Date of publication: 18 September 2018 European agriculture is drowning in a sea of red and green tape driven by activist anti-farming Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) which are slowly but surely shutting down their farmer’s right to farm. Green groups such as PETA and Greenpeace have been quietly working away since the 1960s pressuring European bureaucrats with claims that modern agricultural practices were endangering the environment, the rights of animals; and the world’s food security and

Date of publication: 7 March 2019 In a past life working for ministers across the various primary industry portfolios as well as a State Premier, I met regularly with all of the representative peak bodies – from the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) to the Potato Growers Association through to the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC).  In total there are over one hundred organisations in WA representing every fisher, farmer and miner,

Date of publication:  11 Jan 2019 For Western Australian farmers it might just be that State Government policy on the waters off our coast could have implications for those on the land. In recent months Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly made policy announcements on three of the State’s fisheries – lobster, coral and pearl – which effectively grab part of one for the Government and redistribute quotas or double rents in the others. As the fightback

Date of publication:  25 Jan 2019 What does a Chinese reality TV dating show in Rockingham have to do with WA farmers? I’m glad you asked. Right now, our farmers are relying on WA’s tourism industry to fill the gaps in our unskilled labour force. Young folks from all over the globe on working holidays are getting unskilled jobs done in the short term, but their visas come with age and time restrictions. There has

AT the recent WAFarmers annual conference, Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan noted the regular calls to action I was giving her in these pages and questioned why I had not been more proactive making things happen when I was chief of staff to a previous agriculture minister. A fair question but as a staffer my job then was to give advice, not to make decisions – that responsibility is with ministers. In politics, good

Driving back to Perth from the Wagin Woolarama, I got thinking about all the taxpayer money that goes into marketing tourism across the state and why one of our most impressive regional events was so lacking in interstate and international tourists. A quick look back through the Tourism Ministers past press releases and media articles reminded me of the chaos that tourism has been put through under this government. It started with the Premier burying

Every state agricultural Minister leaves their particular mark on the portfolio. Some grow the farm, some just keep the farm ticking over and others allow the farm to go backwards. Going back in time to the 1990s, I recall a hyperactive Minister with a lot of energy particularly around the sheep industry, the next left us with a ban on GM crops and not much else, and then his successor turned on the tap for