Press Release

Western Australian pastoralists and farmers are scratching their heads following Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s statement to Parliament that small businesses, including farmers, hit by carbon tax power price hikes should pass costs on to consumers, who are getting compensation.

“Once again the Prime Minister’s total lack of understanding about farming has put WA’s agricultural community into a state of utter confusion,” Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) President Rob Gillam said today.

“We cannot lift prices and even if by some miracle of Keynesian economics we were able to, our buyers certainly won’t accept it.”

“Any increase in our cost of production, especially electricity cannot be passed on to any one, especially consumers, as farmers are merely price takers.”

“All the Carbon tax has done is erode our net farm gate prices as our buyers’ costs are passed on to us, with no transparency or recourse.”

“Farmers do not receive any compensation from the Government unless they are prepared to stop growing food and fibre and turn their productive land into carbon sink plantations.”

“One would expect that the Prime Minister of one of the world’s largest producers of grain, livestock and wool would be aware that taxing farmers not only cripples their productivity but also destroys the competitiveness of our products on both the domestic and international stage.”

“The Prime Minister needs to stop talking at and start listening to her rural constituents who are seeing their livelihoods destroyed for the sake of her political gain.”