The Land's editor, Sam Townsend, shares insights from a survey on energy security, emphasising its impact on farming costs, land use, and the need for clear government policies.
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00:00Welcome to AgriCast by ACM. I'm Kirsten Diprose. Energy security is a hot topic and Samantha
00:13Townsend is the editor of The Land and you've run a survey to investigate what readers think
00:20about energy security. What did you find with this survey and how'd you go about it?
00:25As you know, energy is a hot button issue. Whether you are Paula from Parramatta or Pete
00:31from Peak Hill, it's certainly impacting your life. From the minute we wake up, we switch
00:37on our phones, we flick on the kettle, we go into the dairy, we power up the tools in
00:41the shed, energy is a massive part of our lives. So that is exactly the reason why we
00:47have done this survey. It was a quick snapshot survey on what our readers thought that we
00:53did online. We just put it out in a story and we asked them some simple questions. Are
00:57you concerned about Australia's energy security? In which 95% not surprisingly said they were.
01:03And we also asked them what do they think that should look like? And we gave them the
01:07options renewables, nuclear, a combination of renewables and nuclear, as well as just
01:12stick with coal. Where did people vote? Interestingly, it was a third of nuclear. We had a third
01:19of just stick with coal. And we had a third that was a combination of renewables and nuclear.
01:25Not surprising given the current situation that we're seeing in politics at the moment.
01:29In history, we're in a messy state of energy policy. Peter Dutton on one side, spruiking
01:34the benefits of nuclear. On the other side, we've got Albo, who's put all these chips
01:38into renewables. Then you've got the lobby groups who are putting their cases forward.
01:42So how can the ordinary Australian make any sense of this?
01:46We've had successive governments really try to come out with various energy plans, but
01:51nothing has really stuck. Where does this leave farmers? What are their concerns?
01:57Farmers obviously inputs are a big part of farmers' day to day lives. And energy is,
02:02as we've talked about, is a big part of that. We've spoken to a cherry grower in this week's
02:06The Land. Their bills have risen from $2,000 to $50,000. So he's basically saying, you
02:12know, a lack of energy is not in our future. It's right now. So it's impacting him at the
02:16hip hop curve. And who can absorb that? You can't pass it on to consumers, so they have
02:20to absorb it themselves. And then there's obviously the land use issue. So again, farmers
02:26are raising concerns. Who wants it in a backyard? Who wants a wind turbine? Who wants thousands
02:31of solar panels? Who wants a nuclear power plant in their background? No one. I don't
02:35think anyone could say that, whether you live in Bondi or Bourke. No one wants any of that.
02:39But the reality is we need it. We don't want to be firing up the generators to supply us
02:46with power.
02:47What are you hoping will happen with this survey? As the editor of your newspaper, are
02:51you hoping governments, policymakers are going to be looking at this?
02:55They are keenly watching this space because look, we're coming up to an election. We're
02:58just voicing the concerns of our farmers and energy is one of those issues. So we hope
03:03that the governments we're listening will factor in farmers' concerns in this when they
03:08make their policy and when they make their decisions on what that looks like for us.
03:12Well, Sam, thank you so much for joining us and outlining this on AgriCast.