Support for the Greens has extended beyond the city limits to the paddocks of outback Queensland.
The Australian Greens' promise to push the new federal Labor government to more ambitious emissions targets has won the support of Queensland farmers who have been fighting for action on climate change for years.
Newly retired western Queensland grazier and board member for Farmers for Climate Action, Angus Emmott, said the opportunity for agriculture to be part of a future addressing climate change was now.
"It's going to be a long hard road, but we're actually in the box seat to have large benefits from going down this road," he said.
Mr Emmott hoped a change of government would make it easier to implement climate policies, especially with the influence of climate independents and the Greens.
"I think Labor on their own would maybe not go as far as needs to happen, but I think with the pressure of the teal independents and the [Greens] working with Labor, I'm very hopeful we'll get some good outcomes over the next three years," he said.
Agriculture can 'lead the way' on climate
Mr Emmott said agriculture had a huge opportunity to be a carbon sink rather than a carbon emitter, and the red meat sector had already made a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030, and there were so many ways that could happen.
"It can be through better land management, better working with the soil, what you feed your cattle, the transport you use to take them to meatworks and the same with grain and other agriculture products," he said.
Mr Emmott said research and development needed to catch up to support action on climate change through agriculture.
"Hopefully, with this change in the political atmosphere, there'll be more money available for science and for R&D and actually allow us to move forward more quickly into continuing to provide clean green product to the world to eat," he said.
Farmers' hard work not captured in data
Central Queensland grazier and chair of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, Mark Davie, said farmers were already doing the hard work on sustainability, but it was difficult to quantify.
"We do so much work — producers would know and realise — on farm, but we don't really aggregate, document and demonstrate it," he said.
"We are the solution to some of our biggest opponents' challenges, and how we can manage and maintain 48 per cent of landmass can be really positive.
"It's about bringing all that data together to demonstrate how we're delivering nature-positive outcomes so we can take those big regulatory challenges we face and make them non-partisan.
Mr Davie said farmers needed to demonstrate why they were important in the environmental movement.
"It is important for people to know that when they buy their steak, that it is helping to fund those activities on farm to keep our industry productive, and also look after our environment," he said.
Greens want to work with farmers
Likely Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne said farmers had no reason to fear her party's policies around net zero and the transition to renewables.
"If we want to make sure that we have a climate in which farmers can continue to produce the food that we need, then we're going to need to make that transition more quickly than the government is proposing," she said.
"We want things like funding for habitat restoration. We want biosecurity funding for them to stop invasive species and weeds. We also want to restore the carbon farming futures program, which used to be $25 million per annum.
"We also want to invest $250 million into a centre for research around creating green agricultural Australia as well as increasing transparency around free trade agreements to ensure farmers aren't disadvantaged," Ms Allman-Payne said.
Rural lobby group keen to brief new MPs on agriculture policy
President of rural lobby group AgForce and National Farmers Federation board member Georgie Somerset said the Greens and new climate-focused Independents would have an influence on the new government.
"AgForce has some really clear priorities around the environment and how agriculture is already responding to climate change," she said.
"Our focus shifts pretty quickly from highlighting what our policies are before an election to ensuring that people elected understand what our policies are and are fully briefed.
"My experience is that newly elected people welcome those briefings, so we need to be on the ground quite quickly doing that," Ms Somerset said.
The National Farmers Federation's Fiona Simson said the NFF supported elements of Labor's climate change policy.
Ms Simson wanted to see the new government backing farmers as they developed sustainability and biodiversity outcomes.
"Among the priority discussion points with the new government will be the representation of Australia's food, fibre and forestry interests at the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference."
