Inaugural Post
With the election now underway, this blog will be used to discuss current happenings in Australian politics. Be it election promises, candidates’ gaffes, policy unveilings, smears or any other topic of discussion, we’d love to hear it.
I’ll get the ball rolling with the announcement from the CSIRO that Australia’s farmers could be generating up to $3 billion in revenue from embracing climate change programs. Some key figures include revenue of $920 million from producing carbon offsets by big polluters by planting trees (which will also help avert salination and keep topsoil in place) as well as $250 million from wind farms. Wind farms are very popular with European and American farmers as they have a very small footprint and can sit in the middle of a paddock, raising the worth without taking much agricultural land away. Cows also enjoy standing in the shade produced.
Farmers are tied, intimately, to their land and stand to lose a lot through environmental degradation and shifting climate patterns. By getting on board programs for renewable energy and vegetation regrowth, they can insulate themselves (financially) from the shocks that climate change brings as well helping slow down the rate at which it happens. The Queensland Farmers’ Federation has been involved with events run by the Queensland Conservation Council such as the Walk Against Warming and the “Our Future” forum the other week.
Perhaps that bastion of resistance to change, the National Party, could be doing more within parliament to look out for the interests of farmers with respect to climate change? Heaven knows the Liberals, especially with Ian McFarlane as Industry Minister, aren’t doing anything substantial to help people out in the bush, resorting to what is the equivalent of sit-down money and massive subsidies for farming techniques which are inappropriate for the Australian climate.
