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The Australian Greens will: Deliver $100m a year of real support for drought affected communities Support farmers with grants to increase production while protecting land and soil Reverse the cuts to Landcare funding Create a Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and develop a climate smart plan for our agricultural sector Drive the domestic carbon farming and farm forestry industries A national ban on all new unconventional gas projects Conduct a thorough review of our agricultural chemicals and food safety Ensure that our existing genetic regulatory regime is protected and updated for new technologies

 

OVERVIEW

We want our agricultural communities to thrive, but because of our short-sighted politicians and the power of agribusiness we are failing to build an agricultural sector that can weather the shocks and the changes that are fast approaching.

Whether it be the effects of climate change, desertification and soil erosion, or changing consumer preferences, we need to ensure that Australian agriculture has an outlook that goes beyond the next political cycle.

Instead of the status quo of maximising profits to big business in the short term , our plan will give farmers and consumers genuine choice and control over the food that we grow and eat, and ensure that our agricultural industry is protected well into the future.

 

ONE:  REAL SUPPORT FOR DROUGHT AFFECTED COMMUNITIES

 

The frequency and intensity of drought is growing in a warming world. In the last year alone we’ve seen the awful impact of drought on communities in Western Queensland, in the Murray-Darling Basin, from Eastern Gippsland to across the Nullabor in South West WA.

But instead of delivering a real strategy for drought affected Australia, the Coalition have created a policy that gives the Agriculture Minister the ability to pork barrel resources with very minimal safeguards, all while gutting funding that had already been allocated to the NDIS and regional infrastructure.

That’s why the Greens would create a real drought fund that doesn’t raid the NDIS, while providing short-term relief and helping farmers adapt to our changing climate. It would deliver $100 million a year in real, sustainable and independently assessed grants to communities and business, grants that would improve water security and soil quality and better insulate farms and communities from the impact of drought.

 

TWO: GREEN FARMING

 

Australia needs a viable, long-term agricultural industry. But to have it we need to ensure that agriculture and the environment aren’t at odds with each other. Carefully directed environmental subsidies – to encourage farmers to reduce fertiliser use, improve land productivity and reduce water consumption – help ease pressure for land clearing and improve gross yields per hectare. It’s better for the farmer, it’s better for the planet. The Greens will make available $80 million a year in direct agricultural subsidies for farmers to improve per-hectare yield without degrading the land.

We will also fund a large scale rollout of the Whole of Paddock Rehabilitation Program. The Whole of Paddock Rehabilitation Program is an Australian-first, developed by farmers in conjunction with Greening Australia. It’s an entirely voluntary program that allows farmers to repair degraded or cleared paddock over 10 hectares of size through the planting of a broad range of native trees and shrubs in widely spaced belts across the land. The paddock is ‘rested’ by excluding livestock for a period of five years. Unlike other land restoration programs, this involves no land lost to production. Instead, payments are made to farmers in return for ‘renting’ the land for five years while a mix of native trees and shrubs are established.

Land restored through the program is more fertile, healthier, and demonstrates higher yields than its pre-restoration state. Farmers report ewes with lambs actively seeking out windbreaks created by the landscape restoration, and the lambing percentage for twinning ewes has increased by over 140 per cent.

 

THREE: INCREASED FUNDING FOR LANDCARE

 

The Liberal National Government’s cuts to Landcare have put the program under immense stress. The National Landcare Program (NLP) supports vitally important work across Australia’s amazing landscapes, from helping small farmers develop new land management techniques, to providing grant funding for communities to play a bigger part in caring for the land they live on. Yet the Coalition Government has drastically cut funding to the program, undermining its vital work.

The Greens have been in the fight for Landcare funding for years – managing to secure an extra $100 million in 2016. Now we’ll fully restore this crucial program to health, increasing funding by $84 million a year over the course of the next Parliament. With extra funding, the NLP can provide for the productive and responsible use of our land and safeguard it for future generations

 

FOUR: FUNDING RESEARCH FOR A CLIMATE SMART FUTURE

 

Climate change is the largest single crisis facing our regions, and its impacts on our farming communities become more and more apparent by the month. It is outrageous that the Government’s agriculture white paper process did not include climate change in its terms of reference, and because of this the final paper paid only lip service to it. The Greens would empower the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to conduct a whole of sector review and begin planning for the range of climate scenarios that we are fast approaching.

The Greens would also create a Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, an RD&E agency which would focus on working on the ground with best  practice farmers who are building the on-farm solutions for water efficiency, fertiliser efficiency, soil health, biodiversity retention and developing localised food production and sales. The centre would then provide the infrastructure to extend these best practices to farmers across the country.

