Judging by reports emerging about the National Party’s wish list that Barnaby Joyce has presented to Malcolm Turnbull as conditions to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, rural Australia has a lot to fear from lack of leadership on climate change.
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Our nation’s farmers, being well attuned to changes in climate, are the sentinels of climate change.
Farmers are the Australians whose livelihoods are affected first, and most, by climate change.
Climate threats, already unfolding, to Australian agriculture include:
(1) Declines in crop production due to changes in rainfall and increased temperature.
(2) Decline in livestock profitability because of changes in quantity and quality of pasture because rising temperature.
(3) Greater exposure of crops and livestock to heat stress and disease.
(4) Decreased overall productivity because of increased extreme weather events (heatwaves , bushfire weather, flooding etc).
(5) Early ripening and reduction in fruit quality and less winter chilling for fruit and nuts.
(6) Expansion of range for pests, diseases and weeds.
Australian farmers are seeing climate change on-farm.
However, being the resilient bunch that they are, many see opportunities in adapting to climate change.
They want politicians to accept that climate change is happening and show some leadership.
A leading young farmer, Josh Gilbert (who crowd funded his way to the Paris Climate Summit), said on climate action: “I think for agriculture as a whole, this is our opportunity to feed and clothe the world, but also empower our community.” (ABC Rural, Nov 2015).
The National Party is the political party that purports to represent our farmers’ best interests. Yet bizarrely, the Nationals leader and Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, is a well-documented climate denier.
It should be inconceivable that the National Party, the party of the farmers, would use their power in the Coalition to the determent of the farmers.
I call on Barnaby and his Nationals colleagues, for the sake of their farmer constituents, to show some real leadership and use their power in the Coalition wisely.
Dr Robin Gunning
Tamworth
