food security

The major parties' response to population pressure sacrifices primary industry.

We know Australia is highly urbanized and it is people in our overcrowded cities that see at first hand the implications of population growth.

Both Liberal and Labor and the silent Greens have chosen to ignore the problem of food security by vowing that population growth will occur in the relatively under populated rural hinterland.

For South Australia this does not offer a bit of comfort to people in areas like Mount Barker, the Barossa and Gawler. The state Government's enthusiasm to rezone prime farming land as residential will be supported by whichever party wins government.

This also confirms that neither party is particularly interested in the question of food security. Australia is currently struggling to feed its population. There are a number of reasons for this not least of which are the federal government policies which make it increasingly difficult for primary producers to remain commercially viable.

In the Adelaide Hills we see one of those policies in action - the commitment to free trade regardless of the consequences has given the green light to Chinese exports of apples and pears.

As Australia's primary industry is being destroyed the only way farmers can continue to survive is by selling off their land for housing. Of course this fits neatly in with the population policies announced by both Labor and Liberal - good governance is being sacrificed in order to ensure seats are not lost in the cities.

Meanwhile the food security for all is being sacrificed as farmers are being driven off the land by policies that make farming uneconomic