 

FIVE: SUPPORTING CARBON FARMING, FARM FORESTRY AND REVEGETATION

 

The need to protect biodiversity and carbon stocks comes with many benefits and potential revenue streams for our farming community. Too often we see a false narrative of farmers vs the environment, when we know that native vegetation can improve water management, soil health and other environmental services to the benefit of both farmers AND the environment.

That’s why the Greens would restore integrity to the carbon farming initiative, allowing farmers to deliver genuine abatement. And we would rule out international carbon offsets, allowing Australia farmers to  bid into carbon markets without having to compete with dodgy international carbon credits.

Finally, the ability of farms to provide plantation timber is significant. That’s why the Greens will also commit $3 million of seed funding to contribute to the establishment of a national farm forestry cooperative for farmers, to expand the potential for farm forestry to contribute to supply of plantation wood products.

 

SIX: A NATIONAL BAN ON ALL NEW UNCONVENTIONAL GAS PROJECTS

 

The rapid and destructive expansion of the unconventional gas (coal seam, shale and tight gas) industry across much of Australia demonstrates what happens when governments put big gas mining companies ahead of local communities, the environment and our long-term future.

We will always act to protect our groundwater, climate, precious farmland and regional communities. The Greens would implement a national ban on all new unconventional gas approvals or expansions to existing projects, and put an end to underground coal gasification.

 

SEVEN: ENSURING OUR FOOD IS SAFE

 

The existing pathways that our Government use to assess our food and the chemicals that go into growing them is broken. The integrity of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority has been compromised by its  relocation, and many chemicals that sit on their books haven’t been assessed in decades.The ad-hoc nature of our current regime for chemical review, as demonstrated by the approach of the APVMA to community concerns about glyphosate, is clearly not up to the task of keeping our community and environment safe.

Because of this, the Greens would reintroduce the mandatory scheme for re-approval and re-registration of already registered pesticides and veterinary medicines, and establish a clear public interest voice advocating for consumers in both the APVMA and FSANZ.

 

EIGHT:  TAKING BACK CONTROL OVER OUR FOOD SYSTEM

 

The Government is looking to deregulate genetic modification technology like CRISPR and other new breeding techniques, allowing them to be released into the Australian supply chain and ecosystem without any oversight. Experts from a number of academic institutions have called  this change unnecessary, and the European Union has already ruled that these technologies must be regulated under the same criteria as existing genetic modification technology.

It is clear that these changes would put Australian exports, state based moratoriums and organic certifications at risk. The Greens will stand with farmers and ensure that new breeding techniques go through the same regulatory system as existing genetic modification technologies

Greens science, research and innovation spokesperson Adam Bandt MP will today launch the Greens’ policy to put Australia on a pathway to reaching 4% investment of GDP in science, research and innovation. Mr Bandt launched the policy today in his electorate at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia’s oldest medical research institute.

The Greens’ plan injects $19.4 billion into the sector over the next decade, reversing funding cuts to key institutions, including the CSIRO, continued funding for the Medical Research Future Fund and over $2.5 billion for a suite of measures to support equitable and ongoing employment opportunities for researchers, including a ‘Secure Work for Researchers’ fund to assist universities and research institutes to transition their workers to ongoing, secure employment and targeted support for women in science.

Other policy measures in the package include:

• Creating a ‘Protecting Science’ package, consisting of a $2.557 billion boost to the Australia Research Council, National Health & Medical Research Council, and Cooperative Research Centres over the next decade;

• Providing $185.1 million over the forwards to ensure Open Access Publishing of Government funded research.

• Providing $60.2 million over the forwards to invest in strategic opportunities for international collaboration

• Improving the R&D Tax Incentive by reversing millions of dollars of government cuts and providing a 20% non-refundable tax offset for companies that hire STEM PhD students to work in their field of expertise.

Quotes attributable to Mr. Bandt:

“The Greens want a strong research sector in Australia to help move away from the polluting industries of the past and deliver the jobs of the future.”

“After six years of neglect and cuts from an anti-science Coalition government, we’ll improve access to information, foster international collaboration, protect key research institutions and fund the research and innovation Australia needs.”

“We must make life and work more secure for our researchers. We also need to do more to support women who take time out of the science and research workforce to have children.”

“By winding back unfair tax breaks to big polluters and big corporations, we can invest $19.4b into science, research and innovation to set us up for the future.”

“Australia is lagging behind. Commonwealth investment in research and development is at its lowest level in 40 years.”

