Australia’s red meat industry bodies recently abandoned their pledge to reach ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with Meat and Livestock Australia’s review finding they couldn’t meet the target set in 2017. They were 78 per cent of the way there, but this is refreshing realism, honesty, and common sense.

The ANZ’s latest ‘Food for Thought’ report said our ‘just in time’ food supply chains in Australia are risky and vulnerable to trade, weather and geopolitical shocks.  And that was before the fuel prices went up again!   The ANZ suggests we should align food security with defence plans to ensure we have a stable food supply in the event of a regional conflict.

Australia imports most of our processed foods and ingredients for manufactured foods like bakery mixes, tinned tomatoes and cooking oils. We import about 65 per cent of our seafood, half of our pig meat and $1.3 billion worth of dairy product.

The Paris Climate Agreement recognises ‘the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger’ and that climate efforts must not ‘threaten food production’.

When you look at the mining projects, energy projects and transmission lines proposed across Mallee’s prime agricultural land, did food security get lost - along with the common sense - among the climate zealotry?

Labor has been mugged by reality.  Federal Labor just realised that we need guaranteed gas supply and are conducting yet another gas market review. The Allan Victorian Labor government seem to be walking back their plans to get rid of gas appliances from Victorian homes.

The Victorian Government’s Transmission Company Victoria have hit a landowner wall and delayed by two years their railroading rollout of the VNI-West transmission line in Mallee to 2030.  Yet Victorian Labor want 95 per cent ‘renewables’ by 2035 and ‘net zero’ by 2045.  Albanese Labor wants 82 per cent ‘renewables’ by 2030 and national ‘net zero’ by 2050.

Regional Australia is speaking common sense to the nation, and you can share your views on mining, energy, net zero and much more in Mallee’s Biggest Survey, out now in households and at annewebster.com.au.