WEBVTT - How Australia's food security is under threat 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:04.360 Nine podcasts. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.360 Now. The past few weeks, the media has been swamped 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:14.160 with all sorts of foody stuff. The best restaurant, the 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.040 best exotic dish, ow to cook something with two hundred ingredients. 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.800 It's a foody time. But does anybody actually stop to 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.119 think where the food comes from? I don't think so. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.040 Over the years, we Australians have liked to think that 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.080 we are a rural country. Even people in the city 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.440 tend to claim an affinity with the bush and with farming. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:36.800 It's been tested the past few weeks as parts of 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.839 Victoria and South Australia staggered through and are still staggering 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.080 through the worst drought in memory. Nobody really noticed in 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.800 the city until it got very, very bad. In New 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:51.040 South Wales, there are heartbreaking scenes of floods. I saw 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.479 one farmer on TV so I'm just gonna have to 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.040 walk away from the farm. Imagine the pressure that puts 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.560 on it. Underneath this, there seems to be a general 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.120 lack of interest from state and federal governments, particularly in 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:06.479 the drought, but in all matters farming. There's a new 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:11.039 system which supposedly recognizes the need for drought assistance. A 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.840 national drought agreement. It doesn't work. They've been fiddling with 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:16.960 it for a decade. Nobody seems happy. It is, in 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:21.400 my view, gobbledegook. Agriculture is in our DNA, our roots. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:23.640 It is also a big part of the future of 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.440 this country. Remember we're once going to be a food 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.759 bowl to Asia. What happened. Farmers are starting to stand 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.000 up and shout. Huge protests in the streets of Melbourne 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.639 recently over a stupid new tax on farmers that couldn't 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.000 come at a worse time. Increasingly, I got a feeling 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.160 from people I speak to in regional areas that they 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.920 think they've been forgotten. Tragically, there are even suicides, that's 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.400 how desperate it has become. Emma Jumano is a new 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.680 breed of farmers. She's been shouting for farmer rights, shouting 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.280 for farmers to be heard, shouting for an understanding, outing 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.160 for years and she was head of the Victorian Farmers 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.080 Federation for four years. She once told me, unless governments 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.679 sorted out a system to deal with natural disasters and 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:14.040 organize the industry, we were sleep walking towards famine. We'll 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.520 come back to that. Emma is a third generation farmer 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:20.480 and a scholar, no less enough field scholar. I've read 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.920 some of her report from eight to nine years ago. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.680 She had ideas, she had planned, she had thoughts. What happened? 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:32.560 Did anybody wake up and listen? So Emma Jermano, Hello, 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.520 hell are that now? We'll come back to this. But 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.440 you're no longer an office bearer in the Farmer's Federation. 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:39.160 You don't have to be nice to everybody like all 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.960 lobbyists always are. You're off the leash. It's time to 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:42.640 start barking. 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:43.240 Yeah. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:45.239 I don't know that everybody would agree that I was 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.080 nice to everybody all of the time while I was 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.320 in there, but it's true. I don't have to be 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:55.200 conscious of cultivating relationship where you do have to do 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.440 that when you're in an advocacy position officially. 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.360 Well, I was going to say, I don't think you're 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.080 on the leash ll much as it was, but do 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.440 you feel a bit liberated because what we want to 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.080 achieve today is to hear from real people in the 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.560 middle who understand what is happening and are able to 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.600 tell us in very down to worth understanding the city 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:12.280 type terms. 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.000 Yeah, I think it's not that I was never speaking freely, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.280 but you do have to be conscious of the fact 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.320 that you want to be the person walking in and 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.359 giving a solution to government when you're in an official 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:25.960 role and you know they don't let you in the 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:27.919 front door if you've just been bagging them out. Having 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:29.600 said that, we I think we did that a couple 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.399 of times on your radio program and it actually led 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.080 to some good, good outcomes and immediate ones. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.000 Another thing that surprised me doing some reading for this, 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.120 because I wasn't aware of it. You're not just a farmer, 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.200 You're an academic, bloody academic, enough field scholar. You still 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:46.640 got dirt under the fingernails? Have you? 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:51.520 Ever? Since finishing up in my leadership role? The dirts 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.000 back under the fingernails. And I was really conscious the 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.800 other day I was out harvesting potatoes, so I had 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.960 two pairs of gloves on to try and avoid getting 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:00.600 the dirt under my fingernails and ended up with a 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.040 hole in both pairs of gloves. So yes, I actually 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.480 do actually have dirt back under the fingernails. 