Farmers are anxious, but still in a pretty good paddock

While Australian primary producers are understandably uneasy over wars and tariffs, they are currently enjoying exceptional prosperity, as Alan Austin reports.

ARE LABOR STRATEGISTS possibly regretting the decision to sit out next Saturday’s Farrer by-election? Recent economic data show that rural communities are among the nation’s greatest beneficiaries of the Albanese Government’s revival of the economy, in general, and exports, in particular.

Might Labor have been in with a chance? We shall come back to this.

Booming farm production

Livestock sold for meat for local consumption and export set fresh records in virtually every category last financial year. That’s according to data released last Tuesday by the Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The value of beef cattle butchered rose 33.7% on the previous year to $17.1 billion. Sheep sold for lamb was up an impressive 37.7% to $5.1 billion. Total livestock disposals, including pigs, poultry and other animals, rose 27.0% to a thumping $28.4 billion. Farmers also fared well with milk, wool, cereals and many other products. See chart below.

A figure caption for your reading pleasure

Record or near-record acreages were sown last financial year of wheat, barley, oats, lentils and chickpeas. Most of these yielded record tonnages and revenues.

Record overseas buyers

ABS export data confirm that recently restored trade relations have greatly benefited primary producers.

Total meat exports in 2025 hit a record $24 billion, up 23.4% on the previous high the year before. By way of comparison, the highest under the hapless Coalition was $16.9 billion in 2020.

Dairy products and eggs generated a record $3.5 billion last year, beating the previous high of $3.23 in 2022. The record before that, surprisingly, was $3.16 billion back in 2002.
Fruit and vegetables traded jumped 35.3% on the previous record the year before, up 84.3% on 2021.

According to independent authorities, these results follow concerted efforts to lift productivity, maximise water use and improve sustainability with plant science innovation.

Detailed analysis by the Bendigo Bank reports that agricultural exports now account for 15.1% of Australia’s total exports:

‘This is the fourth consecutive rise in terms of agriculture as a percentage of total goods exported, which hit an all-time low of 12.5 per cent in 2020/21.’

Global agencies give Australia’s economy thumbs up

As job losses, inflation and weak growth impact many economies, Australia advances apace.

Pressure mounting as the war drags on

Of course, past outcomes do not guarantee anything in the future, as farmers well understand. Seasons change, prices fluctuate, mice or locust plagues hit suddenly, as do cyclones and bushfires.

And now the extraordinary folly of the mentally declining isolationist U.S. President has endangered supplies of the fuel and fertilisers primary producers need. That, on top of his destructive tariff policies.

Fortunately, Australia’s Government has succeeded in ensuring supplies of all essentials. So far. The latest ABS import data shows quantities are lower than last year and prices are higher, but that adequate volumes are still arriving.

Most fuel disruptions in country towns are the result of panic buying and stockpiling in jerry cans rather than inadequate imports.

No need for alarm just yet

This column has shown that the current media narrative that Australians are doing it tough, both in the cities and in the bush, is not supported by any data.

Were it true that consumer confidence is at an all-time low, as the Financial Review and ABC News insist, then consumer spending would be declining.

It isn’t. Australians made 12.5 million overseas trips in 2025, the highest for any year by far. Fee-paying private schools now have record enrolments, including thousands of children of families working rural properties across the continent.

The latest ABS household spending report, for February, reveals household spending continues to rise, and was 4.6% higher in February 2026 than in 2025.

According to ABS head of business statistics Tom Lay:

‘Discretionary spending rose 0.5 per cent in February, driven by recreational and cultural activities for concerts and musicals as well as higher spending on air travel and accommodation services.’

So while Australians shake their heads forlornly when polled about the state of the economy and agree with the stereotypical farmer that “we’ll all be rooned”, they are actually living their best lives ever. Which brings us back to the Farrer by-election and who should run the show.

Specialists refuse to correctly diagnose best economy ever

Only once has Australia’s economy achieved near-perfect health. The newsrooms failed to track and record this for 2025, Alan Austin reports.

Electoral test in the bush

Had Labor strategists decided to contest this seat, the outcome may well have been different from whatever eventuates next weekend. Labor would be extremely unlikely to win, given it got only 15.1% of the primary vote at the 2025 General Election. That was, however, substantially more than One Nation’s 6.6%, three times the Greens’ 4.9% and not that far below independent Michelle Milthorpe’s 20%.

Without Labor standing, the latest polling suggests the two leading candidates are Milthorpe, a teacher and business owner who is recontesting, and One Nation’s David Farley. As the Two Barries observed last week, this is the first time a seat is being fought out by two candidates, neither of whom belongs to a major party.

Most sensible Australians will be hoping Milthorpe trounces Farley, but that is not certain, especially as the Liberal Party is preferencing One Nation third after the Nationals, as is Family First.

If Labor is as respected in the regions as data from the ABS and elsewhere suggests it should be, Labor could have directed preferences away from One Nation.

The country will not be served by more anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, anti-science, far-right conspiracy theorists in any Australian parliament.

The electoral division of Farrer was named after William Farrer, an innovative agriculturalist and pioneering farmer of both sheep and wheat. He would be mightily chuffed at the state of primary production right now.

And being a migrant from England, married to the daughter of Italian settlers, would be appalled at One Nation.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.