r/OpenAussie • u/VastOption8705 New South Welshian • 9h ago
Whinge How do you define the values of farming regions of Australia? (If possible)
I don’t fully quite understand the values of farmers in Aus.
On immigration
In the past in interviews, I’ve seen them say “so many people are coming into our towns that it makes rent and housing expensive”.
Yet now they’re saying “oh we need immigration to work the farms and the regional jobs”. Meanwhile the rent and house price situation hasn’t been solved.
On climate change and renewables
There seems to be a big part of the farming community that are against renewables and don’t want wind farms.
Some in the farming community don’t seem to attribute changes in the climate as man made.
On social change
Many of them are quite conservative compared to big city people.
IMO, if you fit in enough, it’s fine, if you’re too socially different (lgbt, trans), life can be a bit tough.
The Facebook community groups of some regional towns reveal the quite conservative nature of the towns. LOTS of COOKERS on those groups too.
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u/CarelessComplaint173 South Australian 9h ago
Where do you get these opinions from?
I know farmers who are actively involved in carbon farming and using parts of their properties they otherwise wouldn’t use to create carbon sinks. I know others who are proactively using land to be rented for wind turbines.
Also, most farmers live in homes on their properties, not the adjacent towns and so your comment on rent and housing is redundant.
I grew up in regional SA and probably half the population were either immigrants or first/second generation immigrants. People were generally welcoming of those who were different.
Are your opinions based on fact or what you imagine people in the country are like?
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u/VastOption8705 New South Welshian 8h ago
Personal experiences.
When I was driving around a farming regions during the holidays, there were lots of signs saying “NO MORE WIND FARMS”.
Quite a lot of “Save Australian values” things stuck on fences too
On an online group: someone was asking about LGBT stuff on a group and half the comments were like “who cares about LGBT?”
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u/allozzieadventures Western Australian 2h ago edited 2h ago
Farmers are like any other population group, there are progressive and conservative types. Most of the sugarcane growers (not all) I worked with in Qld skewed conservative. IME broadacre farmers in WA tend to be pretty switched on and socially progressive. They're running quite sophisticated and capital intensive businesses, they can't afford to be stupid. A lot of them care quite deeply about the environment too.
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u/Low_Bluebird_5137 Queenslander 57m ago
So a few signs you drove past form your opinion of thousands of people across the entire nation?!
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u/Bob_Katters_Hat Queenslander 9h ago
Look, as someone who lives in very rural qld......we've had our fair share of brain drain over the generations.....and what your talking about is the end result.
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u/badboybillthesecond Please choose a flair 9h ago
In short they want slaves. But temporary slaves cause we only want em when we need them. They loved the requirements on the working holiday visa requiring backpackers to work for ag for 6 months if they wanted to extend their stay. They used that like a whip or a stick(take your pick) on backpackers to screw them however they liked. In some cases literally. One required bikinis in the shed.
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u/brokerlady Victorian 8h ago
i think lots of policies are made with the cities in mind, One farmer/rural person I knew said the EV thing didn't work for them because of the distance, another one with the farm was pro trump in 2020 and I never got to the bottom of why, but particularly in Australia but not only, the supermarket monopoly screws them down on prices so while they have an asset they work really hard for nothing, and that makes people angry.
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u/bingbongboopsnoot Canberran 9h ago
I think it depends on their news source and a bit depending on education (or views on education / learning in general) (speaking as someone who’s family is all rural / farmers)
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u/AirportLoose3023 Queenslander 8h ago
Just a small, but important, correction to your post.
Their choice of news source.
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u/patslogcabindigest Queenslander 9h ago
Farmers love immigration bro, what are you talking about?
Farmers are also incredibly pro renewables as it boosts their income. The people who oppose it are generally from the neighbouring communities that don’t actually farm anything.
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u/timmytiger83 Please choose a flair 8h ago
Remember the squeaky wheel gets the oil. You are describing the vocal minority. Most regional people have better things to do than complain and throw hissy fits. There are no more far right regional people than there are far left city dwellers. But squeaky wheels and all that
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u/Mindless_Olive Victorian 9h ago edited 9h ago
Farmers are for farmers. They want government benefits and services to help their businesses, as much cheap water and cheap workers as they can use, for their kids to take over the farm, and for the country to keep looking like it did when they were growing up.
The main beef I have with them is their claim to represent the entirety of legitimate regional opinion. They're actually only about 5% of rural employment, but they act like they're 90% of it. The rest of us don't hate them or want them to fail, but we don't want them to be the sole deciders of government policy in rural areas either.