What if you could spend $1 and receive $12 worth of work free of charge? Would you stump up the cash or keep it in your pocket?
These two questions may seem silly but unfortunately they have been posed by our Federal Government. Even more unfortunate for the farming sector has been the answer.
The cuts proposed in May’s Federal Government’s budget make little sense and will harm Australian agriculture and regional communities. They include at least $100 million in R&D and $483 million slashed from the Landcare budget. These decisions defy logic.
The Government wheeled out clichés and platitudes (“we’re all carrying the load”, “age of entitlement is over”) but cutting funding to programmes that repay the spending many times over is nonsensical.
Agriculture was named one of the pillars in this Government’s five-pillar economy, yet cuts to R&D will clearly affect its competitiveness. Agriculture needs R&D, which has been reinforced by government reports such as the Productivity Commission, the Asian Century report and the National Food Plan.
Despite allocation of $100m to agriculture-specific R&D over the next four years (designed to get a positive headline), it has cut $146.8m from the CSIRO, which will result in 500 job losses.
Funding for the co-operative research centres programme will be cut by $80 million (20% of the overall programme budget) and $11.5 million of funding was slashed from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.
The Government in February promised $100m more over four years for agricultural R&D. It didn’t say it would slash other research bodies to fund it.
In February, Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the $100m was “very important, -because research and development goes to the crux of how we expand our industry”.
He said $11 was -returned for every $1 spent in R&D. He clearly understands the value, which is why Treasurer Joe Hockey’s decision to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs is so confounding.
One of the most disappointing decisions for many farmers is $483 million cuts in funding to Landcare nationally over the next five years.
In return, the Government is spending $525 million on the Green Army, its new model for work for unemployed youth aged 17-24, at below the minimum wage. The Government claims the Green Army will be “Australia’s largest ever environmental workforce, building to 15,000 participants by 2018-19”.
Landcare members now number at least 500,000, half of them farmers. For every dollar the government spends on Landcare, the community provides at least $2.60 in cash and up to $12 for voluntary labour and materials.
Landcare was essentially a means of support for committed volunteers through providing seed grants and funding co-ordinators. Now that financial support has been slashed, instead used on a work-for-benefits scheme that will prop up unemployment figures.
Minimum-wage workers work their hours and head home. Volunteers will continue to give their time and energy for years – if they are supported and encouraged.
We’ll leave the last word to the president of the Victorian Landcare Council, Terry Hubbard: “The expectation is that the farming community should do all the heavy lifting for the benefit of the community.
“There is always a desire to increase and improve food production, there is always a desire to improve the natural environment; those things are enjoyed by all people yet the farming community’s expected to carry it.”
