Federal election: What Labor's win means for Australia's $88m agriculture industry
Labor went to the Federal election without a firm agriculture policy but its resounding election win means a suite of farming-related pledges will be rolled out during the next four years.
Creating a National Food Security Strategy, bolstering farm safety and extending the instant asset write-off for another year were among the most significant promises the party made to agriculture before the May 3 Federal election.
But Anthony Albanese's plan to ban live sheep exports by May 1, 2028 now looks set to become a reality as the Federal Government pushes on with rolling out its $139m industry transition package.
While funding commitments targeted directly at the regions were scarce, health was a significant focus with $204.5 million to improve existing and expand Healthdirect services, $200m to create a 24-hour telehealth service, $135.2m for online mental health support and $32m for men's mental health services.
The Prime Minister's planned live export ban and fears about Labor's tax on unrealised gains policy have been criticised by farming groups, but move to pour $3.5m investment into creating National Food Security Strategy was widely welcomed.
The strategy — announced prior to the election — would recognise the importance of safeguarding food supply chains and bolster the resilience of Australia's agriculture and food production systems.
Its plan to impose a 30 per cent tax on unrealised capital gains made superannuation accounts worth $3m or more was one of the most contentious policy, with National Farmers Federation estimating there are about 17,000 SMSF accounts that hold farming land.
Other policies welcomed included a $2.5m injection to keep Farmsafe Australia running for the next three years, with after the number of people killed on farms doubled to 72 last year.
A further $20m was committed to a campaign to encourage more Australians to buy locally made products.
The On Farm Connectivity Program — which offers rebates of up to 50 per cent on equipment and technology — received a $20m investment in a new round, worth up to $30,000 per applicant.
Labor also committed to strategically examine the potential to grow a biofuels feedstock industry to support Australia's transition to net zero and backed the NFF's roadmap for agriculture to become a $100 billion industry by 2030.
The Federal Government also pledged an extension of the $20,000 instant asset write-off until June 30 next year, a move welcomed by small businesses but short of the Coalition's pledge to offer a permanent write-off.
In announcing the policy, Mr Albanese said the short-term incentive was designed to encourage businesses to spend as a matter of priority.
Community infrastructure was also a focus of Labor's pre-election commitments, with its Community Upgrade Fund receiving a boost to enable local facilities like pools, libraries and sports clubs to share $100 million to become more energy efficient.
Labor also committed to a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation to bridge mobile telecommunications blackspots, requiring mobile operators to provide equitable access to baseline outdoor mobile coverage across Australia.
Labor's $200m to create a 24-hour telehealth service, dubbed '1800MEDICARE', will be introduced by January next year, while a pledge Movember, Men's Sheds and male-specific mental health services will receive a significant boost.
This includes $8.3 million to support another two years of Men's Shed Initiative's National Shed Development Program, and $7.4 million to expand Movember's Ahead of the Game program, delivered in partnership with the AFL.
Also included is $3.0 million to Healthy Male to support the delivery of Plus Paternal Initiative, and $2.0 million to the Black Dog Institute to research men's mental health and suicide prevention at the Danny Frawley Centre for Health and Wellbeing.
The controversial indexation of excise on on draught beer has been frozen for two years, and the Federal Government will left a the $350,000 excise remission cap to $400,000 for all eligible alcohol manufacturers.
It also committed $7m in the recent budget to support horticultural conferences, agritech events and other agricultural trade shows for two years from July 1, including $2m for the world's biggest sheep, lamb and wool conference Lambex.
It has also pledged $6.8m in 2025-26 in international engagement and technical market access activities to support agricultural exports in a changing trade environment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
6 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese's gas project extension is a mistake - but it's not too late
The Albanese government's approval of the North West Shelf gas extension to 2070 is not just a mistake – it's a devastating blow; a blow to voters who so recently backed a renewable-powered future, to young Australians hopeful for change, to the traditional owners caring for the Murujuga rock art, and to Labor's own proud tradition of acting for the benefit of all Australians. This is the most polluting fossil fuel project approved in Australia in a decade – more polluting than any project approved under coal-loving Scott Morrison. It will unleash more than 4 billion tonnes of climate pollution, equivalent to a decade of Australia's current emissions. It risks wiping out any climate progress this government has made and it tarnishes its legacy. This decision will cast a long shadow over the Albanese government. Visionary Labor prime ministers have stood up against short-term vested interests to protect Australia's environment: think saving the Franklin River; banning uranium mining at Coronation Hill; preventing oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef. This decision does not fit with that proud history. It's a capitulation to one of the most powerful fossil fuel companies operating in Australia today: Woodside. Voters rejected Peter Dutton's gas expansion plan, yet the Albanese government is pressing ahead with it. The justifications don't stack up. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese keeps telling us this gas is needed for 'firming capacity' or to support our neighbours. But the WA gas markets are completely separate from those on the east coast. There is simply no pipeline connecting them. That's why the prime minister's comments this week, linking the North West Shelf extension to the need for gas in the eastern states, were hard to believe. It's frankly misleading to suggest this project will support energy reliability for most Australians. In reality, only a tiny fraction of the gas will be used in WA, and none of it will be used on the east coast. Most will be exported. And even our biggest customer, Japan, is now exporting more gas than it imports from us. The global market is heading for oversupply. Australia doesn't need this gas. The world doesn't want it. So who benefits? Not Australian households, who already pay the price for our over-reliance on gas. Not workers, whose skills should be helping build clean industries – not propping up a dying one. And not communities on the climate frontline – like flood-hit towns on the NSW coast or farmers battling drought in South Australia. Loading The only clear winners here are Woodside's executives and shareholders. This is a company that has long leveraged its political connections and its deep pockets to keep its polluting projects in business and the Albanese government just handed it a new lease on life. It is plundering petroglyphs for profit and burning down the prospect of a safer future for the next generation of Australians. Because this project is not just a climate disaster – it's a cultural and diplomatic disaster in the making.
