The Coalition's Wine Equalisation Tax reforms  support the big end of town at the expense of local businesses, resulting  in hardship and a loss of jobs across the South West’s wine growing regions, the Greens said today.

Greens Senator for Western Australia and spokesperson on Agriculture, Rachel Siewert, who was involved in the inquiry into the Australian Wine and Grape Industry, said the reforms fail to acknowledge the importance of supporting our tourism and agricultural sectors as we transition out of the mining boom.

The Greens are taking a major sustainable agriculture package to the election with a focus on research and development so that farmers can continue to grow the world’s best quality food despite mounting pressures that include climate change.

“More than anyone, farmers understand the struggles of climate change and the impacts that can have on our food production. Couple mounting pressures from climate change with increasing costs, and farmers have worrying prospects ahead of them.

Deferring the backpacker tax for six months for a ‘whole of Government review’ is a tactic to hose down opposition in the lead up to Election Day, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

"The Government's backpacker tax is a grab for revenue that ignores the impact on growers.

"This is Government just trying to take the issue off the agenda until after July 2.

“Growers rely on working holiday makers for key seasonal work, such workers will go elsewhere instead of Australia adversely affecting our farming sector.

The Australian Greens today confirmed that they oppose the backpacker tax, saying it would unfairly impact on farmers and growers.

"The Government's backpacker tax is a grab for revenue that ignores the impact on growers”, Australian Greens spokesperson on Agriculture Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

“Growers rely on working holiday makers for key seasonal work, such workers will go elsewhere instead of Australia adversely affecting our farming sector.

Australian Greens spokesperson on Agriculture Senator Rachel Siewert has welcomed the roll out of country of origin labelling by the Government today but said the model doesn’t fully deliver for farmers or consumers.   

“The labels revealed today are a step in the right direction but would not give consumers as much information as the approach recommended by the Greens.

“The country of origin labelling bill introduced by the Greens last year was the result of more than a decade of consultations. It is a shame that Bill sitting before Parliament wasn’t used.

Moves by the Federal Government to make private a register of foreign agricultural land ownership has been slammed by the Australian Greens as ‘defeating the purpose of transparency and tougher scrutiny for foreign ownership of Australian farmland’.

Australian Greens Agricultural spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert said today:

“It is extremely disappointing to see the Coalition government back flipping on legislation passed last year. I must ask – what have they got to hide?

Questioning by Senator Rachel Siewert in Senate estimates last night has revealed Australian lettuce linked to an outbreak of salmonella may have been exported overseas.

“Up to 23 consignments of produce from the same establishment linked to the salmonella outbreak have headed to Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.

“Australia has a reputation of clean, green fresh export products that help drive our export economy. To hear that products are being exported from a farm that has just had major contamination issues is a concern.

The Australian Greens are concerned at news reports that regulators may not be appropriately regulating food derived from new genetic modification techniques. Australian regulators need to ensure Australia's legislation is applied appropriately, and that there's strong regulation to protect the best interests of the Australian community.

The Greens have secured an Australian-first register of foreign owned water entitlements, in agreeing to support government legislation that gives the Foreign Investment Review Board greater scope to check if sales of Australian land to overseas buyers is in the national interest.