Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support the principle of helping struggling farmers. Of course we support the principle of helping any Australian who's in need. We support the principle of government playing a strong and active role in our lives.

I want to briefly highlight a few points from the second reading speech of Minister Michael Sukkar from the other place, because it's very obvious when you read the minister's speech and he goes on to explain why farmers are having their debts waived, why they need the relief. He says that, 'Farming income is volatile.' I know there are senators in this chamber who are from farming families, and, as I said yesterday, my father was a farmer and, indeed, I've been a farmer myself. So I appreciate that farming income is volatile. I also appreciate what the minister said—that, based on uncertain yields and prices and unpredictable weather, farmers have to make difficult predictions about their income for the year ahead.

I want to underline that bit about unpredictable weather. There has been a big debate this week about climate change being one of the key risks that Australian farmers face. This bill is a recognition of that. This bill is designed primarily to help farmers who have dealt with drought and with floods. The minister said that in the second last paragraph of his second reading speech. Summing up, he said:

Though the quantum of the debts to be waived through this Bill are modest, this measure will provide breathing space as our farming families recover …

Underline 'recover from drought, bushfires and floods. He also mentioned the global pandemic that they've experienced over recent years. There you have it in a nutshell: farmers suffering from drought, bushfires and floods. Could you be any more circumspect about the risks that are facing our farming community? Every farmer knows that the weather and climate are one of the most variable factors that they face in trying to make a living, a sustainable livelihood, working the land to feed the nation, to grow a whole range of different products.

We have in this place a National Party that purports to represent farmers, that has as its new leader an individual, Mr Barnaby Joyce, who openly denies climate change, and others in this chamber, like Senator Canavan, who also are openly on record dismissing the need for climate action. It's no secret that the National Party is hijacking this government, preventing it from putting in place even weak 2050 targets, when all of us who understand climate change, based on the best available science—the whole world knows this—know that we need strong 2030 targets.

I will finish on that point. Without climate action there will be significant costs and risks to farmers. Farmers understand that, and they deserve better. They deserve their representatives in regional areas to take up their case in this place and to take the strongest possible action on climate. The Greens will do that. The Greens will always take the strongest possible action on climate because we understand that doing nothing risks everything. We are going to see a lot more of that in this country in the future if we don't take the necessary climate action on behalf of farmers and, indeed, all our communities across this country.