Election 2022: Farmers to push next government to ‘supercharge opportunities’

The Nationals Farmers Federation will push the next elected government to ‘supercharge opportunities’ in regional Australia in its election platform.

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson.

The Nationals Farmers Federation will push the next elected government to “supercharge opportunities” in regional Australia in its election platform to be ­released on Tuesday.

In their plan, the NFF will push the next Australian government to invest in supply chain solutions, partner with landholders to improve the environment, improve digital connectivity, secure a sustainable workforce and support a “fair go” for farmers, which will underpin its plan for the sector to be a $100bn industry by 2030.

Its release comes as part of its national conference in Canberra on Tuesday that will include speeches from Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, opposition agriculture spokeswoman Julie Collins, NFF president Fiona Simson, Telstra chief executive Andy Penn, mining magnate ­Andrew Forrest, ABC chair Ita Buttrose and Amanda Vanstone.

In a virtual address to the conference, the Prime Minister will pay tribute to farmers for their “tremendous” efforts in the past few years despite facing unprecedented challenges including droughts, floods and pandemic.

He will pitch the Coalition’s track record of delivering for Australian farmers, after the federal government released $21bn investment into the regions underpinned by a record infrastructure pipeline. “We all know regional Australia has faced incredibly difficult challenges over the past few years,” he will say. “These disasters have all pushed our country to its very limits … We have re­affirmed one simple truth: Australia’s strength, resilience.”

The investment comes amid a surge of Australians moving to the regions, with net migration to regional areas during 2020 and 2021 having more than doubled in the two years before the pandemic.

Some key cornerstone proposals from the NFF include $1.1bn to establish its regions development precincts, $2.5bn to address international supply chain issues, $2bn to support biodiversity schemes and $2bn to support the Murray-Darling Basin.

Economic modelling by the NFF found adoption of digital agriculture could add about $20.3bn to farm output and lift the economy by an estimated 1.5 per cent ($24.6bn) by 2030.