The Federal Government doesn’t appear to have recognised the systemic collapse taking place across several rural commodity industries, partly the result of National Competition Policy (NCP), and appears set to sacrifice several other industries in the pursuit of the free trade agreement with the US. Prime Minister Howard recently visited the sugar areas of Cairns…
Last year protests and lobbying by farmers and communities in the Murray-Darling basin saw the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) back away from The Living Murray proposals to take up to 1,500 gigalitres of farmers’ water for environmental flows. Farmers, communities and scientists were deeply sceptical of the quality of the science behind this proposal.…
Less than two weeks after both the Queensland election and the announcement of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, the Federal Agriculture Department released three Biosecurity Australia reports recommending imports of New Zealand apples, Philippines bananas and foreign pork. The immediate question raised by agricultural groups is whether Biosecurity Australia and/or the Federal…
The recent National Civic Council 2004 Annual Conference at Melbourne University focused on the issues to be driven hard in the Federal political arena in this election year. Held on the weekend of February 7-8, key conference speakers included: Peter Westmore, NCC National President, who outlined the political and strategic issues facing Australia;Pat Byrne, NCC…