It has become a standard of bush politics, led largely by the National party, that city “latte sippers” don’t understand country people.
So it was noteworthy that in her valedictory speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday outgoing National Farmers Federation (NFF) president Fiona Simson declared that sort of rhetoric had had its day.
“It’s so easy to curry favour in some parts of the bush by further wedging the city-country divide, by talking about ‘us and them’, by talking about the latte sippers and how they don’t care, or they don’t understand,” Simson said.
“That sort of talk though, in my view is not leadership. And it also ignores the fact that you can get a bloody good latte in Werris Creek or Gunnedah.”
Simson went on to say that the bush was changing and that farmers weren’t conservative because “any successful farmer embraces change and embraces new ideas”.
The coffee strength may have changed in the bush but the politics remain firmly in the conservative camp as evidenced by any federal electoral map.
So are things changing for farm advocacy?
It is true that Simson was one of the first high-profile farm leaders on the national stage to acknowledge climate change science.
It was a jarring reminder of the climate wars under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government that some of us were just quietly grateful when a farm leader acknowledged climate change made droughts worse in 2018.
But the reality is farm advocacy has remained largely set in aspic, as neatly aligned with conservative parties as the union movement is with Labor.
It is worth taking stock of this indisputable fact because, just halfway through the Albanese government’s term of office, the NFF rhetoric has been steadily ramping up against Labor.
Farmer advocates are cranky about issues such as the live sheep export ban, industrial relations changes including on labour hire, water buybacks under the Murray Darling Basin plan, running transmission lines for renewables through farm land and negotiations on Australia’s trade deal with the EU.
On that last point, Simson said she would rather trade minister Don Farrell walk away from a “dud deal” than sign something that would dictate farmers fortunes “for a generation”.
Simson refused to be drawn specifically on the conditions that would meet the definition of a dud deal. But she said the EU’s anti-land clearing laws were written for “Brazilian rainforests” and could capture what might be considered “routine weed management” in Australia. The NFF has argued Australian farming is unique and should be treated as such.
In any case, the NFF this week gathered to vote for a new president to replace Simson and hold its annual conference. Candidates include former WA Farmers Federation president Tony York, AgForce Queensland president Georgie Somerset and former Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke.
It’s highly likely the new president will be the public face of a war between farmers and the Labor government. There is discontent brewing, and a potentially stonking drought, presaged by an El Niño declaration and livestock markets falling like a stone as farmers offload excess stock, could bring it to a flashpoint.
That’s just business as usual, farmers at war with wall-to-wall Labor governments. It is hardly breaking news.
What’s new is that the NFF and traditional farmer organisations increasingly stand in contrast to groups such as Farmers For Climate Action, established specifically because the aforementioned groups largely refused to enter the global heating debate once the science became a partisan issue.
Farmers for Climate Action began as a survey in 2016, and says it now represents 8,000 farmer members and a supporter base of 45,000.
It appears to have become important enough to consult with, because the NFF brought it into the fold as a member organisation. The NFF’s other members include the state farming organisations and big corporate “partners” such as Coles, Nufarm, McDonald’s, Nutrien, WFI, Telstra, Rabobank and Prime Super.
The war between Labor and farmer advocacy may continue, but this new player provides a contrasting narrative that may leave the public – and the media – thinking about farmers as having a diversity of opinions, and not just as a bloc aligned with the National party.
Already we have seen counter arguments from Farmers for Climate Action on methane, where NFF opposed signing the methane pledge. It has held workshops throughout the country on balancing renewable energy developments and farming and even co-signed an open letter in support of the Indigenous voice to parliament, while the NFF remained silent.
Labor is never going to win friends and influence many people in the bush but just like the climate, the advocacy is changing and that is going to make policy debates less predictable.
