Why do we bother …

A journalist recently went through the exercise of matching our 2012 suggestions with what the Budget actually delivered. He scored it 1/18. That was perhaps a tad harsh, but nonetheless reflected the black and white words in the budget.

I keep saying till I am blue in the face that things are going to get worse here before they get better – and agriculture is one of the few areas in the economy in which there can be optimism, prospects for growth. The government cannot rely on us to achieve this potential based solely on the irrigation infrastructure rollout, and expect it has to do nothing else.

The state budget was a very disappointing response to our current financial woes and bore all the hallmarks of the firm hand of the Greens on the shoulder of government. You can see that in (belated) payments to pig farmers to end their use of sow stalls ahead of the rest of Australia; and peanuts to compensate Tasmanian egg producers to move from caged production, again years ahead of the rest of the industry and with no understanding of market forces.

At the same time, we have what I call peak paddock imposed on us in 2015 when no more new forested land can be cleared for agriculture. Expansion of our agricultural enterprises in the decades to come will have to be squeezed into the fields you see today. That is forward-thinking for you.

Meanwhile, the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment is being culled in the way health, education and police were last year. Yet we see no removal of red or green tape and no move to lighten the extraordinary regulatory burden on our industry.

To give credit where credit is due, though, the government has recently announced a new ‘Taste of Tasmania’ program designed to optimise the use of the Tasmanian brand to create new customers and markets for producers. That is something they should be commended for.

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association will never back one political party to the exclusion of all others. That is not our role. However, what we are entitled to do is to examine the policies of all parties as they affect farmers, to comment on the differences and to lobby for change.

So, in stark contrast, the Liberal Party’s agricultural policy, their first major policy release, picks up many of the TFGA’s recommendations from our budget submission in January. Significantly, they support a private forest sector largely ignored in the current secret talks and the intergovernmental forest agreement; and they pledge to reduce the overbearing bureaucracy that inhibits farming and agribusinesses further driving the Tasmanian economy.

That is reflected in the Opposition’s alternative budget, which we describe as a step in the right direction.

Tasmania’s wealth creation will derive from our own endowment of natural resources and the skills of our people. It cannot be some sort of Utopian plan funded by the GST revenue of other states, grudgingly redirected to the place they regard as the runt of the federation litter and a publicly-funded national park. The eyes of the rest of the nation are upon us – and they don’t like what they see.
Our unique Tasmanian advantage is our points of difference, not our (in)ability to emulate what others have.

To make the most of that, we need to invest public funds in research, development and tools to enhance productivity and competitiveness. We need to see commitment to reducing the sea freight cost impediments that stand in the way of us making the most of our resources and endowments; the importance of wage competitiveness as an integral part of keeping people in jobs also needs to be addressed.

I believe people are looking to our politicians – of all hues – to provide us with a comprehensive vision of where we might be 20 or 50 years’ time. Times will inevitably get tougher before they get better. If we are to see our way through these challenges, it is really important that we know what the destination looks like.