TAIL WAGGING THE DOG

THE tail is wagging the dog again, with the Nats holding the Libs to ransom on the eve of COP26 because they want an iron-clad, fully costed plan presented to them that proves to their satisfaction that farmers won’t have to pay anything for their (alleged) involvement in global-warming and climate change.

Who was it that cleared countless trees for centuries in Australia, creating dust bowls, salt pans and irretrievable water table damage? Who is it that now uses dams and irrigation systems that are leading to the loss of entire river-systems and ecosystems? And for what? To grow water-hungry crops like cotton and nuts in a country already known as one of the driest (if not the driest) on earth.

And how long will some farmers continue to farm sheep and cattle in parched paddocks in times of worsening droughts before exporting them live — already half-baked — to cook further aboard simmering ships on shimmering trips to hot-as-hell foreign shores? The Nats are nuts or have cotton wool in their ears if they haven’t yet got the message.

Michael McCall

Primrose Sands