Background/Context:

Australia's climate response must integrate food system resilience as a core pillar. Ensuring equitable access to nutritious food, supporting vulnerable communities, and promoting sustainable farming are not just agricultural goals: they’re central to achieving a just and green transition and securing our food supply into the future.

According to the Global Food Security Index, Australia is among the top 10 most food-secure nations globally, with strong performance in affordability, availability, and quality of food. We are around 89% self-reliant for food, with imports being predominantly motivated by taste and variety rather than necessity. However, Australia is also at significant risk of extreme and changing weather patterns that may impact food production systems, including changes to rainfall patterns, more extreme heat, increased intensity and duration of droughts, higher risk of floods, and longer fire seasons. Our agricultural systems are highly sensitive to climate shocks because it is predominantly rainfed, so these climate impacts will pose significant challenges to production systems. 

To ensure food security in a changing climate, Australia must embed resilience into its national response—by restoring soils, supporting sustainable agriculture, and ensuring all communities have access to nutritious food.

Why is it important?

• Climate change is turning Australia’s long-standing agricultural strengths into points of vulnerability, seasons are out of sync, and natural disasters are compounding risks across the entire food supply chain.
• Agriculture in Australia faces significant environmental and economic impacts brought about by climate change. 
• Mitigating and adapting to the negative effects on agricultural ecosystems of weather variations is strategically important to national resilience.
• Australia needs to adopt a more coherent approach to the critically important convergence of food security, climate change and national security.
• The rise in food prices, especially for fresh produce, is pushing low-income and remote communities further into nutritional disadvantage.

Who to contact:

• Your local Federal MPs (check on this website if you’re unsure who that is)
• Key Federal Ministers (addresses in link) including Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins; Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen;  Minister for Health Mark Butler; Minister for Trade Don Farrell; Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt
• Federal Senate Crossbenchers (addresses in link) including the Greens, Independents David Pocock and Tammy Tyrell, and Jacqui Lambie (JLN), who hold the balance of power in the Senate.
• Equivalent Ministers in your state

Additional Resources:

• Email example below and general email template to write your own from scratch

Further Reading:

• Climate Council Report on Climate Change and Food Security
• Farmers for Climate ‘Fork in the Road’ report on risks and vulnerabilities in Australia’s food supply chain arising from climate change
• Australian Strategic Policy Institute article ‘Australia’s national security depends on robust, sustainable food and nutrition security’

Email Example

If you need some help getting started with your email, here is an example with some ideas. 

Please don’t copy it exactly - personalise it and tailor it to the MP you are writing to. 

In addition, when writing to a Minister or Shadow Minister, start by saying that you’re writing to them in their role as Minister for xxxx, otherwise they will probably just forward your email to your local MP.

[MP name]

[Member for …. or  Minister for ….]

Dear [Insert MP’s Name]

[personal first sentence - who you are, why you care...]

I am asking you please to introduce, develop and pursue initiatives and policies focused on the future security of Australia’s food system, whilst also lessening the agricultural impacts on climate change. 

Recent events, such as flooding in Northern NSW affecting crops and  rising grocery prices, show just how fragile parts of our system have become. A resilient food system is not only a public health necessity—it’s a matter of national security.

I respectfully ask:

• Will you make sure [State/Federal Electorate] pushes for the implementation of strategies (mitigation/adaptation) to ensure the future security of food in and Australia as well as reduce agricultural impacts on climate change?
• Will you support the development of a comprehensive national food security strategy, with clear adaptation and mitigation measures?
• Will you advocate for investment in regenerative agriculture, soil health, and water-smart farming?
• Will you table this issue in Parliament or raise it with relevant ministers, to ensure that Australia’s food future is part of the climate conversation?

I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to hear your views on this critical issue, and I welcome the chance to discuss it further in a meeting or correspondence.

Sincerely,

Name

Address

Phone

(Note: your contact details are required if you want a reply)

Major causes of climate change