Sky News AU
40 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Kempsey Mayor urges Australians to visit flood-affected areas of NSW
Kempsey Mayor Kinne Ring is calling on Australians to support flood-affected regions of New South Wales by visiting and helping to boost the local economy. 'To be honest, our economy has been hit really hard from primary producers to small businesses – we need all the support we can get, and a part of that is a boost to our visitor economy,' Ms Ring told Sky News host Steve Prince. 'We obviously have some communities that have been hit hard, and there are some places where there is a little bit of mud, but we still have our beautiful coastal villages and hinterlands that are open to people to come and just enjoy.'
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Defence minister concedes Australia's military spending may need to rise after meeting US counterpart Pete Hegseth
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has urged Australia to increase military spending, a day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blasted a leading security think tank which warned this country was poorly prepared for the growing risk of regional conflict. Ahead of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Defence Minister Richard Marles has told his US counterpart that the Albanese government is willing to have a 'conversation' about lifting expenditure. Australia is on track to reach defence spending levels of 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033-34, up from its current level of 2.02 per cent, but for months the Trump Administration has pressured the government to get to at least three per cent of GDP. 'I wouldn't put a number on it, the need to increase defence spending is something that he definitely raised,' Mr Marles told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program following his meeting with the Pentagon boss. 'You have seen the Americans in the way in which they have engaged with all of their friends and allies asking them to do more and we can completely understand why America would do that.' 'What I made clear is that this is a conversation that we are very willing to have, and it is one that we are having, having already made very significant steps in the past.' 'But we want to make sure that we are contributing to the strategic moment that we face, that we all face, and what Pete Hegseth said is entirely consistent with in the way that the Americans have been speaking to all their friends'. 'We understand it and we are very much up for that conversation. On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lashed out after a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warned Australia could be left with a "brittle and hollowed defence force" if military funding was not increased. "Well, that's what they do, isn't it, ASPI? I mean, seriously, they need to … have a look at themselves and the way they conduct themselves in debates," Mr Albanese told the ABC following the report's release. "We've had a defence strategic review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence — $10 billion," the Prime Minister said while insisting his government was acting. Mr Marles is due to meet with counterparts from a range of other countries on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, which brings together leaders, army chiefs, defence ministers and analysts from across the globe. On Saturday the Defence Minister will use a speech at the event to warn 'we also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition.' China has been rapidly building up its own nuclear arsenal, while Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since its invasion of Ukraine. The Defence Minister is expected to call that behaviour a 'profound abrogation of (Russia's) responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council,' warning that the behaviour of states like Russia, Iran and North Korea could drive nuclear proliferation around the world. 'Not only does this work against states disarming their own nuclear arsenals, as Ukraine responsibly did in 1994, the war is prompting some frontier states most exposed to Russian aggression to consider their options,' he will say. 'And this has dire consequences for our region too. Russia has agreed a strategic partnership with North Korea to access the munitions and troops Moscow needs to continue its war.' 'The probability that Russia is transferring nuclear weapons technology in payment for Pyongyang's support places intolerable pressure on South Korea.' The Defence Minister will also once again criticise China for undertaking the 'largest conventional military build-up since WWII', saying it's doing so 'without providing any strategic transparency or reassurance.' 'This remains a defining feature of the strategic complexity that the Indo-Pacific and the world faces today,' he's expected to say. Mr Marles's speech comes in the wake of a series of meetings this week between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a host of Pacific counterparts in the southern city of Xiamen. Officials from Australia, the US, New Zealand and Japan have all monitored the gathering closely, while China has hailed it as a major milestone in its ties with the Pacific. Beijing didn't unveil any major initiatives at the meeting. And while Pacific nations backed Beijing's claim over Taiwan, they didn't issue a direct endorsement of China's commitment to 'reunify' the self-ruled island with the mainland. But one Pacific government source told the ABC that China's criticisms of the Trump Administration's sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs, as well as its move to slash aid and dump the Paris Agreement on climate change, resonated with the Pacific countries at the meeting. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Matt told the Financial Times that 'the Trump administration's economic policies have created some uncertainty' in the Pacific. But Mr Marles declined to say if he raised Australia's concerns about US aid cuts with Pete Hegseth, simply saying the Trump Administration 'understood' the importance of the Pacific region.
