Joel Fitzgibbon, Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Resources & Federal Member for Hunter, joins Michael to discuss his opinion piece that was featured in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph

Re:  To protect our food security, we need to come to terms with our vulnerabilities

Mr Fitzgibbon writes, ‘If we are to protect our food security, we need to come to terms with our vulnerabilities. Farmers can’t grow food without seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and veterinary medicines. Yet over recent decades Australia’s reliance on other countries for these on-farm inputs has grown substantially.’

‘China has become our primary provider of crop protection products. Most alarmingly, Australia is about to lose its only remaining manufacturer of the key active ingredients necessary for the production of our crop protection products.’

‘Nufarm will close its Laverton plant in Victoria in part because it can’t compete with imported product from China. The high cost of energy is another factor forcing Nufarm’s hand, yet the Morrison Government refuses to act.’ 

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