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Paradise Dam has been deemed “unsafe” and will lose nearly half its original capacity

Real leadership needed

Widespread rainfall throughout Queensland has finally filled many a parched rain gauge and has been a welcome relief for many rural and regional communities.

The old saying that when it rains it pours, couldn’t be more accurate when describing rainfall patterns in Queensland and across Australia as a whole.

While it is always a welcome sight to see rivers and creek running a banker, I often think about the wasted opportunity of not saving more of that water we receive for those times when the storm clouds fail to arrive.

Over the past month we have had global leaders from around the world fly into Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the COP26 summit. Lots of hot air was wasted on lowering carbon emissions, increasing carbon credits, and reducing methane. Hardly a bleep was made about investing in mitigation and sustainability projects as we adapt to a changing climate.

Water is the most critical resource that humans rely on. We need it to not only keep ourselves hydrated but to grow our food, flush our toilets, clean our streets, water our lawns and fill our swimming pools.

It’s also a resource we which use to support and grow our rural and regional communities which not only helps grow our and fibre but drives employment and investment in our regions.

In Bundaberg, we have gone through two years of uncertainty and pain as a result of the shock announcement that Paradise Dam was “unsafe” and needed to be lowered by 5.8 meters and its capacity reduced from 300,000 ML to 170,000 ML - or nearly half its original capacity.

Farmers who started the water year on 22 per cent of their allocations have been struggling to keep their crops, trees and businesses alive and were facing the very real prospect of running out of water completely before Christmas - in the middle of the peak irrigation season.

Thanks to good luck rather than good management, much needed rainfall in the upper catchment of the mighty Burnett River has provided a stay of execution for hundreds of struggling Bundaberg farmers.

Paradise Dam is currently overflowing releasing approximately 20,000 million litres of fresh water a day over its reduced spill way.

Up until mid-November many Bundaberg irrigators were left with little other option but to “pray for rain”. Fortunately, those prayers were answered, and a catastrophic disaster was avoided. However, this is only a shortterm reprieve.

The final decision on the future of Paradise Dam and the entire Bundaberg community now sits in the hands of the only person who really matters - and that’s our Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Restoring the dam has widespread community support and also bi-partisan political support from those who understand the importance of water security for not only food security but job and investment security.

Bundaberg farmers are hoping for an early Christmas present and an end to the uncertainty which has thrown one of Australia’s largest fresh food bowls into chaos.

But there are other projects throughout Queensland which are currently sitting on shelves gathering more dust than they are water.

Whilst projects like the Rookwood Weir are finally turning some dirt and projects like Hells Gate, Urannah Dam and Emu Swamp Dam are slowly moving towards reality - there is much more work, investment and leadership that is required to deliver water security for our State and Nation.

Whilst constructing new dams are important, we also need to look at connecting our existing dams and water networks so that we are able to spread water from areas that receive high rainfall to those that miss out.

It is often a frustration of mine that Federal funding for water projects are often held up by pithy state politics and approvals.

The case in point is the Northern Australia Investment Fund which despite having $5 billion made available for water and industry development projects since 2015, only $70 million had been released by June 2021.

Whilst $3.1 billion has been committed to over 27 projects - the majority of these projects have been held up by State Government funding and approvals.

What is required is real political leadership - at both a Federal and State level to see these nation and economy building projects come to fruition.

This requires our leaders at all levels to forget about which party they are aligned with and do the job they are actually elected to do - and that’s to protect and promote the wellbeing of their citizens and voters.

The top of that list should be water and food security for our state and nation.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

TOM MARLAND

Health’s in our own hands

FARMERS’ HEALTH

WITH DR TOBY FORD

Welcome back to our conversation about health in the bush.

If you followed the thread of my comments last time, I pointed out that health in the bush lags the city and that the more remote you live, the shorter your lifespan. Well, I hope this spurred you to think you would swim against this trend and beat the odds.

If we could pick our parents then, one might know that there are some of us with genetic disposition from our parents for such valuable things as low cholesterol, low body weight, limited risk for skin cancer, lower propensity for baldness. These are all things that travel on our genetic coding from our parents.

Some of you will have relatives who have lived to 100 and smoked, drank, stayed up late, backed slow racehorses, all the things we say are bad for you and yet they kicked a goal and lived well to a 100. But for every one of those relatives, we can find many more others who have done the wrong things I mentioned and gone down early.

So I am keen on disease prevention, health screening and adoption of wellbeing strategies to improve quality and quantity of life. But ironically before you can prevent something happening, first you’ve got to know what caused it.

One of the best studies of all time in heart disease occurred in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA, in 1948, a little over 75 years ago. It was a country town about the size of Roma or Biloela in western Queensland.

It was a mixed population of farming and light industry. They invited about 5000 men and women aged 30 to 65 years of age who had never had a heart attack to step forward to longitudinally monitor them over a number of years to work out if there were common risk factors that led people to having heart attacks (cardiovascular events). After following three generations of people there is now good evidence to suggest that there are four irreversible risk factors - age, gender (men on average have heart disease 10 years earlier than women), family history and race (some first nation people have a higher risk). These factors are locked in and one might say well why worry, but guess what the weighting on the risks is pretty equal for the other five that you can do something about.

Those people who smoked, had diabetes, high blood pressure, were inactive and obese were heavily represented in the group who developed heart disease as they aged.

So what you might say. Well, there are a group of us who will do something about these reversible risk factors, then a group who would might if there was an incentive and then there is the group who are just plan lazy or couldn’t care less.

I’m not sure which one you might be in, but if you were thinking of doing something or you are already doing something then well done. What I’d like you to do is to look around and see if you can invite someone who might be close to you to share the same practice as you. This person might be your relative or a mate.

