The upcoming Queensland election has to be an ideal time to voice an opinion on the state of play that we as rural constituents hope and dream for in the election cycle.
Just to put the candidates into hopefully a state of reality about what some of their promises mean, and for the elected, what their term can do to change our livelihoods, here’s my summary.
Firstly, for the bush, from what we hear, vegetation management would be at the top of the list.
It is easy to understand why some candidates believe vegetation management needs to stop – some of what they see in the media illustrates a poor image of what we do to maintain our land in a useable fashion.
I’d like to think though, that if we have the opportunity to partake in a statistical debate and show cause for why we do what we do, then the debate is clear, that we aren’t trying to destroy the environment, only trying to make it sustainable.
For example, there has not been a time in history that we haven’t had fire that destroys younger trees but because we now utilise the carbon to feed and clothe the world, we don’t have the fuel load to burn to control the trees.
I am a huge supporter of using social media to bring the uniformed into our backyards and show why we need to manage our asset as best as possible.
Power and the cost of it is a big deal.
Power has become a necessity in most farming enterprises and because of our market pressures, the price cannot be passed through our supply chain.
That’s probably lucky for our consumer, when you look at the rapid increase in power prices.
I also believe you’d have to go a long way to find better economic use of power or the use of renewables in rural and regional Queensland.
Other issues have been the unfair reduction of category H weapons licences, which will require the assistance of the new government to allow producers to legally operate in their businesses going forward.
Biosecurity has changed the game for producers substantially after changes to the stock act in 2016 that were well overdue.
Keeping in mind that the honeymoon had teething issues, we need state government assistance to educate ourselves on what our obligations are to protect ourselves from potential threats.
I maybe biased, as I’m in the heartland of the issue but I’d like to think the state government should be kicking the can while many producers are facing significant losses from pasture dieback.
MLA has been working hard to find answers but due to the environmental threat we face, it would be nice to think as stewards for the environment, we need to understand the cause and possibly the solution.
All in all, regardless of the result this weekend I can only hope that the incoming majority or minority government understands which side their bread is buttered and, when called on, support us as rural and regional custodians to make long term change for our Sunshine State.
– Will Wilson, Calliope cattle producer.