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.600 Ah, this is a fent. That's nice. You're still a 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:08.680 girl trying to protect your. 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.920 Fingernauts absolutely, because when you rip them off on a 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.800 clod of dirt. I tell you it's not pretty. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.000 We'll come back to that Nuffield scholarship later, but I'm 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.440 going to quite seriously. I have read through you report, 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.160 which is what seven or eight nine years ago, and 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.680 ye ten, you certainly nailed a few things. Tell me 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.360 about your farm company. It's called I Love Farms. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.240 Why with a very real answer to this is that 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.200 I have always had a place in Melbourne to stay 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.640 since I finished school and come up here for university. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.040 And on Bridge Road in Richmond there was a dumpling 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.839 place or a Chinese restaurant, and it went from a 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.200 whole bunch of different owners and it was called Panda 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.040 Bar at one stage, and it never really did very well, 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:57.880 so it changed hands a number of times, and then 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.640 it changed its names to I Love Dump and it 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.000 went gangbusters. And I thought, there's really something in this 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.680 declaration that has worked here. So from there I thought, well, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.960 you know, we should call our farming business I Love Farms. 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.600 And it's a reflection not just how I feel about 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.440 my own farm, but during the Nuffield and then subsequently 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.200 the roles that I've taken in industry, I've spent a 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.719 lot of time on a lot of people's farms, and 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:24.680 everybody loves their farm the best, and everybody thinks that 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:26.920 it's the best place in the world and the best 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:29.640 farm in the world, and so it just was fitting. 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.640 But when we put I Love Farms on all of 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.320 the boxes, I had a male dominated industry of wholesalers 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.480 call me and give me stick about the name of 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:43.000 my business. But it certainly resonates with people. And we've 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:44.760 got a little retail shop at the front of our 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.160 farm and it works there too, So it's really caught 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:49.680 on and I'm quite proud of the name, and it 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.760 says exactly how I feel about agriculture and about my 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:54.080 own farming business. 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.640 But what were those male males having gout for? 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.800 Yeah, a bit sissy, or a bit cutesy or a 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.760 bit you know, something something to do with me wanting 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.800 to keep the dirt from underneath my nails, I think 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:06.040 is where they were going with it. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.800 But yeah, we love it, and our customers do too. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.640 What was your degree when you're living near the dumpling shop? 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:12.039 What'd you do? 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.000 I studied Arts and Sciences at Melbourne UNI, so I 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.480 was doing which is really interesting because at the time. 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:20.800 When I left high school, I was pretty good at 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.800 school and they kind of say you should be either 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.760 a lawyer or a doctor, and I'd kind of aspired 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.480 to be a doctor, and I had been. I got 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.839 into the second round offers at Monash University, but it 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.279 was under the rural program and you have to go 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:43.039 back to rural areas and practice your medicine for six years. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.520 And the joke was that I was like, there's no 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:47.240 way I'm going to go back to the regions when 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:48.479 I finished university. 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:49.320 Don't want to do that. 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.880 So I said, I'll do Arts and sciences at Melbourne 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.120 because I really liked Melbourne University, and then I'll kind 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.200 of work out which avenue I prefer most, whether it's 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.719 the science and the maths kind of stuff, or whether 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.000 it's the humanities and the art side of things. And 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.800 I ended up not pursuing medicine or law. I ended 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.679 up buying a restaurant in Bridge Road on Richmond in Richmond, Sorry, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.400 And from then this kind of story transpired, and now 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.320 I'm certainly back in the regions and bought the farm 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.360 from Dad, and it all turned out to bee that 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.520 I'm quite dedicated to regional Australia. And that's the actual joke. 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:26.000 What was the restaurant. 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.360 It was called Grace Food and Wine. 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.160 It was a kind of whatever you want, you know, 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.320 that kind of modern Australian kind of cafe style, breakfast, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.280 lunch and dinner seven days a week. 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:38.440 Oh how did it go? 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:40.520 It went very very badly. 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:48.040 I paid for a very significant I guess education in business. 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:50.600 And it's funny because when you look back on things, 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.880 obviously you realize, you know, what you've gained from an experience. 