NSW Farmers has joined the National Farmers Federation in asking the government to exclude agriculture.

As guest speaker at the Lockhart District Council annual dinner meeting, Mr Armstrong confirmed the fears of many Lockhart and district farmers.

The CPRS has the potential to devastate the agricultural industry, not only reducing profitability but also destabilizing farm finance, investment and property values.

A Centre for International Economics study has found profitability margins for farmers will fall dramatically under a CPRS with impacts compounded by unstable carbon prices.

Following recent discussions with the Federal Government a Working Group has been established to determine the involvement of agriculture in a National Emissions Trading Scheme (NETS) as well as time frames. It is likely a system that encourages a reduction in agricultural emissions will be built in.

“Farmers have expressed concern and degrees of disbelief that Australia would go down that track while countries in other parts of the world are looking after agriculture,” Mr Armstrong said.

“Our government appears to be pursuing legislation that will decimate agriculture.”

He informed the gathering that NSW Farmers has established a CPRS committee to examine the detail of the legislation and get the best deal for agriculture assuming it comes back into the House, is lost or is brought into law.

Lockhart District Council Chairman John Patey said there is a lot of concern in the farming community because Australia’s overseas competitors are not going to be impacted with a CPRS.

“Growers are all concerned about the effect it will have on our bottom line,” Lockhart Council secretary Bill McDonald added.

“We are unable to pass the cost on to consumers - we are price takers for input costs and price takers for the goods we sell,” he explained.

Another issue discussed by Mr Armstrong involved animal welfare standards and guidelines. “The Government is intending to legislate what has previously been voluntary codes of practice,” he said.

Questions from the floor dealt with the introduction of a new plan to replace Exceptional Circumstances assistance during drought and lack of infrastructure on branch lines for grain marketing.