GPA WELCOMES $1.1b CLEANER FUELS PROGRAM

Grain Producers Australia welcomes today’s announcement on the Federal Government’s $1.1 billion Cleaner Fuels Program; including by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins. HERE 

GPA looks forward to continuing our positive engagement with the government and other stakeholders to further understand the specific details, and ensure good outcome are ultimately delivered. 

We want to see the true potential benefits of these future opportunities unlocked, from Australian grains farms through to fuel tanks. Good policy is good politics and that’s the bottom line on such matters, GPA Chief Executive Coilin Bettles said. 

Fuel is also a basic key input for growers to ensure we can operate our farms efficiently and continue providing affordable food for consumers – and supply grain for other options, such as cleaner liquid fuels. 

Reliability of supply for these key production inputs is also a priority, to ensure we can sustain productivity growth and output, for the nation’s $27 billion grains sector.  

Given grain producers are feedstock providers, GPA supports well-designed, balanced policy which incentivises increased demand and production, in securing a local market for the supply lower carbon liquid fuels, such as biodiesel and Sustainable Aviation Fuels. A priority in this is ensuring local supply of these forms of renewable energy, can directly benefit farmers, rural communities, and our environment. 

GPA has advocated these policy views consistently in different consultation processes over time, focused on making sure the balance is right, and shared value and benefits optimised, by incentivising local production, starting with productivity of Australian grain producers. This includes our submissions to the Productivity Roundtable processes, and engagement in development of the Agriculture and Land Sector Plan. 

The importance of this to national productivity – and opportunities that’ll flow by incentivising grain producers as feedstock providers for producing liquid fuels – were clearly demonstrated in GRDC’s submission to the Ag and Land Plan’s consultation processes (excerpt below) that we expect will be announced in the near future. The industry report it makes direct reference to provides genuine evidence of our sector’s strong performance, to demonstrate Australian grain producers are already doing the heavy lifting on emissions reductions, whilst achieving long-term productivity gains. 

‘GHG accounting conducted by CSIRO indicates Australian grain has some of the lowest GHG emissions intensity compared to other exporting nations. Research suggests there are opportunities to reduce grains GHG emissions and emissions intensity, but net zero may be difficult to achieve without reducing production – Australian Grains Baseline and Mitigation Report, CSIRO (2022)’ 

Agriculture and Land Sector Plan – DAFF HERE 

Given Australian producers are already growing high-quality grain crops, at world-leading standards to reduce emissions, we look forward to recognition of this good performance with environmental practices being included and built upon, in the policy’s ongoing development. In particular, in the formation and implementation of a local market that fundamentally unlocks its true potential, by incentivising local production of low carbon liquid fuels. 

Ultimately, these benefits need to flow directly from the paddock of Australian grain farms, as feedstocks providers, onto the manufacturers of these cleaner fuels, and into the fuel tanks of the future. 

This is already occurring for consumers of many other products produced by processing of Australian grains, which are consumed on a daily basis – not only baking products such as bread and pasta, breakfast cereals, brewing and distilling, and grain-fed livestock items. 

Why should Australian taste buds – and those of billions of consumers in our global grain export markets – be the only ones to benefit from our strong production of world-leading, high-quality Aussie grains? 

Future fuel tanks should also be allowed to have better access to these tremendous opportunities, which can boost national productivity and deliver shared benefits; including for our environment.