The agriculture minister says linking the drought affecting much of Australia to man-made climate change is a “big call” and he does not “give a rats if it’s man-made or not”.

David Littleproud made the comment on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday, which was filmed in Lismore in the northern rivers region of New South Wales. His comment was booed by the audience.

The northern rivers region, like most of NSW, southern Queensland, South Australia, southern Western Australia and parts of Victoria, has been affected by severe drought.

Some regions of western NSW have experienced their driest 16 months on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and Australia as a whole experienced its driest July since 2002.

On Sunday the federal government announced $190m in urgent drought relief funding, including an increase of the Farm Household Allowance by up to $12,000 for eligible households, in response to what both Littleproud and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull have called one of the worst droughts in the century.

Littleproud told Q&A host Tony Jones that his electorate of Maranoa, which spans south-western Queensland, had been in a drought for eight years, saying: “There’s no silver bullet to this apart from rain.”

Asked by Jones if he believed the drought was linked to human-induced climate change, Littleproud said: “Look, that’s a big call.

“I don’t give a rats if it’s man-made or not,” he added, saying that people were already under financial pressure and could not afford higher power bills.

“We can’t do it at the moment,” he said. “We have to be able to turn the lights on, turn the pumps on.”



He said significantly increasing the proportion of Australia’s electricity generated from renewable energy was “a great aspiration” but “it has to be affordable and reliable and sustainable”.

Littleproud criticised state and territory governments for allegedly placing environmental concerns above the livelihood of farmers, alluding to the vexed issue of environmental water flows.

“Every time we go to build something [in water infrastructure], the states finds a reason not to and find some frog that wouldn’t like the temperature of the dam or a butterfly that may not like it,” he said. “You’ve got to make a decision about do you want an agricultural sector or do you want to have ‘kumbaya’ and live like that.”

The opposition agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said Littleproud sounded like his predecessor, former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

“Don’t embrace Barnaby Joyce’s language, David,” Fitzgibbon said. “It does you no good.”

Joyce’s electorate of New England is one of the areas worst affected by the drought. He criticised the ABC’s decision to host Q&A’s drought discussion in Lismore, a popular tree-change destination that is often characterised as being “green” but nonetheless lists agriculture as one of its key industries.

“Next week a sequel of #QandA on drought from another rural centre, Nimbin,” Joyce tweeted.

Next week a sequel of #QandA on drought from another rural centre, Nimbin — Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) August 6, 2018

Fitzgibbon said carbon sequestration would have a bigger impact on farmers’ bottom line than building more large dams.

“The reason no one has built a big catchment dam in recent decades is because the economics don’t stack up,” he said.

“We can improve our soils more quickly and cheaper than we can build dams … If we increase the carbon in our soils by 1%, by a hectare of land, we hold back the equivalent of 10% of an Olympic swimming pool. That’s a smarter way of doing it.”



The Q&A panel also included the president of the National Farmers’ Federation, Fiona Simson, the former mayor of Lismore Jenny Dowell and “people’s panellist” Matt Sorenson.