A NEW Government report revealing further impacts to agriculture from an emissions trading scheme hasn't deterred Prime Minister Kevin Rudd from pushing through legislation in a determined attempt to have Labor's proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme locked in place before the end of this month.
The House of Representatives is set to for a second all-nighter to debate legislation on emissions trading, which is expected to pass the lower house before moving to a much more hostile reception in the Senate.
New data from ABARE on the impacts of the Government's scheme barely rated a mention with the Government, however on the same day new money was announced to help farmers in the grain, grape, dairy, aquaculture and beef industries adapt to climate change.
The Government all-but rejected the report because it assumed farmers would not be making any improvements by adapting to climate change.
While tabling the new ABARE report in Parliament, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke didn't acknowledge its findings which include a hit to nearly all commodity sectors and greater costs from food and fibre processing being passed back to the farmer when the scheme starts in 2011.
The report forecasts an almost two per cent reduction in the economic value of farm production across all broadacre sectors from the start of the scheme, even though agriculture is not to be included until at least 2015.
Dairy farms, according to the report, will be hardest hit.
"Even if the agriculture sector is not a covered sector under the CPRS, agricultural producers will face increased input costs associated with the use of electricity, fuels and freight and may face lower farm-gate prices for their goods from downstream processors," the report said.
"These will have implications for the economic value of farm production."
The news comes on top of the latest greenhouse statistics which reveal that while agriculture is one of the nation's largest emitter's of greenhouse gas, it has also made the biggest reductions over the past 17 years than any other sector.
However, Mr Burke this week met with leaders from several farmer and commodity organisations and told parliament that together the Government and farm groups were working through issues relating to whether or not agriculture would be included in the scheme in 2015.
It's believed a technical working group is being formed to meet with Government officials on a fortnightly basis to go through the complexities surrounding agriculture's inclusion in the scheme.
Opposition spokesman for agriculture, John Cobb, said the ABARE report "confirms food producers will go broke" because of the ETS.
Mr Cobb said the Rudd Government's ETS would be "an expensive folly which will lead to higher food prices, less farmers and more imported food, with no net benefit for the environment".
Speaking to the legislation, introduced on Tuesday night, Opposition spokesman for the environment, Greg hunt, said the Coalition could not support the Government's legislation because it sends global emissions up by exporting Australian emissions to higher-polluting nations.
With Coalition opposition threatening to quash the Bill when it reaches the Senate, Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, is now working frantically with the Greens and Independents to get the legislation up.
"With the Greens, with Senator Xenophon, with Senator Fielding, we’ll be asking them to look to the national interest," Senator Wong said.
"We will be going through with them why we think this is a sound scheme, a good scheme, a scheme which will drive the change that I know most Australians want.
"We will be doing that and we will be asking them to look to the national interest…unfortunately Mr Turnbull has walked out of the room because of the division in his own party room."
Opposition spokesman on the ETS, Andrew Robb, said in parliament today that the Government had ignored current commercial realities and the scheme was deeply flawed.
"The Government scheme must not be passed," Mr Robb said.
"This is the biggest structural change to our economy and we must get it right."
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