Farmers and National party voters say they are ‘increasingly frustrated’ at the lack of action on climate change

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Farmers have challenged National party claims that conditions in drought-stricken regions in eastern Australia should not be politicised by attributing them to climate change.

Farmer and former Nationals leader John Anderson said this week that while the drought was the worst he had experienced, it was not unprecedented.

He told the Financial Review farming records for his property, which had been in his family for more than a century, showed droughts of equal severity between 1902 and 1904 and again in 1940.

“I’m not a climate change denier but I would be very wary about using this as a political device,” he said.

The deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, also said: “I’m a believer that the climate is always changing and it’s been changing since Moses was a boy.”

Verity Morgan-Schmidt is from a multigeneration farming family in Western Australia and is CEO of Farmers for Climate Action.

She said the comments were “a disservice to many of our farmers who are already facing the reality of climate change”.

“My family has been on properties out in Western Australia for over 100 years. We can say this has well and truly moved beyond natural cyclical patterns,” she said.

“The idea that we could be accused of playing politics by accepting reality is a bitter pill to swallow. The science is clear. Climate change is increasing the severity of extreme weather events that include drought.

“The vast majority of farmers and National party voters that we speak to are growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of action on climate change at a federal level.”

The south-east of Australia has experienced record high temperatures this year during an unseasonably dry and hot autumn, prompting fire bans and warnings from authorities.

In its latest winter outlook, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting warmer and drier than average conditions across large parts of the country.

Richie Merzian, the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director, said: “There is a well-established link between climate change and the frequency and harshness of droughts in Australia.”

In its latest drought statement, the Bureau of Meteorology listed May 2018 as the third-driest May on record.

The Climate Council has identified an 11% decline in the growing-season rainfall (April–October) in south-east Australia since the mid-90s, the period including the millennium drought.

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It has highlighted “particularly strong drying trends” in south and southwestern Australia in the months of May and July and says it is likely climate change is making drought worse in both south-east and south-west Australia, some of the most productive farmland in the country.

“The bottom line is climate change is making weather patterns more extreme and unpredictable and that has serious consequences for Australia’s agriculture production,” the Climate Council’s research director and acting CEO, Martin Rice, said.

“In southern Australia we are seeing the influence of climate change and drought. We’re seeing less cool season rainfall and that’s having an impact on agriculture.

Rice said hotter than average conditions and heatwave conditions in northern parts of New South Wales were leading to drier conditions and there had been an “abject failure” in climate policy at a federal level.

“Hot temperatures bring dry conditions and we can expect to see an increase in drought if we don’t reduce emissions,” he said.

“Farmers generally are on the frontline of climate change and they are experiencing worsening extreme weather events, particularly heat-related events and that has an impact on their business.”

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who is touring drought-affected regions, and the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, have acknowledged climate change is a factor.