Farmers lose faith in Albanese government: NFF survey

Farmers are feeling under attack due to the live sheep export phase out, an increase in their levies to fund the nation's biosecurity system and more water licence buybacks to complete the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, while uncertainty looms around upcoming changes to environmental and cultural heritage laws.

The National Farmers' Federation surveyed 1600 landholders from across the nation and found farmers felt squeezed by a lack of government support on a wide range of fronts, including whether that's the unchecked market power of supply chain players, crumbling rural roads, unnecessary green tape and workplace laws.

The report found a lack of confidence in the federal government's policy settings, with more than half of all survey respondents (54.3 per cent) going as far as to say they are harming the industry.

Farmers were split when asked if they felt more positively about their future now than 12 months ago, with about a third feeling more positive, more negative and neutral.

NFF president Fiona Simson warned the Albanese government to pay heed to the survey results, which showed the industry was at a tipping point and about to switch from "optimism to serious concerns".

"This Labor government does not want to be the one remembered for inflicting pain that will be felt for generations to come," Ms Simson said.

The majority of farmers felt they were not represented, understood or listened to by the Albanese government, while only a third believed the government had a positive plan to grow the sector.

"This isn't a stellar report card for the Albanese Government, they need to listen to people on the land and the need to act, because farmers are losing faith," Ms Simson said.

"We're watching commodity markets fall and seasons dry out. We can't control the weather, it's part and parcel of farming, but the policy environment is something the government can control."

Farmers feel as though they are fighting battles on every front, as multiple ministers and departments are considering unrelated policy decisions that when combined could "change the face of agriculture".

Farmers ranked the overwhelming market power of processors and supermarkets as the number one issue, with 83pc either "concerned" or "very concerned", closely followed by federal environmental laws (82pc) and rural road infrastructure (81.7pc).

The shopping list of concerns continued with Australia's biosecurity system (81.3pc), federal climate change policies (81pc) and overseas trading relations (80.8pc).

The workforce shortage remains a major frustration, with nine-in-10 agricultural businesses saying they would employ at least one additional worker if hiring conditions were improved, with 40pc saying they would employ more than 10 additional workers.

The lack of labour is putting the brakes on on-farm productivity, with a medium-to-high impact on four-in-10 landholders.

But the external policy factor farmers feared was hampering on-farm productivity the most was restrictive environmental laws (57.9pc), followed by land use competition from mining, infrastructure and urban encroachment (50pc).

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Concerns were also raised around the phase-out of live sheep exports, with it deemed to have a high or medium impact on 64pc of wool and 58.6pc of sheepmeat businesses.

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