In an interview with Country TV, Mark Cameron says farmers are what they do.
“Quite often, what was happening on farm and is happening on farm isn’t in lockstep with the language in politics.”
Cameron feels it has been his role for the past three years to remind his fellow parliamentarians that farmers are good at what they do. A dairy farmer for more than 30 years, Cameron came to Parliament in the 2020 election when ACT picked up 10 seats.
“I’m really collegial with some of these people,” he explains. “But they don’t live it (farming), they don’t do it.”
Cameron reckons many farmers just want people to acknowledge that they are good at their roles and deserve some credit for the work they are doing. He adds that farmers just need assistance and the opportunity to innovate, as opposed to leaving them “under the table, fighting for the scraps”.
He believes that the current Government has to take much of the blame for the anti-farming sentiment that has appeared in recent years.
“Why was it such that a narrative of us as being really good farmers seems to be disappearing?
“We feel like we were no longer that part of society that is celebrated. It is more ‘you lot are the reason all these things are going wrong’ and I take umbrage with that.”
