NATIONAL Farmers Federation president Brent Finlay says the Abbott Government's Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper can help boost farm-sector confidence by setting a bipartisan business planning agenda, individual farmers can align with.
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The White Paper was a key election commitment from the Coalition aimed at acknowledging and building the industry's standing as one of the nation's key economic pillars and is set to be released on Saturday by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.
A draft paper was released at the NFF's annual congress last year outlining a range of proposals including expanding visa arrangements to overcome labour shortages changes to taxation arrangements and improved access to finance.
Mr Finlay said some Australian farmers were "smashed" by ongoing drought and missing out on high commodity prices and subsequent profits, due to lost production "but we haven't forgotten them".
"It's so disappointing and disheartening when we're looking at record prices for cattle and sheep and some farmers have fantastic crops but many people are still battling to survive," Mr Finlay said. "We're all hoping this White Paper gives them something to be confident about for the future. I heard a great comment at Beef Week from one of the big pastoral company CEO's who said, 'If we don't know what the government's business plan is or what the government's policy is for Australian agriculture, how can actually we set our business up or fine tune business plans, on our farms?' "Hopefully, when we see this policy document come Saturday, it'll actually give farmers confidence to know which way the government is going ... and then they can align their individual business plans or operations, with that thinking." Mr Finlay said the NFF wanted to see the White Paper deliver "progressive policies that enhance and promote Australian agriculture".
The latest ABARES Agricultural Commodities report forecast a 3.1 per cent increase in the gross value of Australian farm production to around $54 billion in 2015-16. Mr Finlay said NFF believes that figure can almost double by 2030 with the right policy road map in place.