One Nation’s candidate for Farrer has publicly peddled false figures about beef industry water consumption in an attempt to boost his personal political prospects.
In a recent social media post David Farley claimed it took 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of Australian beef.
That figure is strongly refuted by respected and informed beef industry bodies and the CSIRO.
Nationals candidate for Farrer, Brad Robertson, said he was appalled to see a supposed former ag sector leader using the beef industry to prop up his political campaign.
“If he thought he was promoting better water management by falsely claiming our beef industry uses 15,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef – he is dead wrong.
“He is wrong, and he needs to publicly apologise to our incredible beef producers for dragging them through the mud and making them a target for zealots.
“It is unbelievable that an alleged Harvard graduate would choose to use completely inaccurate figures to link water management to the survival of our beef sector.
“Understandably I’ve been contacted by beef producers across Farrer who are furious that Mr Farley has made such wild claims just to secure votes for himself at the election.”
Beef producer Marc Greening said the figures cited by Mr Farley were completely unfounded.
“I was gobsmacked by the statements made by David Farley with regards to water usage in beef production in Australia,” he said.
“Over the last 15 years our beef industry has worked extremely hard to demonstrate to domestic consumers that beef production in Australia is sustainable and environmentally responsible.
“To claim that it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef in Australia is completely wrong, with Australian data backed by CSIRO research putting that figure nearly 30 times lower at around 515 litres per kilogram.
“It is disappointing that a so-called agribusiness expert would throw the biggest agricultural producing sector in the country under the bus by undermining the scientifically derived numbers we are promoting to the consumer.
“For a One Nation candidate to be quoting data from international environmental and anti-farmer activist groups just leaves me bewildered.”
Mr Robertson said Australians should be proud of our beef industry and the thousands of people who work in it.
“The Australian beef industry leads the world in terms of environmental stewardship, industry standards and animal welfare. These proud producers and exporters put food on our own tables and tables around the world and they have my full support.”
