VICTORIAN Farmers Federation (VFF) president Peter Tuohey has warned the federal government to “listen to the people” and negotiate a substantial Free Trade Agreement with China.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“They failed with the FTA they negotiated with Japan (in terms of Australian agriculture),” he said.
“This is their opportunity to get it right.”
Mr Tuohey was commenting after the recent launch of a national social media campaign, #FTA4Farmers.
He had called on all Australian farmers to get on board with the campaign and the VFF released the telephone numbers, email addresses and the twitter handles of the Prime Minister, federal Treasurer, other members of the federal ministry, Victorian members of the House of Representatives and Nationals Senator for Victoria, Bridget McKenzie.
Mr Tuohey said he was unaware of how the members of parliament felt about being the focus of the campaign.
“They are probably feeling under a bit of pressure but if they are worried about getting messages they don’t realise what their job is,” he said.
“The campaign is under the umbrella of the National Farmers Federation and other state farmer organisations are involved.
“We all met up a few weeks ago but Australian Dairy Farmers said they wanted to run their own campaign.”
Mr Tuohey said the campaign highlighted how farmers were starting to increase their knowledge of technology.
“Six months ago farmers were probably not that good at social media,” he said.
“Now they realise it is the latest weapon in the war.
“They now know social media can make a difference in getting their message through.”
The VFF has also released figures on comparative tariff rates imposed in China on New Zealand and Australian produce:
Dairy: New Zealand zero to 4.5 per cent; Australia 10-15 per cent;
Beef: New Zealand 4-8 per cent and zero by 2016; Australia 12-25 per cent;
Sheep meat: New Zealand 4-7.7 per cent and zero by 2016; Australia 12-15 per cent; and,
Apples: New Zealand zero; Australia 10 per cent.
Australian Dairy Farmers chief executive officer Natalie Collard said on Wednesday her organisation was overwhelmed by the support for the dairy industry.
“Our campaign #FTA4dairy was launched on Monday and has received a tremendous response, reaching over 1.6 million Twitter users,” she said. “This social media campaign has been positively backed by all sides of the dairy industry; farmers, processors, the broader industry, politicians, students and dairy consumers alike.”
