The 100,000 chickens imprisoned inside this factory farm will, like all intensively reared animals, be treated as mere commodities and deprived of sunshine, fresh air and all semblance of a natural life.

CEO of the the Huntly-based company, previously known as Hy-Line Australia, says it is “the largest supplier of day-old chicks and point-of-lay pullets to the Australian poultry industry".

What he doesn't tell us is that the company grinds up as many live chicks as it hatches. These are the "useless" males who cannot lay eggs.

And what will be the fate of the point-of-lay pullets? Most will have their liberty even more severely curtailed. Crammed into battery cages with several other birds they will find they can no longer even stretch their wings or take more than one step. The stress of this unbearable situation will cause the birds to peck at each other exacerbating their suffering.

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to prevent this hideous establishment from being built but each one of us can help put an end to it and others like it by refusing to buy commercially produced eggs.

Why should any inoffensive bird be condemned to this hellish existence simply because we enjoy the taste of their eggs?

Just days ago, US senator Bernie Sanders said: “The USA fossil industry has previously bribed politicians into complacency in the face of climate change which ravages here and all around the globe. So what are we going to do about it?  

“We will act boldly to move our energy system away from fossil fuels, toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal because we have a moral responsibility to leave our kids a planet that is healthy and habitable, and in doing so, create millions of jobs for working families. The answer is clear and affordable”.

The next president of the USA may well be Bernie Sanders and how refreshing to hear his candid, morally sound analysis, which has both economic and scientific merit.

Sadly, Australia has been tardy in responding to the reality (and pace) of climate change as we too have been fed untruths by politicians and shock-jocks alike.                                                     

Job creation in Australia can also be clearly accelerated through investment in clean-energy.

Yet, ironically, we hear of both the Queensland state government and the federal government continuing to support the giant Adani/Carmichael coal mine project in Queensland; an absurd and totally contradictory path to that advocated by Mr Sanders and climate scientists around the world.              

The very latest aerial and underwater surveys of our Great Barrier Reef reveal alarmingly that just 7 per cent of the reef is free of coral bleaching with scientists saying the burning of coal globally is adding significantly to the poor state of our reef with the government not responding to the link between coal burning and climate change.          

Where is Mr Turnbull’s bold plan for Australia to be innovative and adventurous through the adoption of new, modern, science-based high-tech industries, which can generate high employment opportunities?

Mr Turnbull, the answer “is clear and affordable”, and it certainly does not include more 19th century-type coal mining projects; a disastrous path that would help shatter globally the chances of containing global warming to a 2 per cent increase by the turn of the century, and one that would totally devastate our reef.