Tell the government to stop subsidising coal and gas companies and support our farmers
Dear Agriculture Minister Watt,
Cc Resource Minister Madeleine King
My name is David Vonhoff, and I’m a dairy farmer from the Darling Downs region in Queensland. I’m writing because I’m fed up with the government handing out billions of our taxpayer dollars to coal and gas companies who are wrecking our prime farmland and making climate change worse. Over the past two decades, I have watched as our region has been swallowed up by coal mines, destroying some of the best agricultural land in Queensland. My family has been in the fight of our lives, trying to stop the expansion of a coal mine which could ruin our precious groundwater and make it far more difficult for us to continue farming here. I am not alone. Farmers right across Australia have been fighting to save their land from coal and gas companies, and so much rich agricultural land has been lost forever. That is why I am horrified that the Australian government is handing out billions of our taxpayer money to climate-wrecking coal and gas companies, whether it’s the federal government providing $175 million in concessional finance for Olive Downs coal mine, or the Queensland government handing over $50 million for the Meandu coal mine. We need to be doing everything we can to transition away from coal and gas companies, not support them to jeopardise our climate and the future of our farms.
The Minister for Resources Madeleine King has publicly said she opposes public money for new coal and gas fields. I am calling on Minister King and the government to stop providing cash handouts to coal and gas companies, and instead, use the money to support our farmers and rural communities. Despite being on the frontlines of climate-driven droughts and floods, Aussie farmers currently receive some of the least government support anywhere in the OECD. Farmers desperately need assistance, yet the government is throwing billions of dollars to cashed-up coal and gas companies. That is why I am calling on the government to stop providing cash handouts to coal and gas companies, and instead, use the money to support our farmers and rural communities.
Farmers across Australia are counting on you.
Signed,