John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to add some comments to this and ask some questions. Senator Milne said that food is the new oil. I tend to agree with her. Food is vital. But it always amazes me when we see properties like Toorale Station, with 93,000 hectares of good food-producing country, locked up, bought out and made into a national park to burn. That is what will happen to Toorale Station. It will burn, as sure as I am speaking here now, with no management, a lack of hazard reduction, fuel on the ground and no grazing. They say, 'Let's just lock the property up and let it burn.' As sure as I speak the rain will fall, the grass will grow, and then we will get the dry time. Then along comes a thunderstorm and the lightning will set off the fire on 93,000 hectares of country that has not been grazed for years. There will be up to 100 or 150 tonnes to a hectare of fuel, just like it was in the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, where half the country burned—it just happened in national parks. Of course, you cannot allow grazing in national parks; that is not allowed following the Greens' pressure on Minister Tony Burke. The coalition government put cattle into the alpine country to reduce those very fuel levels.

We see it in the Pilliga, between Narrabri and Moree, where the country has been locked up for national parks. It used to be forest. It used to be managed. It used to be grazed. And we see the hot fires go through with so much fuel, getting up into the crowns of the trees and killing them, where the koalas are literally cooked. If there is a huge fire on a hot day the strong wind goes through these huge fuel levels.

We have the irony of the Greens, where food is the new oil, and they say, 'Let's just lock up our food-growing country in the national parks. Let it burn! Let it destroy the environment!' Around 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide was estimated to come out of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. But we have a carbon tax to reduce our carbon emissions. This is crazy! Let's let the country burn! Let the animals be killed and sizzled—koalas, native species, you name it! I find it quite amazing.

It is a fact that this country needs energy. When Senator Milne and the Greens can convince me that you can power a 9400 model John Deere tractor at about 380 or 400 horsepower, towing a 60- or 70-foot wide air seeder with a fertiliser and grain bin—when you can power that tractor with a solar panel on the roof of that tractor, I am going to be simply amazed. We need diesel to power that tractor. Perhaps the Greens want us to go back to the Clydesdale horse days with a single-furrow mouldboard plough, walking alongside. Shut the machines down! We need energy and here we have clean energy in Australia—gas—with fewer emissions, and it is not imported. So let's shut down gas! The current situation in New South Wales is that 95 per cent of the gas is imported into New South Wales. But let's close it all down. Then when people are knocking down the doors in my office asking, 'Why is gas so expensive?' I can say, 'Blame the Greens,' and lock the gate on others for shutting down industries. We have made it quite clear where the Nationals stand on this issue.

I am disappointed that Senator Milne has left the chamber, because I wanted to ask: if this amendment went through the Senate, where the farmer could say no to anyone going onto the property for mining projects, coal seam gas or whatever, how is it going to be enforced at a federal level when the land is controlled by the states? I want an answer to that. How are you going to enforce it as a federal law? I find that simply amazing. This is not about the farmers having a say, this is about a political wedge. That is all this is about.

When I talk to the large gas companies in Australia, they say they do not go onto properties when the farmers say, 'We don't want you here.' That has been the message clearly put to me. What I am saying is that we need energy. We need gas. We also need to look after our environment for future generations. One of the most, if not the most, important parts of our environment is the very topsoil that grows our food, not only for the 23 million Australians but also for millions of others around the world relying on the food production here in Australia. It is all very good to say, 'Let's shut this down, let's shut that down, let's go back and live in a cave and we'll issue three sticks of wood for a week—that's your quota to keep warm and do your cooking.' But that is not the real world. We live in the real world, where we need energy and we need to produce.

My leader in the Senate, Senator Joyce, just made quite clear to the Senate the policy that was released in November 2011: look after the land, look after the water, look after the environment, give a fair go. And here are the Greens looking for a wedge. How are we going to enforce this law? The minerals are owned by the states—the Crown—and the Rann government stole that off the farmers in 1981 or 1983 in New South Wales, with no compensation, just like when they shut down the farming country with the Native Vegetation Conservation Act. I was very pleased last week to hear Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner addressing that crazy issue.

I can give you an example about the food bowl, as Senator Milne said. If you have a farming country in New South Wales and you do not plough it for 10 years, then you are not allowed to plough it again. If you plough a good country you will get a tonne to the acre of wheat—you will yield 1,000 kilograms of wheat. Or you can leave it as grazing country under the native veg act and you might rear 20 or 25 kilograms, perhaps five kilograms of wool. Here we have the food bowl producing food, but under the Greens plan—and Senator Bob Carr, when Premier of New South Wales, said it would be the greenest government the state has ever seen—we have shut down the farmers from growing food and being productive. And what was the compensation? The compensation was zilch. Make the property owners pay for the environmental issues.

So do not ever talk about food being the new oil when the Greens' history is of shutting down the production of food in New South Wales. The history proves it. Thank goodness the New South Wales government is, after its inquiry, about to address that issue and bring some fairness back into the whole environmental debate in New South Wales. The landowners have been caned by the Greens; Senator Bob Carr; the minister—as John Laws used to refer to him, Kimberly Maxwell Yeadon—who we thought had a very capable staff; and Senator Penny Wong. This is the group hanging together, saying, 'Shut down the farmers, don't give them any compensation and don't worry about producing food.' That has been a problem in this country for too long.

We take our supply of food for granted. Around the rest of the world we see subsidies given to the farmers, and we have to compete against them. The point I make—and we made it quite clear—is that we need balance. We need energy, or you will take us back to the Clydesdales, walking behind the horse with the single-furrow plough and a couple of Clydesdales hooked together—a very slow process.

We have become a modern machinery farming enterprise, with huge production. We will not be going back to the horses. We will use energy. We require energy, and diesel will be part of that energy. Let us just shut down our local clean energy in gas and import diesel. Is that the plan? Is that the balance of payments plan? Is that the environmental plan? Is it to close down the clean energy and gas being produced in Australia? As I said, this amendment is simply a wedge piece by the Greens.

I wish Senator Milne were here to explain how they are going to enforce this. No-one takes more pride than our farmers and those who have lived all their lives in rural Australia and been on the land. I wish Senator Milne were here to answer this question—or perhaps Senator Waters might. How is this going to be enforced? If this were to go through, what law can the federal government enforce when the control of the land is under the Crown? Are they just going to change the Constitution with the wave of a stick and perform magic? We all know how hard it is to change the Constitution. That is the very point I make. I am sure my colleague Senator Birmingham has more to add to this.