NEW Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has jumped into his new job with an olive branch in one hand and a big stick in the other.
At the same time he promised to listen to farmers he was confirming Labor’s policies of ending the live sheep trade and resurrecting plans to divert 450 gigalitres from the Murray-Darling Basin.
But he also flagged workforce shortages and biosecurity risks as his two most immediate priorities.
Biosecurity is back on the national agenda after outbreaks of lumpy skin disease and foot and mouth in Indonesia highlighted once again Australia’s vulnerability to game-changing incursions after our once gold-standard quarantine laws have been increasingly dismantled by previous governments with a combination of budget cuts and trade agreements.
The Queensland Senator, formerly a lawyer, admits he has no real connection with agriculture beyond a grandfather who ran a dairy farm, but he has committed to listening to farmers while conceding he doesn’t have all the policy answers just a few weeks into the new job.
Other major issues on which he has already been confronted by various industry peak bodies include carbon emissions and farming and the impact of mining – especially coal and gas – on prime farming land across the country.
One of the things most worrying many Australian rural producers – and allied industries – is Mr Watt is the 13th person in the minister’s chair in the past 22 years. With that constantly revolving door at the Minister’s office there is valid concern none of his predecessors has ever got a firm grip on the job before moving on.
