The Murray Regional Strategy Group says while the impacts of world conflicts are contributing to a hunger crisis, potential actions to ease the problem are negated by the Australian government’s actions.
It says it will continue to advocate for better agricultural policy in Australia, because the neglect of the farming sector is having an adverse effect in Australia and throughout the world.
MRSG executive officer Shelley Scoullar said this was highlighted last month when SunRice announced 78 redundancies, including 68 from its Deniliquin rice mill.
“This facility has the capacity to mill enough rice to feed more than 20 million people worldwide every single day, which it achieved before the Basin Plan,” she said.
“Yet its production has been severely reduced because we are not providing the inputs that allow our farmers to grow rice. It’s a ludicrous situation.
“We have food processors like Kagome reviewing their Australian operations, and a dairy industry in decline which is leading to a greater reliance on imported product.
“The need for a policy reset is staring us in the face, but city-based governments seem blind to this reality.”
Mrs Scoullar said the Albanese Government has an insatiable appetite for buying water from the productive pool and flushing it out to sea, claiming the water is for environmental use, even though it is told enough water has already been recovered.
“It’s hard to understand how a government can neglect its farmers and rural communities, as well as the millions of starving people throughout the world, with latest estimates telling us more than 318 million human beings are facing severe food shortages this year alone,” Mrs Scoullar said.
“Prime Minister Albanese should be supplying water to our farmers and asking them to grow rice as part of our humanitarian efforts.
“Instead, he oversees policy that limits what our farmers can grow and as a result more people starve.”
And the food security problems are not just confined to shortages in the global community.
Analysis indicates Australia will be a net importer of food in about 10 years, which is an extreme sovereign risk if there is escalating international conflict.
“Australia has such a proud history of growing clean, green food for domestic and worldwide consumption.
“This is all compromised by government policy that lacks understanding not only of agriculture, but also our nation’s sovereign needs.
“Water buybacks severely impact food production, increase the cost of staple foods on our supermarket shelves and limit our ability to export to trading partners and for humanitarian needs.
“These buybacks continue, despite even the Murray-Darling Basin Authority acknowledging that no more water recovery is required, with the best approach being a focus shift to using environmental water already recovered to maximum effectiveness.
“Our compassionate communities are hoping the Albanese Government and Water Minister Murray Watt will make a more genuine attempt to understand the importance of balancing water supplies for productive and environmental use, in particular trying to appreciate the value of encouraging farmers to grow food, instead of the current policies which make this so difficult.
“Farmers and rural communities are increasingly frustrated at being the forgotten citizens of Australia. We are hoping the Federal Government will eventually recognise this indisputable fact and do something to change it, for everyone’s benefit.”
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