“The old parties are stuck in the past. They’re addicted to the donations of old, entrenched and polluting industries so they don’t have the vision or the ability to usher in the jobs and industries of the future.

“This plan will put Australia on a path to joining other advanced countries that spend 4% of GDP on research and development.

The Australian Greens have announced an eight point plan to grow Australia’s agriculture industry sustainably and prepare for a changing climate.

“The Greens agriculture plan will grow the industry sustainably, provide $100 million annual support for drought-affected communities, protect farmers’ land with a national ban on fracking, and support farmers with grants to increase production and protect land and soil,” said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens Agriculture and Rural Affairs spokesperson.

“We need a plan for agriculture that looks beyond the next election cycle. The effects of climate change, drought, water mismanagement, soil erosion and changing consumer preferences are all already having a huge impact on farmers and rural and regional communities.”

“The Coalition continues to sell out farmers and primary producers in favour of their corporate agribusiness mates and coal industry donors. Just look at the rampant pork barrelling and water mismanagement by Barnaby Joyce when he was agriculture and water minister.”

“Farmers and the agriculture industry are bearing the brunt of drought and a changing climate. The Greens plan provides the real solutions to the challenges that our critical agricultural industries  face.”

“The Greens plan also supports the essential work of Landcare, from helping small farmers develop new land management techniques, to providing grant funding for communities to play a bigger part in caring for the land they live on.”

“The Greens secured an extra $100 million for Landcare in 2016. Now we will restore the $84 million in funding that was cut by this government.”

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The Australian Greens eight-point agriculture policy includes:

1. Deliver $100m a year of real support for drought affected communities

2. Support farmers with grants to grow production and protect land and soil

3. Reverse the cuts to Landcare funding

4. Create a Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and develop a climate smart plan for our agricultural sector

5. Drive the domestic carbon farming and farm forestry industries

6. A national ban on all new unconventional gas projects

7. Conduct a thorough review of our agricultural chemicals and food safety

8. Ensure that our existing genetic regulatory regime is protected and updated for new technologies

Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has commented on the latest Anglicare Australia Rental Affordability Snapshot which has found that there is a huge shortage of secure, affordable rentals across the country.
The Australian Greens have a plan to more than double the amount of social housing across Australia by building 500,000 new ecologically sustainable and affordable homes, with a net addition of 33,000 dwellings each year. The homes would be funded by scrapping negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions, as well as redirecting part of the banking levy on major banks.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Housing in Australia is monumentally messed up and this latest report from Anglicare Australia further reinforces this. The near complete lack of rental places available to people living on Newstart or the Disability Support Pension across the country underlies the need for sweeping changes to boost affordable housing in Australia.
“The primary goal of a housing system should be to supply long term secure homes to people, not unbridled profits for investors.
“Everyone has the right to a safe, secure and permanent home. We know the situation is getting worse. We need urgent intervention, coupled with significant financial resources and reform of the housing system, or more and more people will be without a home.
“The Greens are the only party with a plan to massively boost the amount of social and affordable housing in Australia. We will more than double social housing in Australia by building 500,000 new ecologically sustainable and affordable homes” Dr Faruqi concluded.

Greens Senators Richard Di Natale, Nick McKim and Peter Whish-Wilson will today join Tasmanian surfers in calling for a ban on oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight.
Senator Di Natale said, “Today we’re standing with surfers and other oceangoers in saying no to oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight.
“It’s just not worth the risk to our marine environment and to our climate.
“The fossil fuel era is coming to an end. This means companies are chasing the last oil and gas into deeper and more dangerous waters than ever.”
Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim said, “Modelling has shown that an oil spill from the Bight could travel thousands of kilometres, even as far as Tasmania.
“The emergency response times to a spill would be much longer due to the remoteness of the Bight.
“This poses an enormous threat to a pristine marine environment that should be under World Heritage Protection.”
Greens Healthy Oceans spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, said, “Despite the danger to our marine life and our climate, the major parties can’t get enough of it and are running a protection racket for the industry.
“Last year, they voted against the Greens attempt to hold a senate inquiry into seismic testing.
“Seismic testing involves continuous blasts from an air gun that are louder than a jet engine and can go on for weeks on end. Just how much harm it does to other marine life, including dolphins and whales, is unknown.
“The Federal Government has a responsibility to protect Australia’s oceans and marine life, and to take the strongest possible action to protect future generations and prevent dangerous climate change.”
A new report by Global Witness showed that the opening up of any new oil and gas reserves is inconsistent with the Paris Agreement.
The Greens would:

• Ban all new offshore oil and gas exploration, including a ban on seismic testing.
• Ban all new offshore oil and gas extraction.
• Stop all oil and gas exploration and extraction in marine parks and in the Great Australian Bight, including by revoking existing permits.

