Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow
Background
A fortnight or so ago, that old warhorse John Carter travelled
down to my farm at Robertson on the Southern Highlands of NSW to kindly give me
two oak trees that he had carefully propagated from acorns produced from the
2000 odd oak trees that John has planted on his farm at Crookwell in the
Southern tablelands of NSW.
Along with the two baby oak trees, John presented me with a
photograph of the baby oak trees grandparent which had a 60 m spread.
The two baby oak trees were proudly planted, one (which we have
named Anne after John’s wife) in the orchard next to the Pink Lady apple trees
and the other down near the cattle yards (where else?) which we of course
christened John.
John assures me that the oak trees are quick growers and will
reach maturity in the rich Robertson basalt soil within 150 years!
After the tree planting we enjoyed a congenial thank you lunch for
John and Anne Carter in Robertson’s famous Pizza in the Mist restaurant. We
discussed topics of common interest such as the need for farming organisation
reform and the impact of ever increasing Australian supermarket power on the
farming sector with John recounting his research that showed that American beef
producers received much more of the consumer dollar for their cattle then
Australian beef producers received for their cattle.
Our lunch time conversation also touched on the topic of the
Indonesian government’s plans to buy up Top End cattle producing properties to
secure the supply of Australian cattle for the Indonesian feedlot industry but
it became apparent that we held different views on this issue.
So John and I skirted around the foreign investment subject and
explored our common interest in gardening instead and discussed the two famous
Edna Walling gardens in John and Ann’s home town of Crookwell.
The week after the oak tree planting we received 250 mm(or 9
inches, of rain) on the farm at Robertson as a christening present for our baby
oaks – so they are off to a good start in life.
The Rural
Industry Challenge for the Coalition and the National Party
Shortly after the oak tree planting and christening weekend I
published the 20 September 2013 HuntBlog Newsletter regarding the rural and
regional and cattle industry crisis challenge confronting the new Coalition
Government and the National Party.
The response to the 20 September 2013 HuntBlog Newsletter has been
a surprising cavalcade of emails and information on the 9 challenges that the
HuntBlog Newsletter listed for the new Coalition Government.
The 9 challenges that the HuntBlog Newsletter listed were:
1. Australia’s uncompetitive government influenced costs and
charges,
2. Australia’s supermarket duopoly,
3. the need for true parity Free Trade Agreements,
5. the need for an active decentralisation policy,
6. the associated need for improved regional telecommunications
road and rail infrastructure,
7. the urgent need for a rural and regional Development Bank to
provide long term ”patient” finance to Australian producers to enable them to
take advantage of the much touted Asian food bowl opportunities,
8. the need to bring our rural industry organisational structures
into the 21st century and enfranchise grass roots producers, and
9. the need for a long-term plan to protect Australia’s food
security and control the purchase of Australian farming and grazing land by
overseas state-owned or controlled companies.
I have received mail on all of the 9 listed challenges, but the
flurry of responses and information supplied with respect to the supermarket
duopoly and acquisition of Australian farming land by overseas state owned
companies has been overwhelming.
The attached HuntBlog Legal and Market Review of the double whammy
effect of Australia’s supermarket duopoly and our current foreign investment
laws on Australian farmers takes the opportunity to share some of that comment
and information with you.
In doing this I would like to mention the contribution of Ben Rees
in particular and acknowledge the host of other people who have furnished the
information referred to in the attached Legal and Market Review.
Conclusion
Those that have read the attached HuntBlog Legal and Market Review
on the watering down of our current anti- monopoly laws over the last couple of
decades and the current state of our FIRB national interest controls on foreign
state-owned and state funded acquisition of Australia’s farming land and
agri-businesses will be aware that both our anti-monopoly and foreign
investment laws are in urgent need of review.
The Coalition government have foreshadowed a review of our
competition laws and the National party and Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan have
our foreign investment laws squarely in their sights.
John Carter, and the ABA ,led the charge on the destructive power
of the supermarket duopoly over the last few years whilst the MLA and Cattle Council
looked the other way.
It may be that the need for Australian beef producers to respond the supermarket duopoly acorn that John Carter
and the ABA planted at the beginning of this decade will grow into a sturdy oak
tree under the stewardship of Warren Truss, Barnaby Joyce, Senator Nash,
Senator Williams, and other like-minded politicians in the new Coalition
government.
The leader of the National party and Federal Minister for Infrastructure and
Regional Development Warren Truss, the
new Federal Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce, John Cobb, the
Assistant Minister for Health National
Senator Fiona Nash, and Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan have led the
charge in recent years on foreign sovereign state owned acquisition of prime
Australian farmland and agribusinesses.
Hopefully the concern about foreign sovereign state owned
investment acorn that Warren, Barnaby, John ,Fiona and Bill have planted will
also grow into a sturdy oak tree during the term of the new Coalition
government
Lets hope that both the supermarket duopoly acorn and the foreign
sovereign state investment acorn have been planted in fertile soil and that,
along with the two oak trees that I was given by John and Anne Carter, they
grow quickly and start producing their own offspring for Australia in the near
future.
Neither I or Australia’s rural industries can afford to wait 150
years for an outcome!
To paraphrase Senator Bill Heffernan’s comments that are set out
at the end of the attached HuntBlog Legal and Market Review, if Australia doesn't move quickly to plug the three pronged attack on Australia’s farmers-flowing
from a combination of uncompetitive government costs and charges,the effect of
supermarket power on the profitability of Australia’s food producers and
resultant foreign sovereign investment takeover of consequently struggling
farming and agribusiness enterprises – Australians will be in danger of
becoming tenant farmers in their own
country.
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