A 21-year-old farmer has been widely praised for a ‘heroic’ performance on Q&A on Monday night.
Kate McBride, a station hand in Menindee in far-west New South Wales, appeared alongside water minister David Littleproud and shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon to discuss the devastating drought that has been crippling farmers.
Ms McBride slammed the government for failing to fix the ‘broken’ water market and spoke confidently about the plight of young people in rural Australia.
Viewers heaped praised on the youngster, calling her an ‘inspiration’ and saying that she could have a future in politics.
One man wrote on Twitter: ‘Don’t tell my wife, but I may be in love with Katie McBride’.
Ms McBride (pictured) slammed the government for failing to fix the ‘broken’ water market and spoke confidently about the plight of young people in rural Australia
Viewers heaped praised on the youngster, calling her an ‘inspiration’ and saying that she could have a future in politics during a discussion on Twitter (pictured)
In one impassioned moment, Ms McBride responded to a question from a headmaster of a regional school by saying the drought was destroying children’s futures.
‘My kids are living a crisis the situation every day,’ said John Southern, the principal of Trundle Central School in NSW.
‘I’ve got kids that are going out to their farms and they don’t know what Dad will do tomorrow. They’re saying it’s too tough. I don’t want to go on this farm anymore.
‘I haven’t seen the grassroots stuff to come and grab my kids and pull them up and say, It’s OK. We’re going to get through this. Who is saying that to us?’
Ms McBride responded by sharing her personal experience of the drought.
‘As a young farmer, I’m 21 years old, where is my future in all this?’ she said.
‘I spoke to people this week saying there were people in their communities taking kids out of boarding school because they can’t afford it anymore.
The farmers’ hero: Kate McBride
‘That’s destroying their future. But they get dragged back to a property where they can’t see a future themselves.
‘What are we doing for these kids? They come home and there’s nothing for them there.
‘What are we doing and how are we helping these kids?’
In another heated exchange she took Mr Littleproud to task after he said his hands were tied over improving the drought conditions.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t make it rain. And the only thing that will get the water running into those rivers is stuff from the sky. That is a serious, serious issue that we’ve got. Until we fix the supply, there are going to be constraints on that. I’m sorry. I can’t lie to you,’ Mr Littleproud said.
Ms McBride said the issue was not only the lack of rain but also how the water is managed and claimed farmers are not given a fair share of water which is allocated by government agencies in each region.
‘When it does rain, that water is embargoed by the states so that water can’t actually get down to places like Wilcannia,’ she said, referring to the north-west NSW region.
‘I’ve been out there and know the people there. The male life expectancy of that town is 37. How are we not fixing those issues?
The 21-year-old farmer was been widely praised on Twitter (pictured) for a ‘heroic’ performance on Q&A on Monday night
‘Our townships are dying and it’s not just recently as well.
‘It’s heartbreaking. That’s where I was born and brought up. It’s my home. Now there’s nothing there. You can hardly go into the shops to get the things you need.
‘Our towns have been destroyed. This was being destroyed well before this drought hit and that’s what’s heartbreaking to see that this is so much to do with water management.’
Ms McBride accused Mr Littleproud of inaction and said he was forcing her community to ‘sit at the end of the river and die’.
‘You look at the people in the Lower Darling but we have a 1,400km stretch that is bone dry,’ she said.
‘The lowest ever inflows into Menindee Lakes and that’s not just because of drought. Point the finger at mismanagement and overextraction.
‘How can you say to those people, and myself included that live along there, “we’re not going to put any more water back in the river from buybacks. You guys have to sit at the end of the river and die”. That’s what you’re telling us right now.’
Ms McBride (pictured on the show) said the issue was not only the lack of rain but also how the water is managed