Nationals - "Real Australians" (Farmers) Shouldn't Be Burdened By "City" Emissions In Climate Plan
The narrative of the beleaguered farmer runs deep in the national psyche. Its one often weaponised to berate pampered city slickers who dont understand what life in the bush what real life is about. The National party has come up with a new twist on the old grievance farmers have been paying for Australias emission reductions while city folk have been luxuriating in the benefits.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan gave it a try out in an interview with Alan Jones in July. Its the cities that are responsible for carbon emission, he said, but its the bush thats expected to pay. Egged on by Jones, who believes accepting net zero by 2050 would be a national economic suicide note, Canavan claimed that the cities have sent their guilt bill, their guilt invoice to the bush.
The Nationals agriculture minister, David Littleproud, has this week voiced the same argument to justify the junior Coalitions partners stubborn resistance. Speaking for regional communities, he said last time we footed the bill and were not going to do it again. What could this possibly mean? There was no last time. Littleproud seems to be referring to the long-term decline in land-clearing, which has had the effect of bringing down Australias total greenhouse gas emissions.
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By claiming that declines in land clearing emissions amount to the bush footing the bill, the Nationals have turned a national boast into another rural whinge. The Nationals resources minister, Keith Pitt, has extended the argument further. Farmers have been forced to give up their property rights to meet the climate demands of the cities not only by limits on land clearing but by regulations forcing them to reduce toxic run-off into the Great Barrier Reef. But thats a reef protection measure, not a climate change measure. In Pitts brain, it doesnt seem to matter. Its all a push by soft-handed city dwellers to extract more blood from the honest toilers on the land.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/20/the-nationals-climate-position-no-longer-represents-australian-farmers-and-is-just-symbolic-posturing