Tag Archives: cattle industry

Incompetent Government Marionetted By Greens The Death Of Cattlemen

30 Mar

Remember the knee-jerk government action on live cattle exports?

It just gets better:

High dollar, carbon tax to hit cattlemen

Australian beef producers risk becoming globally uncompetitive, if they are not already, a forum in Darwin has heard.

The Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association (NTCA) 2012 annual general meeting and beef forum was told costs for beef producers were drifting higher and were not sustainable.

NTCA president Rohan Sullivan told about 300 cattle producers at the meeting that the cost of slaughtering cattle in southern Australia was about $340 per head, compared to just $150 per head in the United States, and $30 per head in Indonesia.

Mr Sullivan said the introduction of the carbon tax would likely add another $20 to that figure for Australian cattle farmers, and also add to export transport costs.

He said stringent food safety requirements, a skills shortage, high labour costs and the strong Australian dollar were also making beef producers less competitive than those overseas.

“We need something else, because the current situation is not sustainable,” Mr Sullivan told the meeting.

“Australia risks becoming globally uncompetitive, if it isn’t already,” he said.

Mr Sullivan said General Motors was recently promised more than $200 million over 10 years by governments to keep going in Australia, while Indonesia will be given $20 million to develop its cattle industry.

Australian cattle producers should also get assistance, he said.

“A slip lane on the Stuart Highway and supporting our infrastructure don’t seem too big an ask,” Mr Sullivan said.

He said the issue of wild dogs was also becoming a big issue for producers.

“There was a report the other day from a member of the academia to reintroduce dingoes into some areas to control foxes, cats and that are overrun with herbivores – I wonder if that includes sheep and cows?” he said.

During the past year Northern Territory cattle producers have also had to face challenges from the one-month live export ban on the sale of cattle to Indonesia, and bushfires which tore through much of Central Australia, Mr Sullivan said.

But that’s ok, right?

Who needs a healthy, thriving, locally-produced food industry?

Let’s just ban the building of dams, wipe out the cattle industry, sell off prime agricultural land for mining … and our best agri-businesses to the Americans and the Chinese.

After all, I have no doubt it will be no problem whatsoever when we Try Asking 1.3 Billion Stomachs Armed With Nukes To Give Our Food Back.

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Barnaby: The Bush Has Been Rorted

21 Jul

Senator Joyce writes for the Canberra Times:

Australia must invest in the regions that are the source of our wealth. It is nauseating to hear the pejorative “pork barrelling” used for what is strategic investment. We must think of the benefits of regionalism logically: where are the coal mines, the iron ore mines, wheat paddocks, cotton fields, the cattle and many of the tourism attractions?

Why is a bus network in a capital city “nation-building investment” but a road in regional Australia welfare?

Ask yourself a very simple question: how many of the consumer items that reflect your standard of living came from overseas? So who is sending something in the other direction to pay for all of this?

While only one-third of Australians live in regional areas, over half of our exports come from regional Australia. If a person with $2 goes to a table of four and kicks off a series of transactions that move the coin around the table, then broadly speaking the gross domestic product of that table would be $10. The person with the coin is often regional Australia and, if they didn’t turn up, the GDP of the four remaining people would be zero.

People often lose sight of the fundamental economics of Australia by failing to think of the source of our wealth, not just its location. My shire of Balonne in western Queensland produces $600 million of cotton, over $100 million of grain, about $30-40 million worth of cattle each year, as well as sheep, wool, grapes, onions, kangaroo meat, wild pigs and free range eggs. about $750 million of annual renewable income from about 5000 people.

Investing in the areas that produce this wealth would seem to me to be a pretty smart thing to do, especially if we want to pay off our $197 billion in gross debt, plus a similar amount in state government debt.

Canberra, if we don’t start paying off debt rather than just accumulating it you might not have a job.

Parts of Queensland and NSW are currently living with the coal seam gas boom.

In some areas the roads are getting wrecked. There are people charging over the land in white Toyota wagons with red flags on what looks like a fishing pole strapped to the bullbar.

Some of their wells are producing $1million a day in gross income. For this, farmers get anywhere between a slab of beer at the worst and up to about $10,000 a year at the best. So the farmer gets less than 1 per cent of the income stream from the wells that sit on their place, affecting the land’s value and in some instances completely compromising how the farm works.

Are there new houses in these regions? No, generally not, just trucked in demountables called ”dongas”, lined up like barracks. It looks like you’ve been invaded by an army. Their lifestyle is not very good and their contribution to the community is generally not very good either.

When the wool industry came they developed the pubs, the roads and the towns. The money stayed local and was spent locally. With wool production in regional Australia we were the richest nation on earth.

With the cattle industry we had the development of Northern Australia and genuine progress in the income of indigenous people in some areas and genuine dignity in having their own business and the prospect of greater independence for their communities.

But in some areas, if the coal seam gas industry left tomorrow, the only legacy they would leave is potholes. Sure, state coffers would be upset, but in some areas of regional Australia they couldn’t give a toss, in fact they would be better off without them.

Royalties must be reinvested in the regions that generate the income stream; not all royalties, but a substantial proportion. Taxation rates must be adjusted so that we can develop regions. People must be encouraged to fly in, stay and live, not fly in and fly out.

Australia must have a genuine vision for a much wider development of our regions, otherwise what we are will be as good as it gets and over time we will become tired, worn out and diminished.

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