Farming Businesses Need Federal Support

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay

It is only a week until the Federal election, and there hasn’t been a great deal of discussion on agriculture this election.

Obviously the issues that challenge regional and rural communities are important, and shared by agriculture: the issues like access to childcare, quality national roads and digital connectivity that have been discussed are important.

Farmers are small businesspeople who happen to farm, and family farms are critical elements in regional economies. It is important that the Federal Government maintains support for small businesses.

It was disappointing to see the small business instant asset write-off drop back to $1000 from the $20K threshold at the last budget. The $20K threshold ends with EOFY in June. It is these schemes that enable small businesses like farms to increase their spending in other businesses across the region. If anything, it would be positive to see the threshold sitting much higher. Cotton Australia has pushed for $150,000, and that would certainly assist growers to upgrade machinery to develop not only productivity but also sustainability practices.

Similarly, we need iron-clad guarantees that the fuel tax credits scheme will be maintained, supporting growers to manage farm input costs in an increasingly volatile world economy.

Digital connectivity and particularly mobile coverage are very important to farming businesses, enabling the use of ag tech. A great deal of monitoring equipment relied on the old 3G network. That has moved on, farmers have had to invest in gear upgrades, but service has not moved with that reinvestment. Technology has come a long way in recent years, and will have an increasing role in farming to mitigate reduced labour supply and in precision agriculture.

Mobile coverage can be very patchy in rural areas, and that can be a safety issue, in case of injury when out in the paddocks. Doing business from the tractor is difficult to say the least.

Both digital networks and roads are supply chain infrastructure. It is critical that we have serviceable road and digital networks so that industry logistics can work efficiently.

We support the National Farmers Federation's call for the next Federal Government to commit to the recommendations from the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee and provide $20 million annually for the highly successful On Farm Connectivity Program.

Regional communities have struggled with affordable housing, and Mackay’s sugar industry feels the pointy end of that every harvest. This region grapples with dramatically inflated housing costs, and there is a need for programs that will support farm worker accommodation projects and indeed, low-cost housing for the community which supports our industry, in general. Our capacity to capture a harvest labour force that moves around the country and with the different crops’ harvest season is limited by the extremely low rental availability and capacity to deliver accommodation.

There is a need for more funding for national biosecurity: pest and weed eradication programs for issues like feral pigs, and the threat of pests that could cross international borders from nearby northern neighbours. Sugar Research Australia is doing work in nearby countries to learn how we could manage an incursion by species that threaten sugarcane. So, above all, there is a strong need for increased federal funding into sugarcane research and development if we are to take the sugarcane sector forward and meet its potential, its productivity and sustainability goals.

There is a need for increased federal funding towards tertiary education areas like ag science and biology disciplines, so that we can continue to be world leaders in sugar research. Organisations like Sugar Research Australia are funded through grower and miller levies, and co-funded by the Queensland Government. But compared to other R&D organisations, sugar R&D investment from State and Federal Government is just a drop in the ocean compared to what the industry has the potential to offer.

Investing in growing the sugarcane industry is investment in Australia’s renewable future.

A salute to farming soldiers

This edition also marks ANZAC Day. CANEGROWERS Mackay pays tribute to the service of armed forces veterans and those currently serving. We especially acknowledge those from farming families and communities.

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