I was sitting on the back porch sipping a glass of 2018 Granite Belt saperavi when I heard the prime minister Scott Morrison's comments around "our climate change ambitions" at a lavish Business Council function in Sydney last week.
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What he said, "we will not achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities", implied regional Australians like me don't care about climate change. What a load of pomace.
As a farmer, I care about climate change. Why wouldn't I when we're on the frontline of climate impacts and stand to benefit greatly from solutions?
Like my colleagues, I want to see the federal government show true leadership on climate action. Agriculture is reliant on trading, and Prime Minister Morrison's stance is a threat to our industry.
In the past two years alone, our vineyard in Queensland's Granite Belt has experienced drought, bushfires and severe storms; our 2020 crop was almost completely wiped out.
Last week was a huge week for climate ambition across the world.
At the US climate summit, the United Kingdom's conservative prime minister Boris Johnson committed to slash emissions by 78 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, the United States to a 50-52 per cent cut, the EU a 55 per cent reduction, Japan a 42 per cent reduction, and Canada 40-45 per cent.
We've already seen the European Union vow to impose carbon tariffs on nations not pulling their weight in reducing emissions, which could be a massive hit to our wine export market.
We also know trillions of dollars will be spent over the coming decades as the world transitions to a cleaner future.
Australia risks being stuck in an eddy, isolated politically and economically from the rest of the world.
While the rest of the world is stepping up ambition, Australia is dragging its heels and risks missing out on decades of a climate-related economic boom.
It's time for our decision makers to stop making 2021's political vintage cloudy with false divides and get on with the job at hand.
We must unite - urban and regional Australians together - to ensure that we and our leaders do everything we can to prevent catastrophic climate change.
So let's raise a glass and tell the federal government that regardless of any net-zero date they set, what we need to see is a clear plan for getting there that includes making deep and rapid emissions cuts this decade.
Mike Hayes is a Granite Belt farmer and winemaker at Sirromet Wines in Queensland
