Australia’s $150bn food and agriculture sector faces a crisis as it battles rising regulation, surging energy costs and tax imposts with executives across the sector, from supermarkets and horticulture to cattle graziers and seafood producers, demanding a national plan to fix industry problems.
Almost half of businesses have no faith that Canberra bureaucrats can handle an environmental approvals system and would consider ditching major projects if timelines drag out any longer, a major survey has found.
Billionaire miner and investor Gina Rinehart wants Australians to keep their pressure up on politicians and says she uses only her influence to encourage policies which are clearly pro-Australia.
A climate trigger would put more than $220 billion worth of economic investment at risk, according to new research being used to pressure Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to explicitly rule out adding it to Labor’s shakeup of environmental laws.
Furious WA farmers have vowed to go to war against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Government in the fight to save the live sheep export industry.
Gina Rinehart said Australians are “truly fortunate to be able to enjoy the high quality of the agricultural products our farmers work so hard to produce.”
He says he only found out about the “nature-positive” plan a few weeks ago, even though he is chairman of four listed companies and has investments in all pockets of the country. Gina Rinehart’s Hancock is the other company brave enough to publicly raise the alarm bells – most businesses seem to be hiding behind the Business Council of Australia, lobbying on their behalf, or worried about political backlash.
The mining sector is up in arms about Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s “nature positive plan” with claims it will derail mining projects and halt the government’s own clean energy revolution. Ms Plibersek is seeking to push changes in Australia’s environment protection laws, as part of the government’s nature positive plan.
One of Gina Rinehart’s top lieutenants says the Albanese government’s so-called nature-positive laws pose a huge threat to farming and mining. Hancock Agriculture boss Adam Giles said the process “smelled” like a repeat of the shambolic Indigenous heritage legislation rolled out by West Australia’s Labor government last year.
We need policies that help Australians. We need policies that make investment in our country worthwhile. If we have any interest in maintaining our living standards we should be doing what other countries do and roll out the red carpet for investment. Expensive government-funded trade trips and trade personnel located overseas are a waste of money unless governments cut the costs and delays caused by government red tape. And Blind Freddie can see that the forcing the overburdened taxpayer to fund lawfare does nothing to encourage investment.
Federal opposition leader told audience at Roy Hill mine that parents and teachers should instruct children about benefits of mining. In a speech at Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill mine in November last year, Dutton repeatedly thanked those working in resources. He described the work carried out at the mine as a “national treasure”.
More than 15 of Australia’s biggest farms and stations have changed hands in high-profile deals in the past 18 months, as influential farming families and investor-backed corporate buyers trade some huge parcels of land.
