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Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has promised to defend the interests of family farmers against threats from mining companies and supermarket giants, but has risked alienating some rural landowners with an ambitious dam-building program.
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Releasing a federal government green paper on agricultural competitiveness in Canberra on Monday, Mr Joyce, described working the land as an "inherently noble and good occupation," and said the government wanted to help farmers get better returns for their products.
"A farmer that gets between 10 and 15 per cent of the final price when they've done the majority of the work is inherently unfair," Mr Joyce told the National Farmers' Federation National Congress.
"There is still a lot of money in agriculture today, it's just that different people get it. The farmer gets far less, and to be honest, so does the taxation department."
Mr Joyce said the government was considering tougher regulations to protect farmers against the supermarket giants, and was helping farmers find new markets for their products to strengthen their negotiating position.
The green paper also flags measures to strengthen the hand of farmers in their dealings with resource companies, such as those seeking to extract coal seam gas.
The paper sets out a series of principles it proposes as a basis for nationally-consistent regulations that would be negotiated through the Council of Australian Governments.
The principles include that resource companies should require the agreement of farmers to access agricultural land, that farmers be entitled to financial compensation for access to their land, and that resource extraction not be allowed to damage water resources or agricultural land.
"If we need more gold then we can dig deeper and refine better but all the prime agricultural land that is known in the universe is known to us now. It is the ultimate finite asset," Mr Joyce said on Monday.
"Likewise, aquifers and waterways once destroyed cannot be made good. Agriculture can work with mining but mining's call must be subordinate to the protection of these vital assets. The cash flow of the 40 years of a mine will never match the 40,000 of the land if the agricultural asset is compromised," Mr Joyce said.
While the proposals on resource extraction are likely to be welcomed by farmers, other proposals for a number of new dams could be controversial.
The paper identifies more than 25 water infrastructure projects that could warrant Commonwealth investment, including Apsley Dam, Mole River Dam and Lostock Dam enlargement in NSW, Connors River Dam in Queensland and Ord River Stage III in Western Australia.
"Water is wealth and stored water is a bank," Mr Joyce said.
The government will invite submissions on its proposals by December 12. These submissions will inform a final statement of policy.