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.880 But I was so and a bit like how I 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.200 was anti going back to the regions after or a 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.560 medicine degree. I was so anti in this story of 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.120 like Nona's cooking and my mum's cooking an Italian restaurant style. 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:10.960 I thought that was all, you know, a bit naf 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.080 and like what an error because that's the style of 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.680 food that Melbourne loves actually, which is that kind of 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.360 home cooked or food with a story. And I, you know, 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.880 another part of my heritage that I had denied and 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.600 probably would have been far better off sticking to that authenticity. 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.200 But in any case, it was a lot of money 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.839 to learn a lesson. And yeah, and it ultimately it 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.600 led me back to the farm. So I suppose all's 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:37.160 well that ends. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.560 Well, how long did you run the restaurant? You lost 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.240 a lot of money, lost a lot of money. 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.600 Yeah, five and a half years and a lot of money. 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.240 And the problem was there was always this promise that 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.480 it was getting better, and it was getting better, and 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:51.839 so we you know, you sign another lease and you 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.720 aspired a saler restaurant rather than close it, which we 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.040 did in the end. It was like it kind of 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.280 got good right before the end, but it was time 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.200 to certainly time to sell. 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.720 And you bought the family farm. How did that come about? 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.559 Well, that was a little bit because the restaurant had 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.360 gone so poorly, so a lot of money had gone 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.960 into keeping the restaurant afloat. And at the same time 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.520 we had that was actually back when there was the 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.160 last drought, so put financial pressure on the farm as well. 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.600 And then we had a wholesaler, or Dad had a 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.719 wholesaler who took a whole season's worth of cauliflowers and 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.839 then didn't pay for them. So it was this compounding 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.320 situation where all the money had gone very badly and 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.320 we had the bank ready to foreclose on us, and 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.960 through some perseverance and trickery is not the right word, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:46.520 but knowing more about my farming business than what a 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.480 bank will ever know, basically ended up that we signed 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.680 a deed of agreement with a bank that they would 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.839 allow the farm to be subdivided so that Mum and 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:57.800 Dad wouldn't lose their house which is on the farm, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:09:59.400 and that we had to put the rest of the 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.360 farm on the mark. So we did that and I 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.480 bought my farm back at auction on a very miserable 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.240 South Gippsland drizzly day, although we would call that a 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.920 glorious day in this season. But you know I stood 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.480 there and bitted for my well, I didn't actually end 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.280 up bidding, but I ended up buying the farm at 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.800 auction from the bank essentially, and they had to write 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.200 off some debt and so succession happened by accident on 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.640 our farm. And it's interesting because I had always said 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.559 when I first went onto the farm and became involved 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.360 in industry that the biggest problem with farmers is that 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.760 they are emotionally connected to their land and it forces 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:43.240 them to make decisions that a business person otherwise wouldn't make. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.640 And so after all of that criticism that I had 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:48.920 said about farmers and the decisions that they make based 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.080 on this emotional connection, I ended up standing, you know, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.440 like I said, at an auction to buy this farm, 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:58.000 which was like, was it a good business decision? Yes, partially, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.440 but that certainly wasn't the overarching reason. And as to 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.440 why I was standing there bidding on the family farm, 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.440 it was because it becomes a member of the family 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.760 my you know, the work that has gone into it. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.840 It's a migrant story. The way my dad felt about 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.320 the farm. I couldn't imagine what my dad would be 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.680 like not on the farm, like we thought, well, you know, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.520 what will Dad do? And so I was there because 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.839 of an emotional connection to the land. And I kind 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.719 of think that, given that nine out of ten Australian 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.960 farms are still family farms, that if farmers didn't have 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:33.440 that you know, emotional connection, if that farmland wasn't part 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:35.800 of the family and part of the identity of the farmer, 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.319 we wouldn't have farmers stick it out through what are 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.640 brutal droughts and floods and everything else that goes with farming. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.280 Which is one of the reasons it's so hard when 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.440 you see, as I did this week on TV, a 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.440 farmer up in the floods in New South Wales saying, 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.439 I'm just going to have to walk off. There's no option. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.440 I've just got to walk off and leave it. And 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.400 I thought that guy could have had this farm for 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:58.520 generations as your family has. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.040 Yeah, I mean, I mean I could sidebar here into why, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.640 you know, unrealized capital gains on super funds, where so 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.600 many farmers have been told this is how we should 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.800 do succession, and this is how you can have a 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:16.280 meaningful retirement and you know, invite the next generation onto 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.640 the farm and make it financially possible for them to 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.480 be there. That when decisions like that are made, it 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.679 totally belies the fact that farmers are often multi generational, 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.280 have been there for as many generations as financially viable 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.120 in most cases because of that connection. To start taxing 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.439 that we really start, you know, breaking down the fabric 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.040 of what keeps farms running and to leave a farm. 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.600 You know, I went into debt and bought the family 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.960 farm because I couldn't imagine Dad walking off. It was 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.360 it's goes to the heart of like I said self, 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.360 identity and value and purpose. Often a lot of farmers. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.360 And I know it's stereotype and where it's supposed to 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.800 be more modern, but often a lot of farmers. The 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.480 kid at school, you know, finished my dadish when he 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:02.680 was fourteen years and nine months and went straight on 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.840 the farm and worked for his dad and then you know, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.400 inherited part of it and worked for another part of it. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.840 And they don't even know where they would fit in 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.600 society if it wasn't for what they do on their farms. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:15.400 I don't think there's any danger of you being the 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:16.880 stereotypical farmer, Emma. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.000 No, well, no I'm not the stereotypical farmer, which runs, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.520 you know, runs us into more problems. And I think 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.880 as much as this is like we shouldn't say, you know, 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:29.920 but when we're being politically correct, we're not supposed to 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:30.600 say all these things. 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:30.839 Now. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:35.240 I think the reason why I can connect with a 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.960 Melbourne audience or a Metro audience is because I have 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.200 an apartment on Bridge Road. I've come to school here, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.320 I like to go out to the great restaurants. I'm 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.920 living that lifestyle too. When I walk into Cole's or Woolworths, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.480 and do my shopping. If I'm being completely honest, I 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.280 shop like someone who's in a city like I often 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:54.520 don't look at the prices. 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:55.840 I don't compare products. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:57.800 I just get the thing that I like, so I 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.160 can relate to kind of both sides of them, both 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.640 sides of the ledger there. So I think it's important 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.840 that we don't just have a stereotypical idea in our 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.440 mind about who farmers are. But we do have to 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.360 be cognizant that most of them are still the stereotype 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.760 of what we imagine, and we have to keep that 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.079 in mind when we think about how do we talking 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.160 about drought support or any kind of farming support. I 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.840 might be sitting around on Google and able to contemplate 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.640 what things are available, but the sixty year old multi 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:29.960 generational farmer whose kids are not back on the farm 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.080 has so much difficulty understanding what a national drought agreement 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:35.720 is and what does it mean and how do you 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.840 apply for assistance or any other thing. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.080 Yeah, I'd like to get to the National Drought Agreement 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.560 and get your interpretation of it, because I find impossible 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.080 get to that later. But how long ago did you 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.080 buy the farm? Has it been a successful business decision. 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:55.240 Yet it's certainly been a good business decision. Actually, my 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.040 dad asked me on the weekend, and I should answer 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.240 your question. I think it's twenty eighteen that I bought 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.560 the farm, and then I bought another piece of land 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.880 off my auntie that adjoins us in twenty nineteen. On 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.840 the weekend, Dad and I had gone for a drive around. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:10.960 And often when he says, hey, can we go for 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.040 a drive around, it's because he's got an important conversation 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.160 that he apparently he needs to warm up, you know, 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.120 for the driver around to the farm. And you know what, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.840 I think that unconsciously, that's probably that let's all remember 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.640 the emotional connection when we drive around, because that's what happens. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:24.880 Right. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.640 Dad's driving around on ground that he's been driving around 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:32.280 on for the last seventy years. So we're out having 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.360 a drive and then when we got back, he said, oh, 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.560 do you want to sell the farm? And I said, 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.000 do you want to sell the farm? And he said no, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.280 bit I'm asking you. And I said, well, i'm asking 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:42.560 you and he said no, but I want to know 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.040 your answer, and I said, well, I don't really have 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.040 an answer. That is separate to your answer, because if 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:50.880 you said to me you don't want to be here anymore, 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.360 or you want to think about retirement in a different way, 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.480 then I would obviously contemplate all of that in regards 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:00.720 to my answer. For me, my answer, or if I 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.640 try and separate mum and dad and that emotional connection away. 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:09.200 I think that farmland is the best real estate investment 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.800 you could possibly have because we're not making any more 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.480 of it, and in fact, governments make decisions that take 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.680 more and more of that farmland away every day. We 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.240 do have challenges with a drying climate, or at the 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.800 very least a climate that seems to be shifting and changing, 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.400 and I know that that's you know, them's fighting words, 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:30.920 so let's talk about that a little bit too. But 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.160 you know, there is an increase in that land value 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.400 year on year, So every year that I keep the farm, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:42.239 that increase in land value is meaningful. There is opportunity, 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.280 certainly there's opportunity, but it is really hard for opportunity. 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.760 I love that conversation with your father. I think you 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:49.640 should have been a lawyer. 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:51.920 After an answer, lot Ray, I've spent a lot of 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.920 time with lawyers over the last few years now, so 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.400 I actually worked out that it would drive me nuts 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.280 because it doesn't look like how it looks like on TV. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:01.040 That's for sure. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.400 I've been in the court room a few times over 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:04.320 the last few years. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:09.879 Your grandfather Silvatore, when did he arrive at this piece 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:10.320 of land? 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:12.280 So he it was very early. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.360 He was actually one of the early migrants and his 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:19.160 father came out first in nineteen thirty two, and then 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.560 my grandfather came out in nineteen thirty eight, and he 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.359 left my grandmother. They had just gotten married, and she 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.159 said to him before they got married, I've heard that 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:30.679 you're saying that you want to go to Australia. And 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:32.439 he said, no, no, I'm not going to do that, 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.600 and then he married her, got her pregnant, and then said, oh, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.000 by the way, I'm going to go to Australia, but 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:37.520 don't worry. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.320 You'll be able to join me shortly after, like great. 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.200 Who like, let's leave the piazzas of Sicily to come 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.600 out to the bush, which was literally just the middle 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.160 of nowhere back then. And then the war broke out, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.879 so she actually didn't get to join him for ten years, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.919 and they he had bought the farm in Gippsland, I 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.400 think about a year or two before she arrived. So 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.359 what does that make forty six forty seven around then 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.560 on the pocket of land that we're on now. 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.720 And it's a hard start to married life. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.639 Isn't it. It's a hard start. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.919 Yeah, absolutely in his I mean just the migrant stories 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.080 and ugh, like they got on a boat, it took 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.320 them six weeks to get here, couldn't speak a word 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.480 of English, did their very best to build for their family. 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.080 But I think it's really important. I think my family 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:29.520 story is really important because it talks about leaving a 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.159 place where there is no opportunity and no food, like 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.000 they were literally at the point where their families were 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:38.120 starting to grow go hungry, and they came here secily. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:38.800 Yeah. 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:40.920 And my mom's side of the family, which often gets 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:42.760 left out of the story. And I kind of have 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:44.879 realized that as I've gotten older, because I was a 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:46.880 daddy's girl, and you know, mum was just the lady 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:51.960 who bought great food. And have certainly grown my respect 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.919 for my mum over the last probably decade where I realized, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.479 actually my loud mouth is straight from her and her 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.160 side of the family. They migrated actually a bit later, 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.280 so my grandparents, they were from different parts of Italy 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.919 than my dad's family, who was Sicilian. They migrated and 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.320 went to the Yarra Valley and started picking fruit. Then 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.720 they lived in Melbourne actually for a period of time, 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.280 and then my grandfather decided, oh, we should just go 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.160 and buy a dairy farm in Meoburn North because there's 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.040 an Italian community there and we've got family there and 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.080 wouldn't it be just so great to have a dairy farm. 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.240