The Greens’ Healthy Oceans policy can be found here.

A Shorten Labor Government will double the Federal contribution to the 2019 Channel 7 Telethon by contributing an additional $2 million this year.
Telethon is an amazing organisation that encapsulates the spirit of WA – receiving donations from Esperance to Wyndham, from Kalgoorlie to Claremont – and is the world’s longest running telephone fundraiser.
Western Australian families, even children, chip in what they can to help kids in need – making Telethon one of the biggest per capita fundraising events in the world.
Since it commenced in 1968, Telethon has improved the live of tens of thousands of children in Western Australia and beyond, raising more than $300 million over more than five decades.
Telethon’s role supporting medical research, purchasing equipment for children with disability, supporting community organisations, and providing critical support all make a real difference to the lives of young people and their families in Western Australia.
Labor’s additional $2 million commitment will provide support toward the Telethon Kids Institute’s focus on giving every child the best opportunity to enjoy a happy and healthy childhood.

A Shorten Labor Government will boost Australia’s potential as a resource powerhouse and battery production superpower by investing $75 million in developing the future mining of resources such as lithium.
We want to ensure Australian mines are powering the commodities of the future – such as lithium – as we build the renewable energy economy.
Australia has every mineral needed to make a lithium battery domestically – batteries that are used in electric cars, smart phones and to store renewable energy.
Our $75 million investment will reverse the Liberals’ decision to axe the Exploring for the Future program – a program that uses cutting edge technology to find future deposits through building underground maps that show where mineral deposits lie.
Labor’s plan will support local jobs, local industries, local manufacturing of future commodities and a cleaner energy future.
Western Australia has proved to be home to globally significant deposits of lithium and other minerals and is perfectly positioned to benefit from this funding boost.
The McGowan Labor Government and industry in Western Australia are looking at how best to turn the state’s natural resources into new jobs and industries.
The Association of Mining and Exploring Companies estimates that the global lithium value chain will grow from $160 billion in 2018 to $2 trillion in 2025 – Australia shouldn’t miss out on this.
Two-thirds of Australia’s potential mineral deposits remain undiscovered because they lie below the surface and could not be explored until the advent of new technology like ground penetrating radar, big data and machine learning – all deployed by the Exploring for the Future program.
While the world is discovering “Tier 1” deposits at a rate of three a year, Australia has not made a Tier 1 discovery since 2005.
This program had delivered important successes – like showing the South Nicholson Basin north of Mt Isa is three times larger than previously though and highlighting potential new gold and copper deposits in Tennant Creek.
In its last year, the program spent $40 million across 150 small to medium enterprises – most in Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory – to deploy cutting edge technology to help make an underground mining map of Australia.
Despite these successes, the Liberals still axed the Exploring for the Future program.
Mining contributes more export income for Australia than all other industries combined, but 80 per cent of its $221 billion in earnings during 2017-18 came from mines discovered more than 40 years ago, and our global share of exploration spending has halved in the last two decades.
Studies show for every dollar of initial geological survey by government, mining companies spend between $5 and $15 on subsequent exploration.
We need to be supporting that investment to discover future mines and deposits – which is exactly what Labor will do.
This commitment is part of Labor’s Future Mines and Jobs Plan, which includes:

• Establishing the Australian Future Mines Centre to co-ordinate exploration work and lead the scientific research and development necessary to explore under deep cover as part of a $23 million Australian Research Council Special Research initiative.
• Providing $2 million to support 100 new scholarships for mining engineers, with 50 of them for women.
• Delivering an industry data and skills road map.
• Developing a Resources White Paper, to deliver the long-term vision across government for the resource sector as recommended by the bipartisan Resources 2030 Taskforce Report.

This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to create Australian jobs and build the renewable energy economy, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.
After six years of Liberal cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready to deliver a fair go for all Australians.

