Walking proud and united into 2025
Christmas and New Year may be just around the corner, but for agriculture the third Friday in November is what it’s all about: National Ag Day.
As the sun shone on Customs House in Brisbane last Friday, we felt heartened and energised by the substance and tone of the messages shared at the Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) National Ag Day Breakfast.
It was a timely opportunity to hear from the recently sworn in Queensland Minister for the Department of Primary Industries (DPI), Tony Perrett, as well as an insightful panel discussion featuring Director General for the Department Primary Industries Graeme Bolton, Director General for the Department of Local Government, Water, and Volunteers Linda Dobe, and Chair of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee Professor Karen Hussey.
The theme of these discussions, as well as opening remarks from QFF CEO Jo Sheppard, was of fostering holistic collaboration between agriculture, government, industry, and the wider economy to ensure a brighter future for farmers—and for all of us who benefit from the products of agriculture!
Minister Perrett acknowledged the intersections between DPI and a range of other portfolio areas including water, environment, energy and natural resources, and reinforced the Crisafulli Government’s commitment to a whole of government approach in working with agriculture.
We welcome Minister Perrett’s commitment to share agriculture’s concerns to the cabinet table to efficiently manage these overlaps. As Jo Sheppard remarked, when agriculture talks to government, it can involve talking to seven different portfolios.
Indeed, this collaborative and connected approach is needed if the government is to achieve its goal of increasing agriculture’s value to the economy to $30bn by 2030.
In the panel discussion, Graeme Bolton highlighted the balance agriculture will need to strike between looking after rich agricultural land during rapid population growth and implementation of environmental efforts.
The key takeaway of the Ag Day discussions was that while there are challenges ahead, it is not all doom and gloom, but a challenge that could be met if we meet it together.
Minister Perrett called on all present to be proud to promote what’s good about Queensland agriculture.
This is a call QFVG is proud to heed as we walk alongside growers into 2025.
