Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight, 1,250 kilometres away on the side of the road around Augathella, lie 1,200 head of cattle and two drovers who've already have walked over 800 kilometres to graze their cattle in the drought stricken state of Queensland. This is just one of God knows how many farmers forced to go to extremes to keep their cattle alive. Some of you might say: 'Big deal. This is nothing new. Drovers have been doing this for decades upon decades.' I'll tell you why it's different: cattle farmers across the mulga country are juggling Queensland tree police, political bureaucracy, drought and banks who share little understanding of the plight of the modern-day primary producer. For those of you in this place who haven't heard, over 80 per cent of Queensland is drought affected, and there are hundreds of farmers, forced to handfeed their mobs, who hope the woody weed called mulga can sustain them until the next decent rain.

It's not the lack of water that's got cattle farmers feeling the pressure; it's the Queensland government. The Labor government have zero regard for farmers who rely on the natural resource that acts as fodder during drought periods and keeps cattle alive. In fact, they're that heartless that plans are underway to make tougher vegetation management laws in Queensland, further locking up good agricultural land while whistling in the banks and risking foreclosure.

Mulga is a woody weed that is prolific in regions like Charleville, Augathella, Longreach and drought stricken country just like those towns. Before European settlement these same landscapes were grassy plains which were set alight by Aboriginals and natural events like lightning, which kept mulga at bay. When the European farmer saw an opportunity to graze cattle in these regions, fire was wrongly seen as ruining the food source, so they would put fires out. Well-farmed properties kept the mulga at bay, as its canopy would block sunlight from grasses beneath, which would eventually die off, leaving exposed red soils and erosion points when the heavy rains did fall. The Labor government in Queensland believes this weed shouldn't be used as cattle feed, but it is the same government that says it doesn't want to see animals suffer. Well, I am here to tell the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, that you can't have it both ways. Not one farmer in the state of Queensland wants to see their cattle starve. Not one farmer in Queensland wants to ruin their second- or third-generation farm by knocking down trees. Not one farmer in Queensland likes it when pencil-pushing, useless, vegan, soya-latte-sipping bureaucrats tell them that their century-old practice of running cattle in these areas is wrong. These woody weeds, which Annastacia Palaszczuk and her Labor-Greens alliance government don't want used as cattle feed, are actually increasing soil erosion and loss, clogging the rivers, increasing the chance of blue-green algae and preventing the growth of native grasses that provide excellent cattle feed and stabilise the soil.

According to quotes from National Farmers' Federation executives, Australia has just 90,000 primary producers left, which works out to less than 0.5 per cent of Australia's population. Farmers have lost their voice in this country, and it is time for those parties who say they are all for the farmer to get out and listen to the farmers and ensure their long-term viability in this nation. To the Premier of Queensland: what you are doing to the Vegetation Management Act hurts the environment. It hurts the farmers, it destroys regional Queensland towns, it kills jobs around the state and it sabotages our state's future.

Senate adjourned at 22:16