Mining and agriculture. Two words that should stir the heart of every Australian. Two words that sum up our glorious past, the remarkable prosperity of the present and our hopes and aspirations for the future. Yet mining and agriculture are two words that you would only ever hear spat out with barely disguised contempt or even outright hostility by today’s activist youth and many politicians and commentators of the left.

This week The Spectator Australia was honoured to attend the National Mining and National Agriculture Days organised to celebrate and honour these two critical industries. In attendance were luminaries of both industries, brought together to celebrate the resilience and strength of mining and agriculture and their associated industries, as well as to debate and recognise the many challenges that lie ahead. Now in their eleventh year, the events are the brainchild of resources magnate Gina Rinehart.

Significantly, opposition leader Peter Dutton was in attendance for part of the proceedings, arriving from an important Jewish commemoration event. Also present was One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Tony Seabrook, the head of the WA Pastoralists & Graziers Association was there as was former Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles, now CEO of Hancock Agriculture and Kidman Cattle Company. It was of course Mr Giles and Mr Seabrook who sounded the alarm on the preposterous WA cultural heritage laws that came (briefly) into operation earlier in the year. These were WA Labor’s regulations requiring owners of blocks of land as small as 1,100 square metres to seek (and pay through the nose for) Aboriginal ‘approval’ before potentially ‘disturbing’ as little as 5 kilograms of dirt on private property. Digging a new patio? Better call in the Cultural Heritage Cops first! Needless to say, the exposing of these rules helped sink federal Labor’s ill-considered Voice proposal, as Australians quickly began to grasp just how far Labor were (and still are?) planning to go in kowtowing to outrageous indigenous land and ‘cultural’ demands. Both men received well-earned sustained rounds of applause from the mining and agricultural fraternity.

Alas, as soon became apparent, the defeat of the WA cultural heritage laws and the comprehensive rejection by the electorate of the Voice have not spelled an end to onerous red, green and black tape for mining and agriculture. At a time when Australians desperately need all the help they can get to stimulate new industries and enterprises, governments federal and state are tightening the python-like stranglehold of bureaucracy and regulation around their throats.

Farmers who should be tending to their crops are filling out endless forms and chasing up endless approvals. Landowners who want to improve their land are first having to painstakingly go through a mountain of indigenous scrutiny.

Indeed, regulation and red, green or black tape are not just restricted to digging a hole in Western Australia. In Queensland, clearing a firebreak to avoid facing oblivion from raging fires can send a farmer to jail for knocking down a native tree. Just for trying to save their farm and family. In New South Wales, using a water licence and capturing excessive rainwater now has to be metered and measured and continually reported to government. In the Northern Territory, it now seems every time you move ‘on country’ you have to negotiate a native title agreement. If you are trying to get into the horticulture industry to grow melons or mangoes, the approvals can take three to four years or more with clearing and water licence approvals, on top of native title clearances and traditional-owner approvals. And should you require an independent EPA assessment for approval, you can be looking at delays of up to eight years.

On top of which are all the ‘woke’ farming initiatives. Soil carbon is just one example that is seeing a surge in public and private bureaucracy to administer soil tests to check carbon levels; to then have consultants write reports on how to increase soil carbon; then pay consultants to review annual changes; and then wait for public employees to assess plans and performance. All the while the farmer knows that if they rotationally graze their property it naturally sees an increase in soil carbon which grows more grass and crops.

As Mrs Rinehart pointed out in a loudly applauded speech, ‘Projects succeed not because of government but in spite of it’.

Unsurprisingly, the National Agriculture and National Mining days passed without any sign of the Prime Minister – he was presumably too busy charging overseas to take selfies with pop stars – nor any sign of the Minister for Energy and Climate Change.

After all, what possible interest could a National Mining & Agricultural Day or Days be to the man who wishes to derive all our manufacturing and industrial power from floating windmills out at sea and only eyes up agricultural land in order to decimate it with solar panels and transmission lines?

Congratulations to all who did attend the events. Without mining and agriculture, heaven knows where we would be.