A Shorten Labor Government will ensure Australia’s early childhood educators are better paid, supporting a quality early education and care system that delivers the best outcomes for children.
Early childhood educators are doing the important and demanding job of educating and caring for our next generation – 90 per cent of a child’s brain development occurs in the first five years of a child’s life.
Yet they are some of the lowest-paid workers.
That’s why Labor will work with the early education sector in the first 100 days of government to increase the wages of early childhood educators in the private and not-for-profit sectors.
Labor will fund pay increases of 20 per cent to early childhood educators over 8 years –supporting workers and delivering professional pay.
As a result – the average total wages of early childhood educators will increase by anestimated $11,300.
This is in addition to any wage increases made by the Fair Work Commission as part of their annual wage review, or any additional increases in wages employers agree with their workers.
Far too many early childhood educators leave the profession – 37 per cent a year – not because they don’t love the job, but because they can’t afford to stay. If Australia wants the world’s best early education system, then we need to do more to keep our best educators in the system.
No one knows the importance of keeping quality educators in their jobs better than the millions of Australian parents who trust early educators with their children every day.
This will make it easier to attract and retain dedicated and passionate people in the profession, and it will make it easier to keep great early educators on the frontline.
Importantly, this pay rise will not affect child care fees because it will be fully funded by the Commonwealth. Fees have gone up 28 per cent under the Liberals, and families are paying enough. The pay rise will be delivered in a way that ensures the costs are not passed on to parents. There will also be audits to ensure child care centre operators pass on the pay rises in full.
Labor’s investment in quality early education will be good for jobs and good for our economy.
This is an investment in pay equity for a female-dominated industry and is another step in our plan to help with the cost of living.
Our plan will ensure every dollar goes into the pockets of the educators, not onto the bottom line of the child care companies.
We are raising the wages of early educators through direct investment – because we don’t want families paying one cent more than they must for child care.
When Labor was last in Government, we provided significant pay increases to the undervalued social and community services workforce – also mostly women.
Labor will lead a national push to help close the gender pay gap, make sure women get a fair go at work and make sure those people we trust to educate the next generation are fairly paid.
Labor has provisioned $537 million over the forward estimates.

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $2.4 billion in a Pensioner Dental Plan – giving up to three million older Australians access to free dental care.
If you receive an Age Pension or hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Labor’s Pensioner Dental Plan will give you $1,000 worth of free essential dental care, covered by Medicare, every two years.
This is a health boost and a cost of living boost for up to three million older Australians. And it’s the next step towards Labor’s vision of universal access to dental care in Australia.
Over 185,000 older Australians a year skip getting the dental care they need because of cost.
Despite this, the Liberals have cut $283 million a year from public dental funding – the equivalent of over 465,000 fewer dental visits every year.
This has caused waiting times for public dental to blow out across the country – with average waiting times of up to 820 days across the country for basic dental care, and 1 in 10 patients waiting up to four years.
Under Labor’s Pensioner Dental Plan, age pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders will be eligible for $1,000 worth of dental services every two years.
Within this cap, Medicare will cover a wide range of dental services such as examinations, x-rays, cleaning, fluoride treatment, fissure sealants, fillings, root canals, extractions, periodontal treatment and dentures.
A specific schedule of benefits will be developed in consultation with dentists and experts, to ensure standard costs when accessing the scheme.
Labor will work with dentists to roll out the scheme, with accredited private dental practices able to join on the condition that they bulk bill, and meet minimum quality, safety and efficiency standards.
Labor will also work with the states and territories to enable public dentists to access the scheme, providing a substantial boost to federal funding for public dental services. In exchange, Labor will ask the states and territories to:

• Bulk bill all eligible patients – removing existing co-payments in some jurisdictions.
• Maintain their existing dental spending – boosting public services for other patient cohorts.
• Work with the Commonwealth on preventive oral health measures, and share consistent data with the Commonwealth.

Aboriginal Medical Services, which provide vital dental care for First Nations peoples, will also be able to access the scheme.
Labor’s Pensioner Dental Plan will boost the health care of older Australians
Seeing a dentist is an essential part of health care – linked to wellbeing, nutrition and quality of life. Labor’s investment will ensure that older Australians aren’t slipping through the cracks in getting the dental care they need.
This is also a cost-of-living investment. Older Australians are grappling with soaring private health insurance premiums under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government and a growing number are dropping cover altogether – meaning people have to dip more into the household budget to cover health bills.
Labor has a proud record of investing in access to dental care. In 2013, Labor established the Child Dental Benefits Scheme – giving eligible children aged up to 18 access to free essential dental care. The Liberals spent years trying to undermine the Scheme – with Scott Morrison trying to axe it altogether in his very first Budget as Treasurer.
Labor builds Medicare, the Liberals cut it.
This election is a choice between Labor’s plan for more health investment or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals – paid for by cuts to the services older Australians rely on.
After six years of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready to deliver a fair go for all Australians, not just the top end of town.