National Ag Rally: Hundreds gather outside Parliament House

Hundreds of farmers took the fight against a suite of federal Labor’s policies to Parliament House on Tuesday.

Hundreds of farmers gathered at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday to take part in the first protest endorsed by the National Farmers’ Federation in almost forty years.

At least 60 trucks, some from as far away as West Australia and Queensland, met to convoy around Parliament House ahead of the rally, having left Yass and Goulburn that morning.

At the time of writing, a few hundred people had gathered. The NFF had predicted about 2000 would attend, with 1200 farmers registered as of Friday.

Buses were expected to continue bringing more people to witness a line-up of speeches including from Keep the Sheep figurehead Ben Sutherland and NFF president David Jochinke, and the hope of a sighting of Agriculture Minister Julie Collins.

Ms Collins had already informed event organisers she would not attend, after having been snubbed by Keep the Sheep who were invited to meet with her in her office and air their concerns privately.

Ben Sutherland from the Keep the Sheep lobby group speaks at the National Ag Rally in Canberra where farmers have gathered to protest over “anti-farming” policies. Pictures: Martin Ollman

There were cheers and applause when Mr Sutherland took to the stage to remind those gathered they were there “because those people behind us haven’t been listening, they don’t come and talk to us at the coalface”.

“Let’s keep fighting for rural Australia, our communities, our pubs, our IGAs, our sporting groups,” he said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton spoke, followed by Nationals leader David Littleproud who promised an elected Coalition government would immediately reverse the live sheep export ban legislation.

“I’m going to give you a commitment right here today. The first Bill I bring to parliament is to repeal the live export ban … (and) we’re not going to rip out another 450GL out of the consumptive pool so your food goes up, we’re going to return a Murray Darling Basin Plan that is common sense,” Mr Littleproud said.

Farmers descended on Canberra in their hundreds to rally against Labor’s phase out of live sheep exports, among other unpopular policies hurting farming families.

Mr Jochinke met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese before the rally on Tuesday, and told attendees he made it clear farmers would not “roll over” on the live sheep export decision.

“We also made it really clear that any policy (the government) develops needs to have us at the table. That is where we are going to get our outcomes from,” Mr Jochinke said.

“We are the interface between the environment and consumers. We stand between the environment and prosperity of this nation.”

More than 400 people tuned in to watch a livestream of the event on Facebook.

The rally was first announced three weeks ago by West Australia’s Keep the Sheep lobby group in an effort to ramp up pressure on the federal government to reverse its ban on live sheep exports by 2024.

The NFF soon jumped on board once the intent broadened to a national rally to highlight a number of issues the federal government has stoked with industry, including reopening water buybacks in the Murray Darling Basin, a mooted levy on farmers to fund biosecurity activities and changes to the treatment of superannuation that would adversely affect thousands of family farms.