48% INCREASE IN FOOD IMPORTS
Over the past decade, Australia’s food imports have surged by 48 per cent. That is not a coincidence or a market anomaly. It is a warning signal.
This image puts that reality into perspective. One full Melbourne Cricket Ground, filled to the brim with imported food, every single year. That is the scale of food Australia is now bringing in to replace what we no longer produce at home.
Australia was not built to rely on imported food. We are one of the most resource-rich agricultural nations in the world, with the Murray–Darling Basin forming the backbone of our food system. Yet policy decisions that strip productive water from irrigated agriculture through buybacks are steadily dismantling that capacity.
When water is removed from farms, it is not removed from an abstract balance sheet. It is removed from paddocks growing rice, fruit, vegetables, grain, cotton and livestock feed. It is removed from processing plants, transport operators, regional jobs and local economies. Most importantly, it is removed from Australia’s food security.
The flow-on effect is unavoidable. Less water on farms means less food produced domestically. Less domestic production means greater dependence on imports. Greater dependence on imports exposes Australian families to higher prices, supply chain shocks, biosecurity risks and reduced quality control. We trade resilience for vulnerability.
This is why I am calling for a Royal Commission into water. Australians deserve a full, independent examination of how water policy has been designed, implemented and justified, and whether it serves the national interest.
If we want to understand how we reached the point where one full MCG of imported food each year is considered normal, we need to examine the decisions that got us here.
To read more about the call for a Royal Commission into water, visit:
