A walkout at the post-budget agriculture breakfast during the minister’s speech on May 15 was intended to send a ‘strong message’ to the Federal Government.
National Farmers’ Federation president David Jochinke led the protest along with key representatives from farming groups in NSW, WA and Queensland.
The protest was aimed to tell the minister he had ‘crossed a line’ by announcing the radical four-year timeline on May 11, to ban live sheep exports, with the $107 million allocated to shutting down the trade being the biggest budget allocation of new funding for the agricultural sector.
“Farmers from across the nation are still reeling from Saturday’s announcement that the live sheep trade will be wiped out in just four years; this is a bitter blow,” Mr Jochinke said.
“What we say to the government is reverse the ban, keep your money and we’ll call it even.
“To add insult to injury, only $64.6 million (of the $107 million) will go to producers and the supply chain.
“So the biggest spend in ‘agriculture’ is not even for farmers, it’s appeasing the extreme activists and to generate inner city votes at the next election.”
Senator Watt said he was not concerned by any protest ‘stunts’.
“While a handful of NFF leadership and their staff walked out, a couple of hundred agriculture leaders — including many NFF members — stayed to hear about the government’s $5 billion investment in agriculture,” Senator Watt said.
“I met with the CEO and president of the NFF yesterday where they wanted to talk about projects we could work on together going forward.”
Mr Jochinke said while it would appear the biggest spending spree for agriculture was for the Future Drought Fund, only $42.2 million of it was new money.
“Peel back the surface and the disappointment appears,” he said.
“This is a painful budget for Australian farmers, and ... a kick in the guts when we are already down.”
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