Originally published by Michael Madigan of The Courier Mail.
17.10.2026
We don’t forget our farmers in Australia, but we are selective with our attention.
When drought or flood arrive – as they do most years –the farmer is lavished with front page coverage.
But when they are tirelessly dealing with the day-to-day grind of providing food for the country and the wider world, they are largely ignored.
Out at Emerald this week, farmer Aaron Kiely was admiring a pretty good cotton crop which he can expect to reap a solid profit from, provided the weather gods smile upon him.
But as Aaron points out, this year has been particularly unkind to farmers.
That Middle Eastern war continues to push diesel prices towards $3 a litre.
That’s not far removed from the level it was when the escalation of fuel prices began when the Strait of Hormuz was first closed earlier this year, prompting a bout of sympathetic reporting about the long-suffering
farmers.
Today blokes like Aaron, who may have to find $40,000 for a fuel delivery as opposed to $25,000 this time last year, are simply expected to shoulder the burden and move on.
Fertiliser prices have come back a bit, but the price of the high-tech equipment required to run a farm, including those incredible tractors which require softwear engineers to service them, has probably doubled
over the past ten years..
Aaron, who also finds time to be Queensland president of the National Farmers Federation and whose family has been actively and positively engaged with the local community for decades, is not complaining.
He chose life as a farmer, just as his old man did, and he has been enormously successful at it.
But Australians should never forget just how important primary producers are to the nation, and not wait for our supermarket shelves to start looking a bit sparse before we give them that nod of appreciation.
