Greens Senator Janet Rice has slammed the government’s failure to act as farmers suffer the effects of the climate emergency, following a damning report released today from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.
The report found that the climate crisis has sunk Australian farms’ average annual profits by 22% and that crop farmers have been hit the hardest, losing $1.1bn in revenue a year since 2000.
Senator Janet Rice, Greens spokesperson for Agriculture and Regional Affairs said:
“This is the cost of our climate crisis. It’s unacceptable that Australian farmers are losing around $18,600 per farm and yet the government is still failing to act on the climate emergency that’s causing this loss.
“Farmers and rural Australians are on the frontline of the climate crisis and this drought is devastating families and leaving communities to perish.
“Instead of helping regional communities and farmers, the coal-hugging Liberal-National Coalition have lifted pollution and done everything in their power to make global heating worse.
“The LNP seem more interested in cosying up to their coal, oil and gas lobby mates than they are in supporting farmers.
“The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that drier than average weather will continue, so we must ensure farmers have what they need to adapt.
“The Morrison government can’t just throw money at the problem as a bandaid during times of crisis. This is an ongoing crisis, made worse by the government’s failure to address the root cause of drought, fund long-term drought resilience programs, and take urgent climate action.
“It is only by cutting pollution that we can reduce the impact of droughts and alleviate the effect on farmers.”