One of my best stories is about five 50-yearold blokes in a country town who bet each other they couldn’t walk around the footy oval they played rugby league on in their teens . I said to one of them don’t just do it for yourself, get your old fat mates and drag them out and he did just that.

So five days a week they get up at sparrows and they walk around their old oval 10 times then they go and have a cup of tea and yarn. As my client says they call themselves the WGAF group .

I will leave you to work out this but that is the start of something simple but great because one of those blokes because of the exercise is still alive today and he has lost weight , stopped smoking and switched off his diabetes .

Not bad, eh, if you think about it. It can start simply by you getting a group together, bet them something and see what happens. And another ting its good for mental health and don’t we need this addressed in today’s bush.

Getting active outside can do wonders for your heart health... like walking around an oval with your mates.

Heading off to new pastures... with a heavy heart

It is with a heavy heart, that I wish to advise I am leaving the Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) for new pastures.

It has been my honour to work as a member of the QFF team for the past five years.

The excellence, expertise, and dedication they demonstrate every day is beyond comparison. I am incredibly proud of the work that we have done together to improve the sustainability of Queensland’s farms, as well as what I have personally achieved for the agricultural sector during my time at QFF.

I hope that my time and position at QFF will inspire others from diverse groups to look at what can be achieved, the value of their contributions and the difference that they can make.

My last day with QFF will be 14 January, so I am busy fitting 12 months of work into the next few weeks!

However, I will endeavour to catch up with all QFF’s valuable stakeholders and friends before my departure. I am sure that I will see many of you in my new life and I look forward to keeping in touch.

I wish to thank all QFF’s stakeholders, both internal and external, for several years of learning, innovation, collegiality and vision.

Kind regards,

Georgina Davis.

CEO, Queensland Farmers Federation.

Celebrating Aussie Ag

FROM THE MINISTER

AGRICULTURE MINISTER DAVID LITTLEPROUD

On Friday 19 November, we celebrate National Agriculture Day. The rest of the world uses 20 November but Australia gets in early. There are many reasons why we can celebrate Australian agriculture but here are six of the best:

1. Produce the best food and fibre in the world

Australian farmers enjoy price premiums due to our reputation as producers of high-quality products.

Our farmers rely on being part of a global community and maintaining our reputation for premium produce is the future of the sector’s success. Through 15 Free Trade Agreements with 26 countries the Australian agriculture industry has been given access to a wide range of export markets.

2. On track to be worth over $73 billion

The gross value of farm production is forecast to rise to a record $73 billion in 2021-22. This will be the first time ever that agriculture has surpassed the $70 billion mark. The pandemic has hit every economy hard but our industry has carried on and is leading our economic comeback.

3. Our Guardians of land and livestock

There is a lot of talk about net zero and the role agriculture can play but the reality is Australian farmers have done the heavy lifting. Not just to help us to meet our international commitments but because they know that their profit and loss is tied to the health of their land.

Australia is the first country in the world that can measure biodiversity and will be rewarding our farmers, not just for carbon abatement, but for being stewards of the land.

4. Protecting our way of life

Looking after Australia’s world-class biosecurity system is constant work and the industry’s focus is firmly on keeping our enviable status as a pest and disease-free nation.

We take this extremely seriously and are supported by over a billion dollars from the Federal Government to ensure we have the best controls, tools, processes and networks in place.

5. Supporting equal opportunities for all

The sector provides endless pathways for all, including into non-traditional and emerging tech-based and flexible employment opportunities such as agri-tech. Women’s representation across agriculture portfolio boards has also increased from 38 per cent to 50 per cent since 2017. Of these, women hold 39 per cent of chair or deputy chair positions.

6. Embrace innovation to tackle challenges

The industry has a strong tradition of developing and adopting innovative solutions to new challenges. Since our farmers first tilled the soil Australia’s unique climate has forced them to innovate, adapt and adopt new technologies - and they haven’t stopped. This gives the industry the confidence to set and work towards the goal of being a $100 billion industry by 2030.

Carbon neutral - more than just an emissions target

During the past few weeks, the news cycle has been dominated by conversations around Australia’s climate targets and coverage of COP26 from Glasgow.

For the red meat and livestock industry, we remain incredibly focused on achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 (CN30).

Regardless of ongoing policy discussions - MLA will absolutely continue to do what is in our remit - investing in new knowledge, research, and technology to support the industry to achieve a productive, profitable, net zero greenhouse gas emissions position by 2030, without compromising productivity gains or livestock numbers.

It’s a journey we have been on since 2017 and remains a key part of our strategic plan, working hand-in-hand with industry’s vision to double the value of red meat sales as a trusted source of the highest quality protein in the next 10 years.

Our industry has done more than most - having already reduced emissions by over 50 per cent since the baseline of 2005.

In fact, 90 per cent of all emissions come from outside of red meat production - yet too often we see our livelihoods and way of life denigrated by those with an anti-red meat agenda laying the ‘environmental blame’ at farm gates across Australia This cannot continue unchallenged, and I will focus more on what MLA is doing about it in next month’s column.

The joint investment by industry and government over the past 20 years into productivity improvement and emissions reduction has placed the industry in the box seat to benefit from future market opportunities, climate-adapted production practices and winning hearts and minds of consumers - remembering that farmers are already highly trusted by the community.

The risk of not demonstrating commitment to reducing emissions is that public trust in the industry will decline and, as other industries reduce their emissions, the heavy hand of regulation may be imposed.

Adoption of world-leading technology such as livestock feeds, genetics and grazing land management will enable the Australian red meat industry to achieve its 2030 target, positioning Australia as the prime example of climate-friendly, high-quality red meat products, to be enjoyed in over 100 markets across the globe.

May I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Christmas and prosperous new year from everyone at MLA, and I look forward to writing this column again in January.

FROM

THE MLA

JASON STRONG

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