Cease government subsidies for animal agriculture

Our state is experiencing increasingly detrimental effects of climate change. Drought, bushfires, storms that are increasing in severity and unprecedented floods.

A major contributor to climate change, as declared in the Climate Change and Land Report (2019) by the United Nations, Climate Council and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is animal agriculture.

The Climate Council has stated that: ‘in Australia, emissions from agriculture contribute around 13% of the total national greenhouse gas emissions each year, which is Australia’s fourth highest source of emissions’ and that ‘the vast majority of emissions are methane from livestock’.

With Queensland containing 40% of the nation’s cattle, this means that our state is responsible for a large portion of Australia’s national emissions from animal agriculture.

Animal agriculture also results in the suffering, exploitation and slaughter of millions of sentient animals.

Despite all this, our government continues to prop this industry up with hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars in subsidies. Some recent examples include:

• Sunpork expansion at Swickers and Tong Park
• Mort & Co expansion & gas-fired power station at Grassdale feedlot
• Provision of government funded cattle train
• New abattoir for Angus Pastoral Company
• Queensland Beef Processing Strategy 2019-2022
• Roma Saleyards $1.3 million grant
• Jimbour Beef and Bacon meat processing facility
• Expansion project at John Dee’s meat processing facility at Warwick and beef feedlot at Inglewood

Ending Government support of environmentally-destructive industries in favour of more environmentally sustainable industry would be a huge step towards reducing the emissions of this industry and will encourage big business to investigate more ethical business opportunities. Let’s support farmers to transition out of these unsustainable industries and into jobs that are not damaging to animals and the environment.

Importantly, an end to industry subsidies will result in less animals being slaughtered.

Please tell the Premier that you do not want your taxes subsidising animal agriculture.