THE HON DAVID LITTLEPROUD MP
Leader of The Nationals
Shadow Agriculture Minister
11 January 2026
Labor’s climate reporting will drive up cost-of-living pressures in 2026
Labor’s climate-related financial disclosure laws in 2026 will put further pressure on families and farmers in a cost-of-living crisis.
Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said that the commencement of indirect greenhouse gas emissions reporting on January 1, 2026, known as Scope 3, will place costly reporting on smaller entities in the supply chain.
Retailers, processors and even banks may be required to report on their emissions, but also require their farmers to report individually.
“Labor’s Scope 3 in 2026 is an attack on farmers and fresh food that could increase cost-of-living pressures on families,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The changes could make food more expensive amid a cost-of-living crisis, while also causing confusion and uncertainty for farmers.”
Treasury’s own estimates put the regulatory cost of Labor’s climate related financial disclosure legislation at $2.3 billion per year, costs that will have to be passed onto the consumer.
Mr Littleproud said even Joe Biden had the brains not to impose this on the US economy when he was President, because it would drive up costs and make the US uncompetitive.
“The 2025 AUSVEG survey indicated that 40 per cent of growers are seriously considering leaving the industry and the burden of compliance and regulation is one of the top three reasons growers are considering exiting,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Labor is coming after the agriculture sector once again in 2026. When supply goes down, prices go up, making groceries even more expensive at the supermarket checkout for families.”
Fraser Coast pineapple farmer Col Hawken said as a small family farm, the new reporting burden would be enormous.
“More reporting and more administration will nearly break us,” