Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I report to the House that, on Monday 24 July, 650 farmers gathered at the Katanning Leisure and Function Centre in my home town at the invitation of the WA Farmers Federation. The theme of the day was 'let farmers farm'. I would have thought that that's a fairly modest request. Western Australia has about 7,000 farmers, and almost 10 per cent of that farming community turned up. On average they produce enough food for between 25 million and 30 million people. So that's not a bad multiplier effect from a very small and modest community.

However, they are feeling under attack at the moment. One of the two issues that were discussed on the day was the live export trade, and I've spoken about this many times in the House. Suffice to say that farmers have been invited by the review panel to advise the government on how they can shut their own industry down. But the main issue that was discussed was the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. This has made the Western Australian farming community, if I can sum up the mood of the crowd, bewildered by this attack on their businesses. They are frightened at the implications, and they are angry about the future of their farming businesses and families. I'll quote Mr Trent Rogers, who said, 'Everyone is worried about either going bankrupt or going to jail.' That's the state of WA farming at the moment.