Why Do We Really Need To Levy Australian Business And People For The Floods.

The floods are a national disaster, yet we persist in making short term decisions which have long term impacts on our economy, our food security and our lives. Why levy businesses and our people to pay for the neglect of infrastructure by governments, and poor decisions by planning authorities over many years? Why not levy the importers who will benefit from the decimation of our food growing areas in Queensland, NSW and Victoria?

The floods have exacerbated a problem that we created, not mother-nature. Our farmers have suffered years of drought, the threat of mining taking priority over their water supplies or contaminating them, and foreign companies and countries allowed to buy our land or breeding stock to export and compete with us, or to buy our water licenses then trade them as intangible commodities.

Free Trade Agreements and the high AUD$ mean that cheap, imported foods have been competing against our farmers for years by foreign owned companies manufacturing here, or local retailers importing their private labels in direct competition with Australian suppliers.

Foreign interests have been allowed to buy the channels of distribution for our exports leaving our farmers as price takers not price makers. Seventy five percent of our dairy industry is foreign owned, as are our brewing, beef exports and abattoirs, grain exports, sugar and most of our food manufacturing. Unless we own what we have we lose control.

Decisions have been made wrongly by successive governments on the basis that we export more food than we use here. No other developed country has exposed its food supply and farmers to the same extent. When we consider that we have an enviable clean, green, growing environment and some of the most skilled and productive farmers in the world this is an indictment on how poorly we have managed a strategic resource – our food supply.

We have opportunities to rebuild lost homes and infrastructure, and priority should be given to resourcing our people and our own local companies to supply and build these. But almost half our food growing areas are decimated for the short term. These are our farmers, our skills, our factories, and our jobs under threat.

The beneficiaries of our losses will be all those countries who will gain access to our food markets while our farmers rebuild. These countries will not leave once they gain greater access. China, New Zealand, USA, Peru, Chile, UK, EU, Thailand, India are all ready to capitalise on our losses. If they are to benefit, then they should pay for access to our markets, and their imports should be on an emergency basis only until such times as our farmers can supply us again. The levies should be on them not Australians.

These countries subsidise their farmers, so it about time Australia started to subsidise our farmers especially through this “natural disaster” rebuilding period. Consumers should be better informed and allowed to choose. Our labelling laws should make it mandatory to put country of origin on all foods, and be policed to ensure consumers know exactly where the food they are eating is grown.

Our gate keepers should be better resourced to ensure we have a viable farming sector and retain the skills and quality systems that our farmers meet. AQIS should at the very least triple its resources to assess the quality and condition of produce being imported so that we are not exposed to unwanted diseases or contaminants and chemicals not allowed here.

Bio security Australia should have independent Australian scientists to assess the quality of imported foods, and not have to rely on global companies with vested interests other than Australia’s to provide research.

ACCC should be serious about the unfair competition allowed to occur when foreign interests buy our key food industry sectors for both domestic and export use. Our farmers may own the farms but they do not own the profits.

Our farmers will never recover if we do not look after them now. It is not a level playing field. These are our people, our businesses, our communities and our farmers. The Australian people have shown their true worth in how they responded to the disasters which have befallen them. Now it is time for decision makers to give Priority to Australia.

PRIORITY AUSTRALIA IN 2011

Lynne Wilkinson

Ausbuy.