Angry farmers have appealed to inner-city hipsters as they protest against plans to restrict land clearing.
Hundreds of people stormed the front of Queensland Parliament House on Tuesday afternoon with provocative placards aimed at Labor’s cosmopolitan supporters in Brisbane.
One woman in sunglasses held up a sign referencing ‘smashed avo, soy latte, paleo raw, low carb, whatever’.
‘Every food fad needs a farmer,’ her placard said.
Angry farmers have appealed to inner-city hipsters as they protested against plans to restrict land clearing (protester outside Parliament House in Brisbane pictured)
Farmers in akubras and their children gathered on George Street as Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor government prepared to debate a bill on restricting land clearing.
A boy wearing a black, trademark hat held up a sign which said: ‘No farmers, no food.’
Growers young and old are aghast at the Labor government’s plan to undo the previous Liberal National Party government’s more relaxed land-clearing policies.
Second-generation certified organic cattle grazier Scott Sargood has already sacked two employees from his 34,400 hectare property at Charleville, in western Queensland, ahead of the laws being passed.
Mr Sargood said his business will produce fewer calves because he will have less land to farm, and it will take at least a decade to replace reduced breeding stock.
‘You’re strangling the goose that lays the golden egg,’ Mr Sargood told reporters outside parliament.
Hundreds of people stormed the front of Queensland Parliament House on Tuesday afternoon with provocative placards aimed at Labor’s cosmopolitan supporters in Brisbane
‘We get up every single day … and feed thousands of people.
‘Those people are sitting there stuffing food in their mouth and we’re trying to tell them the real deal, the way it really is, and nobody wants to know about it.’
Deforestation in Queensland is higher than the rest of the country combined, a recent Climate Council report said.
But Mr Sargood took aim at environmentalists for feeding city-based Queenslanders lies.
‘I would like the government to ask the Greens at what point will they be happy? At what point do they want to stop?’ he said.
Farmers in akubras and their children gathered on George Street as Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor government prepared to debate a bill on restricting land clearing
A Labor-dominated parliamentary committee has recommended the legislation be passed.
Recommendations include giving landholders support in navigating the application process to clear land, as well as investigating the establishment of indigenous community-use areas.
Last week, Ms Palaszczuk said the laws were an election promise and predicted they would pass through parliament, where Labor now has a majority in the one-house legislature.
Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has urged Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has a Brisbane electorate, to listen to the farming sector’s concerns.
‘We need to fight for farmers,’ she said.
Conservation groups have welcomed the proposed laws while criticising agricultural lobbyists for ‘whipping up hysteria’ over the potential effects.