FARMERS, businesses and people living in rural communities will be urged to engage more openly with city folk and policy makers during a public event in Birchip next week.
Keynote speaker Gabrielle Chan, a political journalist and author, said open conversations about adapting to climate change were necessary to ensure decisions were based on accurate information.
“We hear a lot of people say, ‘Politics has got nothing to do with me’, but it impacts on our decisions all the time and we have to have a say in that,” Ms Chan said.
“People need to talk about what they’re facing and how practices have changed over the last couple of decades.
“Only by talking about it will non-farming populations in Australia understand and hopefully support the policies agriculture needs to have.”
Ms Chan, whose book Rusted Off: Why country Australia is fed up has been named a finalist in the 2019 Walkley Book Awards, will speak at a breakfast from 7.30am as part of the Building Climate Resilience conference at Birchip Public Hall on Tuesday, October 29.
The city-born daughter of a Chinese migrant, Ms Chan moved to her husband’s sheep and cropping farm in country NSW in 1996. She identified climate change as an issue during the “noughties drought” and in the years since noted how climate change went from being a bipartisan issue in 2007 to a partisan one by 2010.
Ms Chan said farming culture was traditionally insular and many people were loath to talk about their experience of climate change or how practices were changing, but having open, respectful conversations was vital.
She said the pace of change in food production meant it was time to focus on identifying what Australia wanted from its rural communities and how to manage the landscape.
“Do we want it managed in very large licks of country by particular people or companies?” she asked.
Building Climate Resilience event will continue from 9am to 5pm, with a keynote speech by Australian National University Climate Change Institute director Professor Mark Howden and updates on the climate outlook, risk, and regional responses to drought.
Entry to all sessions is free, but registrations are essential for catering purposes. More information is available at www.bcg.org.au/events.
