Watt announces new voice to tackle issues plaguing farming

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has announced a tripartite working group to bring together unions, peak agricultural groups and government to work through issues plaguing farming.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has announced a tripartite working group to bring together unions, peak agricultural groups and government to work through issues plaguing farming.

The group will meet every month to thrash out key issues including skills shortages, pay standards and working conditions. Announcing the new group, Mr Watt said it was rare to get unions and agricultural entities working together after years of disagreement.

The deal came as tensions emerged between the National Farmers Federation and Nationals leader David Littleproud after he accused the peak agricultural organisation of acting like “cowards … as soon as this government was elected”.

Mr Littleproud has been pushing the government to reintroduce an agriculture-specific visa to alleviate labour problems on farms. The Coalition government introduced its agriculture visa after years of lobbying by the NFF, but Labor abolished the visa when it took office.

NFF president Fiona Simson said the comments were “very disappointing” and accused the ­Nationals leader of “deliberately distorting the facts”.

She called on Mr Littleproud to be “more collaborative”.

“He is either seriously misinformed and not across his brief about our submission and our 40 recommendations or else he’s perhaps deliberately distorting the facts to get a bit of media ­attention and clickbait,” Ms Simson said.