Issues we face.

The level of bureaucracy and interference with no obvious benefit is increasing at an astonishing rate. For example, windmills are one of the most efficient means of moving water: a renewable source of energy, with very low maintenance costs, that never takes a holiday and works 24 hrs a day. However, workplace health and safety requirements mean it is all but impossible to send an employee up a windmill for maintenance or repairs, so they are technically obsolete and need to be replaced by different technology.

None of the individual compliance issues are in themselves, particularly difficult, time consuming or difficult (usually!), however we are dealing with multiple of them, every single day.

We have responsibilities under a range of legislation for control of feral animals, fire management, land management and vegetation management. Most of these responsibilities do not acknowledge the existing health of the country under our stewardship. The biggest challenge is that they are not applied consistently across all land tenures. We need the rules to be the same on both sides of the fence!

Most stations are covered by multiple exploration or mining licences, and unlike some land tenures, we have few rights in this matter. Our greatest concern is that, unlike other parts of Australia, we have no alternative water sources. If mining disrupts our underground aquifers, there is NO water for humans or animals. We cannot stop them from undertaking their work and we can only hope that they abide by agreements we have both committed to.

The NT Cattlemen’s Association has worked very hard over a long period to create a recognized dialogue between the pastoral estate and mining companies. At Curtin Springs, mining companies have been a source of weeds that we are responsible for, inperpetuity.

Exploration rights have been given in areas identified as NT Sites of Conservation Significance.

This is a very difficult and complicated issue and a few sentences here cannot cover very much!

Some parts of the media seem to react only in a sensational manner. In Central Australia, the land that is productive, well cared for, managed properly, has fire management strategies in place, deals with pests and pays its way, without government funding, is land managed by the pastoral estate. Other land tenures cannot make these claims.

However, our stewardships, over decades and even centuries for some stations, is not routinely recognized or acknowledged.

The lack of respect for primary producers, those that grow the food, those that do manage land well and have a long term commitment to it, is astounding. This is true of a lot of media and government departments/levels.

When you look at things like carbon – we must account for all the ‘carbon’ that we produce – how much cows fart, how much our diesel vehicles put into the atmosphere, etc etc etc. But NEVER in the equation are we allowed to use how much carbon does 1 million acres to native vegetation, capture.

Groups with little or no experience or knowledge of our industries, (both tourism and pastoral) consider their opinions gospel.

Our position is that if you wish to have an opinion, have an informed one. Then, once you are informed, you are only entitled to an opinion, that YOU personally pay for.

When you are not actively producing something in return for your income and not relying on grants or donation; when you can grow, on your inner city balcony, all the food, fibre, building materials – that your family needs, then you have the right to say something about us.

We recently read that 45% of Year 6–10 students surveyed did not identify the bread, cheese or banana in their lunch box as coming from a farm, and 75% thought cotton comes from an animal.

This growing divide means many people have little understanding of where their food comes from, or of the farmers who feed them every day.

A couple of generations ago, must people had some connection to a farm. Nanna & Pop, Uncle Jack and Aunty Noele were holiday trips every year. You learnt to feed an orphaned lamb, how to knock the mud off your boots before you took them off, what daybreak looked like and how toast and fresh tomato was the best lunch ever!

Now, most people have never touched an animal that is not a dog or cat. They have never grown a fresh tomato. They believe every social media story, without troubling to find out any actual facts.

‘Our food comes from the supermarket’ – is one of the scariest sentences to ever come out of a mouth.