CALARE’s Labor and Nationals candidates have squared off over climate change, both saying their opponent’s strategy would cause rising costs.
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Labor candidate Jess Jennings said news of the above-average temperatures in 2018 should have been enough to get members of the Nationals talking about climate change, but they were instead in a state of denial and were therefore letting the region’s farmers down.
“The National party should be out there today going ‘There’s a crisis happening, this is affecting our farmers, we want to do something serious about it’ and [they’ve said] nothing,” he said.
Dr Jennings, who hopes to become the member for Calare after this year’s federal election, said he would be responding in a very different way.
He said the Nationals seemed “completely bereft of any idea of the science behind the predictions”, whereas he would be educating himself in that area.
“One, is to understand it, and then, two, to try and work out how we go about coming up with policy solutions that support farmers and transition the whole economy into a better state, so the farmers don’t experience what they’re predicting, which is 50 per cent more drought than we would otherwise have if we go above 1.5 or two degrees Celsius,” Mr Jennings said.
He said climate change was the number one issue for governments to prepare for, as it affects not only farmers, but all Australians.
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“We’re very well blessed in Australia that we produce enough food for 60 million people, not just the 25 million people in Australia, but we may well see spikes in prices and a lack of availability of certain things,” Mr Jennings said, adding that a warming climate would also impact health and infrastructure.
He said that, moving forward, there needed to be an awareness campaign of climate change and farmers needed to be taught how to adapt their farming practices to a warming climate.
Member for Calare Andrew Gee said the key was to build resilience and preparedness amongst farmers.
I think a great local example of the right approach was the Australian Government’s $2 million contribution towards a $5.38 million biomass boiler at MSM Milling, a farming business at Manildra,” he said.
“This project helped MSM reduce energy costs and environmental impacts while supporting local jobs.
Mr Gee said a too-extreme approach might cause prices to skyrocket.
“Jess Jennings is going to have to front up to local farmers and explain to them why their cold storage sheds are too expensive to run and how our agricultural co-ops are going to be able to afford to keep employing people.”
READ ALSO: Climate policy not changing, says treasurer
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