If Parliament Lived Like Farmers Do, Net Zero Would Be a No-Brainer

On the back roads between Lismore and Mullumbimby during my #eBike4Australia trip to Brisbane, I stopped beside a farm with a bright yellow sign that said everything Australia needs to hear right now: ROSEBANK GASFIELD FREE ✓ 99% AGREE

Behind it stretched some of the most beautiful Country I've seen - macadamia orchards, dairy farms, remnant rainforest, and mountains shaped by ancient lava flows. But while I was standing there taking in the view, the Liberal Party was busy announcing it's plan to abandon Australia global commitment to climate safety - to net zero emissions by 2050.

One of these things reflects reality.The other reflects an ideology that's betraying Australians.

Out here, people don’t need a lecture on climate change. They live it. Macadamias are sensitive to heat stress and water patterns. Dairy cows struggle through hotter seasons. Rainfall is shifting, storms intensifying, bushfires are coming through and insurance - where it’s still available - is skyrocketing. So when gas companies come knocking, backed by politicians like Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, and Angus Taylor, promising “jobs” while delivering toxic chemicals and permanent land degradation, local farmers respond with the clarity of people who know their survival depends on Country: 99% AGREE - NO GAS.

That’s not activism. It's self-preservation, community protection, and common sense.

Let's be honest, the Liberal Party’s decision to ditch net zero has nothing to do with science, economics, or the wellbeing of regional Australia. It’s about protecting the interests of fossil-fuel billionaires like Gina Rinehart - the same interests that want to keep digging, fracking, poisoning Country and exporting pollution long after the rest of the world has moved on.

Net zero isn’t an abstract UN promise. It’s the minimum commitment every responsible nation must make to keep farmers farming, rivers flowing, forests alive, and regional towns alive. Walking away from net zero is walking away from: farmers, firefighters, First Nations communities, small business owners, families, regional towns, the next generation. It’s choosing coal and gas donors over Aussies.

No one who stands in the Rosebank hills, breathes the clean air, or looks out across these farms could honestly say fracking is the future. And no one who listens to the science, the economics, or the lived reality of regional Australia can claim ditching net zero is responsible. It sabotage and betrayal.

As I rode onwards, I kept thinking about that sign. It was more honest, more grounded, and more visionary than anything coming out of the conservative political machine this week. Maybe this is where Australia’s real climate leadership lives - not in Parliament, but in paddocks. Not in party rooms, but in communities. And out here, the message couldn’t be clearer: "We want a future. We want clean water, safe land, and healthy farms. We want climate responsibility. We want net zero. And we’ll fight for it - because our lives depend on it."

See you in Brisbane IRL or online at AlterCOP Australia.

99% of Farmers in Rosebank Oppose Fracking