Farmers gathered in Benalla on the 15th August to take a break from the pressures of life on the land, with Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland MP using the occasion to highlight the growing need for farmers to have certainty, a voice in decisions affecting their properties and a government that respects their rights.
Ms Cleeland attended Farmers Day Out, an event created to give local farmers and their families the opportunity to get off the farm, connect with their community and talk openly about the challenges facing the agricultural sector.
The event was organised by Liz Hayes, Anna Toland and Genevieve Gleadow, who have built Farmers Day Out into an annual opportunity for the local farming community to come together.
Ms Cleeland said the pressures facing farmers had accumulated over years of disasters, drought, market uncertainty and increasing government intervention.
“Four years ago I was an agricultural journalist, a farmer and a storyteller for this industry. I entered politics because I believed in protecting farmers and celebrating agriculture.
“Since then we have had the 2022 floods, more flooding in 2023, eighteen months of drought and then devastating fires in January.
“I sometimes joke that I might be a bad omen for this region, with a disaster every eighteen months on my watch.
“But no one feels that exhaustion more than our farmers.
“They carry the volatile pay cheque, the collapsed market, no rain and then too much rain, the fence built only to watch it burn down again.
“That is why a day like this matters. Sometimes you need to get off the farm, down tools, have a break, ask for help or simply have some fun.”
Ms Cleeland said the pressures on farmers were not only financial or environmental, but increasingly came from decisions being made by governments without adequate regard for the people who lived and worked on the land.
“Farmers should not have to fight their own government just to have a say about what happens on their property.
“That is why the Nationals have committed to restoring regional voices and rebuilding the rights and protections that have been eroded over recent years.
“A future Liberal and Nationals Government will reinstate the right to appeal through VCAT, restore proper environmental processes before projects proceed and end powers that allow government to enter private property without consent.
“We will bring back the two-kilometre buffer zone and make sure energy investment is directed towards areas where the demand already exists, rather than forcing projects into regional communities that do not support them.
“These are not abstract policy debates for farmers. They affect their homes, their businesses, their land and their future.”
Ms Cleeland said giving farmers greater certainty and control was also an important part of addressing the mental health pressures facing regional communities.
“Protecting farmers’ rights is the mental health fight.
“When you have spent your life building something on your land, only to feel that decisions about it can be made without you having a meaningful say, that creates enormous stress.
“And that stress is often carried quietly.”
Ms Cleeland also recognised the work of local community members who are stepping into gaps left by inadequate mental health services.
“I want to acknowledge people like Ivan Lister, who has been rattling a tin and knocking on doors because a neighbour quietly flagged that someone was not doing okay.
“That is the reality of the crisis we are facing. It is often silent, and it can be deadly.
“We need services, but we also need communities where people know their neighbours, look out for one another and feel comfortable asking for help.
“Farmers Day Out showed exactly what is possible when a community comes together.
“No farmer should feel they have to carry all of this alone, and no farmer should feel powerless when decisions are being made about their land and their livelihood.
“They deserve a government that respects them, listens to them and backs them.”
