AUSTRALIA’S national security requires us to have the capacity to feed, supply and defend ourselves.
Our food security is currently undermined by federal and state Labor governments who see farmland as greenfields to carve up for wind turbines, solar panels, transmission lines or mines for lithium batteries.
Labor sees farms as wealthy piggy banks and have no clue about business, profit and loss because they always look to the taxpayer to bail out their pet projects with borrowings, should the projects go belly-up.
Did someone say Suburban Rail Loop? But I digress.
Farmers work hard against the strain of the elements and intrusive governments, and if they have a good year or two, they reinvest or put the profits aside for a bad year or years.
Mallee farmers underpin Australian food security and help feed and clothe a world population racing to almost 10 billion people by 2050.
As a trading nation we rely on exports and some sectors such as wine, beef and barley were doing well while the Chinese market doors were open. However, we experienced China slamming our farmers with tariffs because the former Coalition government took a strong national security stance.
The sanctions may be lifting, but in my wildest dreams I did not expect the Albanese Labor government’s trade-off would be to allow China to dump wind turbines into Australia.
China’s manufacturing of wind turbines is hardly “green” and with Victorian Labor previously saying that without offshore wind, 70 per cent of Victoria’s farming land could be needed to meet their renewables targets, Mallee and regional Victoria will become a turbine pincushion.
The energy demand is in Greater Melbourne and the nation’s other capitals where the adjacent hills, mountains and coastlines have outstanding wind generation prospects.
Labor and the Greens should put the turbines they love within eyesight and earshot and let regional Victoria get on with upholding food security.
