There were many emotions at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days this week with a mixture of pride, hope, sorrow, grief and anger.

I was so encouraged to see farming communities united in their passion and hope for the future, despite a drier season, a higher cost of doing business under Albanese and Allan Labor Governments, and threats to farming from industrialists.  As I told the Mail-Times and others at the Field Days on Tuesday, to keep the peace, the Field Days committee made the right call to exclude mining promoters from this year’s event.

An Israeli farm labourer thanked me standing up for her and her friends through my parliamentary speech condemning anti-Semitism in February. I told her the anti-Semitism in our country since October 9th, 2023 is not Australian, it is not who we are. The Prime Minister’s weak leadership and politically-compromised history education has left Jewish people feeling unsafe.

Many Wimmera residents visited with mobile phone and internet signal issues and thankfully Telstra and NBN were also in the Moore Exhibition Centre to respond to concerns. As always, you are most welcome to raise signal issues with my office and I will escalate them with the carrier.

Wimmera locals shared sorrow, grief and anger about the intrusion on generational farming operations by foreign-backed companies.  One man shared the heartbreaking mental health toll it is taking on his family.  Please, reach out for support.

The Albanese and Allan Labor Governments should hang their head in shame.  Farmers feel like they are being put aside and no longer required to feed and clothe our nation. Their land is being treated like blank spaces on a map for open slather mining and energy projects.

One farmer passionately put to me that Labor is effectively shutting down sheep production in between the Desert national parks by letting wild dogs run amok.  Where are the bleeding hearts of Labor, the Greens or Teals on animal cruelty when sheep are left with their innards trailing after a wild dog attack?  

Environmental, cultural heritage, mining and energy interests are ganging up and chasing farmers off the Wimmera’s prime agricultural land – and like our farming communities, I won’t stand for it.