: but nothing for farmers

Rural AffairsJuly 30, 2005

United service stations in Victoria have begun selling unleaded petrol with 10 per cent ethanol (E10) blends, supplied by CSR. Unfortunately, writes Pat Byrne, even if the Federal Government were now to mandate ethanol in fuel, it would do nothing for the welfare-dependent sugar industry, since National Competition Policy has denied cane-farmers compulsory arbitration with sugar mills. United service stations in Victoria have begun selling unleaded petrol with 10 per cent ethanol (E10) blends, supplied by CSR. Unfortunately, there is nothing in it for cane farmers. For the first time since the 1920s, this year sugar-cane farmers have been denied…

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RURAL AFFAIRS: Confronting the myths about agriculture

Rural AffairsJuly 16, 2005

Free market-inspired myths have led to policies that are seriously damaging Australia’s rural industries. Pat Byrne exposes nine of these myths. Free market-inspired myths about agriculture have led to policies that are seriously damaging our rural industries. For over two decades, farmers and the public have been told the following: MYTH #1: The primary market for rural product is the export market. Hence, farmers have to accept the agenda of National Competition Policy to deregulate agricultural industries, tariffs, irrigation water, etc., in order make farmers become more efficient, so as to compete better on world markets. In reality, the primary…

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RURAL POLICY: Water trade to shift water from farms to cities

Rural AffairsJuly 2, 2005

Farm leaders are up in arms at the latest proposals for separating farmers’ water rights from property titles, reports Pat Byrne. Anthony Gray is a dairy farmer on the Campaspe Irrigation District at Rochester, northern Victoria. He and other farmers depend on 20,000 megalitres of water rights, which is based on the water rights attached to their farms. (One megalitre is about one Olympic-sized swimming pool.) These farmers’ properties contribute over $50 million to the local economy annually. But now Bendigo City’s urban water authority, Coliban Water, is considering a proposal to take the water from the western half of…

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