The Victorian Nationals continue to stand with regional Victorians who are committed to action on climate change.
Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh today reaffirmed the Party's position supporting the target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Mr Walsh said regional Victorians rightly expect their representatives to drive a policy agenda that actively tackles climate change, for a sustainable future for regional communities and our world-leading food and fibre sector.
"We believe that continuing to take action now will secure a more prosperous, productive and profitable future for our farmers and those businesses along the supply chain that rely on a thriving agriculture sector to survive," Mr Walsh said.
"Scientists have long warned that climate change is already pushing us down a path of more extreme weather events where we have more intense rainfall and longer periods of drought.
"The Victorian Nationals do not support any watering down of our nation's climate change targets and remain committed to implementing measures to achieve net zero by 2050."
Research and development will be crucial to advancing technologies that will support this goal, but recent job cuts at Agriculture Victoria have axed the very scientists working on finding new sustainable practices in farming.
"Despite its big claims on climate action, the Andrews Labor Government has axed more than 100 jobs at AgVic, including scientists working in soil sciences, genomics and plant sciences, and animal production.
"While regional Victorians continue to call for more action on climate change, we should be accelerating our efforts in research and development.
"This is exactly the wrong time for the Labor Government to be cutting our capacity to carry out crucial research on more advanced farming practices and new sustainable technologies."
