Speak Up Campaign: The Weekly Times highlights concerns and creates political change

The Weekly Times plays a vital role in highlighting concerns and creating political change, writes the Speak Up Campaign chair Lachlan Marshall.

Speaking up: Lachlan Marshall hopes newspapers such as The Weekly Times continue to highlight the concerns of people on the land. Picture: John Russell

IN LAST week’s edition of The Weekly Times there were a number of examples that highlight the importance of what you do, the results that can be achieved, as well as the battles we continue to fight.

For example, your continual reporting over nearly two years appears to be finally getting some results to protect our farmers from animal rights group Aussie Farms, and the wider issue of privacy breaches and threat of trespass.

Last week’s The Weekly Times also highlighted one of the massive problems facing Australian irrigators, being the competitive water market which is seeing big traders, multi­national corporates and international superannuation companies trading our most precious resource and making huge profits to the detriment of food and fibre production.

We need changes and regulation in the water market to protect our farmers, and again this will only be achieved if the problems we know exist continue to be highlighted. We also need effective water registers to improve transparency. In NSW, the reluctance of the government (especially the National Party) to support such a register does nothing other than beg the question: Who are they trying to protect?

In a post-COVID world food security will become an increasing global issue; in Australia we have the capacity to be a major world player, but continue to be hamstrung by appalling water policy and management. As your columnist Natalie Kotsios points out, the failure of the Victorian Government to act quickly enough on Pacific Island seasonal workers was placing an $8.5b industry at risk.

This attitude, unfortunately, is why many farmers are leaving the land in despair and desperation, as they are fed up with the lack of government support at state and federal level.

My hope is that newspapers like The Weekly Times, and other media, can keep highlighting our concerns and that at some point our politicians will realise the economic and social value that can be obtained for our nation by developing policy that encourages food production, rather than the current approach of trying to stymie it.

● Lachlan Marshall is Speak Up Campaign chair

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