Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky news

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS NEWSDAY
TUESDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS: Climate-Smart Agriculture Program; climate change.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: I want to go live to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins joins us live now. Julie Collins, thanks for your time. This commitment to the - the government's announcing today - that you've committed to in terms of climate resilience for farmers, what exactly does this entail?

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks, Kieran. It's great to be on your show this afternoon. So, it's $1.7 million out of a $300 million Climate-Smart Ag Program, and what we're doing here is we're partnering with Melbourne Water, with Landcare and a range of other community partners, so councils, other Landcares from around the area, and this is about adaption and adoption on farm for farmers with practical solutions. Things like biofertilisers, things like better utilisation of soils, biodiversity restoration, all on farm and making sure that we do this based on evidence, and we get adaption by farmers on the ground. So it's part of 178 different projects as part of the ag climate smart program across the country.

GILBERT: One of the big challenges, not just for farmers, but for industry, for households is the higher energy cost. Are you hearing this, that people are saying, “okay, renewables are the cheapest form, if that's the case, when are we going to start seeing it in our bills?”

COLLINS: Oh certainly, what we know Kieran is in terms of adaption and farmers and the things that they are raising with me, it's all about their hip pocket and they know that responding and doing better diversity on farm is a return to their hip pocket. So it's also about productivity for them, as well as supporting and protecting our environment and our climate. So for farmers, it's like a double benefit here. We're reducing emissions. We're investing in the environment. And indeed, we're helping their hip pocket. When it comes more generally to the issues that you're talking about, about energy bills, we do know that Australians are under pressure with energy bills, which is why we did the energy bill rebates, but we've been pretty upfront and honest with Australians that renewables are the cheapest form of new energy. We also know that the coal-fired power stations are leaving the system, and we need to replace that energy, and the cheapest form of energy to replace that with is renewables. And I think that the public understands that, but that's not to, you know, downplay the pressure that some families are under.

GILBERT: I think we've had various arguments on this issue lately, the Liberals, but someone like Bill Gates who's arguing more increasingly that there needs to be a focus on things like you're doing today, on mitigation as opposed to emissions reduction and to bring people with you to help those less well-off to mitigate as opposed to the priorities of years gone by in terms of emissions reduction. From your perspective as Minister for Agriculture, does that make sense?

COLLINS: Absolutely. We know that Australian farmers are already some of the most productive farmers across the globe. They're also some of the lowest-emitting farmers across the globe. They're some of the lowest users of fertiliser. What we want to do is have more of that adaption, adoption on-ground, and we're seeing that. Every section of industry, when it comes to agriculture, has their own climate goals already. They all have targets. As does the government, of course, and what we're seeing from the other side, of course, is that they can't agree on what their policies actually are. They've got a lot of infighting. You know, they're taking us back to the way they were in government, where they had so many policies that they couldn't keep up. I certainly can't keep up with what their policy is today, Kieran. But while they're doing that, we're getting on with the job and doing practical things on the ground like we are here today. We're talking about this program supporting around 500 farmers in this area, around greater Melbourne and the Port of Melbourne, to actually have that adaption and adoption on farm. So this is real, actual, practical on-ground support for farmers that will make a difference, that will help us lower emissions, but also help the hip pocket of farmers.

GILBERT: Julie Collins, thanks for joining us. Minister for Agriculture joining us live from the outskirts of Melbourne.