Payback for The Voice... quid pro quo?

Rocco Loiacono I 14 September 2024 I Sky News I 4 min read

It was once said that Australia rode on the sheep’s back.

For over a century, agriculture (and in particular wool production), was what made Australia a prosperous country.

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Then in the 1950s, huge deposits of iron ore, bauxite, nickel were discovered, followed by gas in the 1970s.

Exploiting these resources gave Australia one of the highest living standards in the world.

Primary industries keep the economy going – and gave the federal government a budget surplus last year.

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Yet the Albanese government seems determined to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. That is why this week thousands of people from regional Australia rallied in Canberra.

Since it came into office, it has attacked primary producers and miners on every front, whether it be via the live sheep export ban, solar and wind energy projects, new environmental regulations or industrial relations changes.

Along the way, it has displayed a complete lack of regard and understanding of the issues with an arrogance that takes one’s breath away.

Young Western Australian farmer Makaela Knapp summed it up best in explaining the critical role the live sheep export trade – which will be banned as of 2028 – plays for primary producers like her.

It created competition for domestic processors and made available an important option for farmers to offload older wool-producing sheep that have little value among Australian meat consumers.

It became a good option for farmers to offload their stock if the weather turned bad, as it did last year and their feed ran out.

Noting that the industry had reformed its past practices following the heat related deaths during the Middle Eastern summer of 2017, Ms Knapp remarked: “Never did I think a fair, ethical, profitable trade would be shut down,” adding, “this sets a precedent for other industries facing challenges from activists”.

Rather than work with the industry that feeds the country and provides livelihoods for so many, the government seems content to take its policy advice from activists.

Cue Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, whose blocking of the $1 billion Regis gold mine near Blayney, New South Wales - which would have given prosperity to the area and to the resources sector generally the confidence to invest - was described by Indigenous leader Warren Mundine as “insane madness” on the advice of activists.

Plibersek is also responsible for the Nature Positive Plan, which the Albanese government plans to legislate before the year is out.

As it stands now under this proposal, Canberra bureaucrats will have all the power to stop any development whatsoever simply by declaring that it will have an unacceptable impact upon any “threatened species”.

As was revealed by James Tregurtha, the Division Head of the Nature Positive Taskforce, even where projects are approved, they will have to be “nature positive” thus requiring mandatory reporting of emissions and contributions through a payment system to ensure compliance.

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According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in Western Australia alone there are investment projects worth nearly $320 billion awaiting environmental approvals already.

This Nature Positive Plan will make sure those projects never go ahead, thus resulting in tens of thousands of jobs not being created.

When it comes to solar and wind energy projects, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and his department, aided and abetted by (mainly foreign) investors, continue to ride roughshod over the property rights and concerns of landowners in rural and regional areas.

Last week I referred to the façade of consultation that took place over the offshore wind zone declaration for the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Bunbury. That isn’t the half of it.

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As Judith Sloan pointed out, rural communities simply are expected to “take it on the chin”.

“Those directly affected by having massive turbines, fields of industrial-scale solar panels and high-voltage transmission lines on their land may be offered an annual annuity for the inconvenience subject to refraining from making any criticism of the installations or renewable energy in general,” she said.

“Affected neighbours may be offered small amounts of compensation, but this is also subject to a gag order.”

If these tactics were imposed in the city, all hell would break loose.

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Of course, all those inner-city luvvies and teal types conveniently ignore the loss of arable land, the environmental destruction and the massive disruption caused during the construction phase of these solar and wind projects.

In an address to the recent Bush Summit in Port Hedland, Hancock Prospecting Executive Chairman Mrs Gina Rinehart, whose mining activities shore up the Australian economy, told some home truths.

Mrs Rinehart told those in attendance that over the past decade, Australia's mining industry has earned trillions of dollars in export earnings.

She noted this revenue supported many local businesses and paid $252 billion in wages and $357 billion in taxes and royalties over the last 10 years.

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These taxes and royalties paved the way for Australia “to provide for nurses, police, defence ... veterans, elderly, emergency services and more.” she said.

Mrs Rinehart has previously called out the long-term damage we are doing to this nation by constantly demonising mining as “evil” and “dirty”.

“Kids need to be reminded that we all need mining, be that for mobile phones, iPads, refrigeration, air conditioning, electric vehicles and more. And that Australia wouldn’t have our high living standards, envied by those around the world, who would love to have our natural resources and the opportunities they bring.”

For that our governments must better understand agriculture and mining and put policies in place that actually welcome, not deter, investment in these sectors.

In Mrs Rinehart’s words: “Why jeopardise this bonanza, why kill the geese laying the golden eggs?”

Dr Rocco Loiacono is a legal academic, writer and translator. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade practicing as a lawyer with Clayton Utz, one of Australia’s top law firms. As well as SkyNews.com.au , he regularly contributes opinion pieces, specialising in politics, freedom and the rule of law, to The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Australian