AGRICULTURE has been excluded from the government's proposed carbon pricing scheme to allow more time to get the sector's emissions pricing right.
But farm groups are extremely sceptical about the future and have warned against the government's final carbon pricing scheme containing potential collateral damage for farmers and rural businesses from rising input costs, such as electricity, fuel and fertiliser.
NFF president Jock Laurie said the peak lobby group's state members had expressed concern about the potentially detrimental impacts of a carbon price following last week's announcement.
But while acknowledging that Federal Government had honoured its pledge by excluding Australia's farm sector from the direct impacts of its policies, he said farmers were "under no illusion" the scheme would insulate them from the broader impacts of a carbon price.
"Farmers' are exposed to energy and energy-related costs – including electricity, fuel and fertiliser; all are fundamental to farming and all will soar under the proposal," Mr Laurie said.
"Going down any path towards carbon abatement must be in step with a global response, lest we be hung out to dry," he said.
"The government must ensure that in any scheme's design, it does not impinge upon Australian farmers' ability to remain at the forefront in meeting Australia's and the world's mounting food need."
The Queensland Farmers Federation said it was especially cautious about the potential damage the scheme could cause to the State's intensive farming industries, which were heavily reliant on energy inputs to run their businesses.
QFF said it would also be working with the government to ensure the Carbon Farming Initiative was realistic and sensible and did not create any perverse impact that negatively impacted on the agricultural sector.
QFF also questioned what the government was trying to achieve with the introduction of a carbon price.
"Given this reform will have such a large and potentially burdensome impact on the economy, we await detail from the government on how such a scheme would reduce emissions in such a way as to have an impact on climate change," QFF said.
In WA, Pastoralists and Graziers Association president Rob Gillam issued a scathing statement, labelling the government's carbon tax plan "agronomic vandalism".
Mr Gillam said the scheme, which he also called a tax, would only place additional pressure on the sustainability of farm business and drive-up consumers' food prices.
He said any carbon tax was not about environmental stewardship, but politics.
"Any emissions reduction scheme, or a price on carbon, will give our international competitors an unfair competitive advantage, whether on Australian supermarket shelves or in the global marketplace."
In announcing the government's carbon pricing framework, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government wanted a scheme in place, by July 1, 2012.
A fixed price period of between three to five years would be followed by a "smooth transition" to a full cap and trade emissions trading scheme with a flexible price, linked to international carbon markets.
Ms Gillard said the scheme, as it stood now, did not propose agricultural emissions in the carbon pricing system because the measures and mechanisms for counting agricultural emissions were "simply too complex".
She said the government wanted to keep working with farmers and the agricultural community to ensure they "get the benefits of changing practices and changing carbon", which was why the government announced the CFI during the election campaign.
Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig said the government's exclusion of agricultural sources from the carbon pricing mechanism provided recognition that it was not practical to impose liability on the sector's emissions.
Email a friend