HOW important is milk to the average Australian family? How important is bread, or clean, green Australian-grown rice?
These are staple foods on which almost every family relies, and has done so for generations.
Why, then, do we have federal decision-making that puts their supply in jeopardy and as a consequence, leads to higher prices and even more cost of living pressures?
Let’s take milk as a prime example, as the chief executive of the Canadian company Saputo is on an Australian tour, during which he is announcing the closure of milk processing facilities.
This CEO, Lino A. Saputo, says the biggest challenge for Australia’s milk processing sector was a long-term decline in milk supply, with a dairy pool that has been steadily declining. The country was producing 11 billion litres of milk in the early 2000s, and this is now down to 8.5 million litres.
Any economist will tell you that a consequence of reduced supply is increased demand, and this leads to increased prices.
Many of the dairy farmers who have exited the industry are from northern Victoria and southern NSW, which in the past has made a far greater contribution to our milk supply than it does today.
Unfortunately, these farmers were forced out of the industry by expensive and unreliable water.
The Albanese Government now has plans to recover more water through damaging buybacks, and will no doubt again target these regions.
The risk, of course, is that we will have further declines in milk production, less wheat and other crops, including rice, which is such an important international staple food that is grown more efficiently in Australia than anywhere else in the world.
Buybacks are an expedient political method that have adverse consequences for household budgets and damage rural communities. Because of this, they should never be an option.
If we are ever able to reach a point where decisions around water and our environment are based on evidence, instead of the current political expediency, our nation will be far better off.
Jason Brooks
Barooga, NSW
