NOW_ Nc_FarmRally_10

Farmers have vented their anger over a range of federal government policies at a rally outside parliament house in Canberra.

Transcript

00:00I'm standing outside Parliament House where a crowd of about 1,000 people have gathered.

00:08Many are farmers and they've travelled from right across the country, including as far

00:12away as Western Australia.

00:14Some 60 trucks travelled as part of a convoy, and that's about a 3,000 kilometre journey.

00:20They were expecting a crowd of about 3,000 here today, but as I said, it does look more

00:25like 1,000, maybe 1,500 or so, to be generous.

00:29The rally began as a push to try to get Labor to reinstate the export of live sheep and

00:37the trade that is the export of live sheep by sea.

00:40Labor, of course, has said it will be banning that trade.

00:44That is a legislated policy now.

00:47That ban will be introduced by 2028.

00:51Farmers in WA will mainly be affected by that ban, and this rally began as a push to try

00:57to get Labor to reinstate the trade.

00:59But it has morphed into something broader, and perhaps something a little bigger in a

01:03way, because the National Farmers Federation has thrown its weight behind this protest.

01:09The President of the National Farmers Federation, David Johinke, addressed the rally quite passionately.

01:15The reason why you are here today, the reason why I am here today, is because we feel like

01:21we are getting stiffed.

01:23I'm going to give you a commitment right here today.

01:25The first bill that I bring back to Parliament as the next Agriculture Minister is to repeal

01:30the live sheep export ban out of Western Australia.

01:35We've seen a lot of Coalition MPs and Senators here today.

01:38We've seen independents like Bob Catter.

01:41We've seen One Nation's Pauline Hanson.

01:43What we haven't seen are Labor MPs and Senators.

01:46We haven't seen the Federal Labor Agriculture Minister, Julie Collins, for example.

01:50And the crowd here certainly made a point of that in their speeches.

01:55It's not clear what this rally will achieve beyond the airing of grievances and the venting

02:00of frustrations, because the reality is Federal Labor doesn't actually hold many farming or

02:06rural seats.

02:07Those seats are largely held already by the Coalition.