Lara Jensen: ‘I will neither forgive nor forget what Labor is doing to rural Australia’

I am a livestock producer and mother; I work hard to support my young rural family. I pay tax and vote. And while my vote may be politically insignificant to the metrocentric State and Federal Labor Governments, they can rest assured I wouldn’t vote Labor if they were the last and only option on the ballot paper. I will neither forgive nor forget what they are doing to rural Australia. In all my 40-plus years on the land, I have never felt so anxious or concerned for my family’s future or more disillusioned than by the current State Labor Government. This Government treats rural people with utter contempt, as evidenced by an unrelenting raft of policies aimed at removing essential services, eroding basic rights and decimating the profitability of family farming and pastoral businesses. For me, it all started with the shock announcement by then education minister Sue Ellery to close Schools of the Air right before Christmas 2017. The announcement was part of a $64 million suite of budget cuts that left remote families like mine reeling while the then McGowan Government celebrated funding for a new $70.6m inner city school for Subiaco in the same week. Thankfully, a fierce and co-ordinated public backlash prompted a speedy reversal of this appalling decision on January 11, 2018, but it wasn’t without its casualties in the closure of regional camp schools and the axing of around 200 jobs. Then in November 2021, after Mark McGowan secured a majority in both houses of Parliament, despite repeated denials electoral reform was on the agenda we saw him use the Labor Party’s large parliamentary majority to make sweeping changes to WA’s electoral laws. The changes slashed regional representation, with the “one-vote, one value” system rendering the whole State as a single electorate electing 37 members rather than Upper House MPs being chosen from six regions of varying size. The standards of our roads, schools and hospitals are all dependent on our level of political representation and slashing it is a move that has further eroded these standards in the regions. Consequently, we now have a greatly diminished means of political recourse to fight the seemingly endless poor policy decisions being made by the State Government. Look no further than the latest State Budget that saw a $2 billion blowout in the cost of Metronet while my hometown of Mt Magnet, and numerous other regional country towns, are dealing with ageing and inadequate health infrastructure, reduced medical services and regional roads desperately in need of repair. Following the shock resignation of premier Mark McGowan in May 2023, we saw Roger Cook take the reins and with it the responsibility for handling the poisoned chalice which was the controversial Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act (ACHA). The ACHA created deep uncertainty for farming and pastoral businesses, with cumbersome and detailed assessments stipulated before any activities could proceed on all parcels of land exceeding 1100sqm. Consequently, the most basic agricultural activities like building new water and fencing infrastructure were all put on hold, with pastoralists and farmers entering a phase of operational paralysis amidst the looming prospect of inadvertently breaching laws that attracted steep fines and in some cases jail. After months of controversy, confusion and a concerted campaign by farm lobby groups that lead to a 30,000 strong petition opposing the Act, in August 2023 Roger Cook announced the new ACHA would be repealed and revert back to the 1972 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage legislation. Exactly what should have happened in the first place, instead of creating a period of prolonged confusion, uncertainty, anxiety and extreme stress on hardworking agricultural families like mine. No sooner had the ink dried on the repealed ACHA than farmers and pastoralists were facing the Cook Government’s proposed Firearms Act that blatantly attacks law-abiding firearm owners with unprecedented arbitrary ownership limits and unworkable property approval restrictions, in addition to the overreaching property use proposals and minimum use requirements. The Firearms Act has just seen a last-minute amendment to allow select firearms to be authorised for more than one license purpose, but has been widely condemned as being draconian. It has attracted a petition, which has gathered more than 30,000 signatures, calling for the proposed firearm Bill to be scrutinised by a bilateral Legislative Committee where the Parliament can interrogate all aspects of the bill. And on Saturday, May 11, the final nail in the coffin for primary producers like me was delivered by Federal Agricultural Minister Murray Watt when he announced that live sheep exports will be phased out by May 1, 2028, on the back of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election promise when he took office in 2022. The death knell for the $77m dollar live export industry comes at a time when most of WA is in drought and farmers and pastoralists feeding livestock are now contemplating shooting them as a result of prolonged and depressed market conditions. And so, thanks to our State and Federal Labor Governments, morale in the bush is officially at an all-time low. The loss of the live export industry will have a devastating impact on the profitability of farms and pastoral properties and a crippling effect throughout the entire supply chain, affecting service providers like truck drivers through to feed providers, agronomists, agricultural professionals such as shearers, livestock agents and the list goes on. And cattle producers like me know we are next on the hit list. Backroom deals done between the Labor Party and the Animal Justice Party revealed last week that, in conjunction with the Labor Party, the AJP was proud to deliver the knockout blow to the live sheep trade. In an emailed statement, the AJP declared it would be “ensuring Labor enshrines the end of the trade in law before the election” and would be “making the end of live cattle export the next AJP policy and political win”. So I sit here, after another sleepless night looking at my four young children, desperately wondering what point there is to try carve out a life in the bush when the State and Federal Governments continue to unleash a sustained attack on our right to basic services, our freedoms and our ability to be world-leading livestock producers through one piece of crippling legislation at a time. This great country was built on the sheep’s back but now the proud and hard-working families who’ve made lives and livelihoods centred around livestock production are being used as nothing but sacrificial lambs by a deaf, heartless and gutless Labor Government that couldn’t care less about any of us in the regions. And with the inevitable exodus of agricultural families forced out by the appalling policies of this current Government, Australia will lose its most self-reliant, resourceful and resilient human resource: its primary producers. Our Government has turned their backs on us and so now we shall turn our backs on them. Lara Jensen is the owner of Wondinong Station at Mt Magnet.