Opinion Piece | 15 January 2026
Lachlan Hunter MLA
Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food
Happy New Year. A record grain crop, the biggest in the history books. An extraordinary achievement built on science, sweat, and the uniquely Western Australian ability to look at terrible odds and think, “Yeah, we’ll give it a crack.”
No government press release made it rain. No minister grew the crop. No department harvested it. Farmers, and farmers alone, did.
Which makes it even more impressive that, within about five minutes of the last truck leaving the paddock, the Cook Labor Government was already posing next to it like a proud parent at someone else’s graduation. But before we get too carried away, let’s remember how this summer began.
For many families, Christmas came wrapped in smoke. Communities across the state faced brutal bushfires, and two farmers lost their lives defending their properties. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and communities who knew them.
That is a gut punch. It is also a reminder that in regional WA, courage is often volunteer-based and shows up in a fire truck at 3 am. If you ever want to know who really holds this state together, don’t look for them in Parliament House. Look for them on a fireground.
And while we are rightly celebrating grain growers, it is worth remembering my old man’s rule from the eastern Wheatbelt: never put all your eggs in one basket. Which is good advice in farming, and apparently revolutionary thinking in government.
Because while one part of agriculture is flying, the rest of it is being managed like a three-legged sheep in a dog trial.
Take our sheep farmers. They are currently standing in a queue labelled “transition package,” which is a bit like being told there will be lifeboats, but nobody can tell you who gets a seat.
The Federal Government has shut down the live sheep trade. The State Government assures us it is “working constructively.” So far, that seems to mean watching from a safe distance and hoping nobody asks for the cheque book.
Not one cent of state money has been put on the table for the farmers who are actually being hit by this decision. Apparently, in the Cook Government’s version of federalism, if Canberra breaks it, Perth doesn’t have to help fix it. This is innovative. Also, useless.
Even better, the Agriculture Minister did not meet the person in charge of rolling out the money in WA until the Opposition pointed out that this might be a good idea. If you were running a business like that, the bank would change the locks.
Meanwhile, WA’s cattle producers are discovering that once they hit certain quota thresholds into China, tariffs arrive like a surprise bill at the end of a very long dinner. The impact on prices, confidence and market access is real and immediate.
So, what has the Cook Government done about it? Has The Premier picked up the phone to his federal counterparts and made the case for Western Australia? Has Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis demanded that Canberra actively pressure China for a fairer outcome for WA producers? So far,
Minister Jarvis has been missing in action on support, but front and centre whenever there’s another part of the agricultural sector to undermine.
Then there is the broader 2025 highlight reel.
Funding for grower groups cut, because apparently farmer-led research is a luxury. Funding for agricultural shows cut, because regional traditions are optional. A world-class effort to keep polyphagous shot-hole borer out of the state, which somehow ended with it… in the state. And just before Christmas, a demersal fishing ban that managed to leave commercial fishers stranded and recreational fishers suspiciously reassured that everything would be fine, just in time for the next election.
You could not script it. Even the ABC’s Utopia would have rejected it for being too on the nose.
Presiding over all of this is a government that briefly had the Agriculture Minister as Acting Premier while the grown-ups were away. Which does explain a few things. There are school captains who would have run a tighter ship.
The real problem is not that Labor doesn’t like agriculture. It is worse than that. They don’t understand it. To them, it is a photo opportunity with a hat. A backdrop. Something that happens “out there,” while the real business of government is race tracks and rugby teams.
But agriculture is not a prop. It is Western Australia’s second-largest industry. It pays for a lot of the things Perth likes to argue about.
So, what would a grown-up government do?
It would put real money on the table for sheep farmers, instead of hoping the Commonwealth will carry the political pain alone. It would treat biosecurity like the state insurance policy it is, not a line item to be trimmed. It would back farmer-driven research instead of slowly starving it. And it would manage fisheries with a plan, not a panic.
Mostly, it would remember that farmers do not ask for much. Just competence. And the occasional gate that opens. WA agriculture has done what it always does. It has adapted, endured, and delivered.
In 2026, the question is not whether farmers can keep carrying this state. It is whether this government can finally work out where the paddock is.
ENDS
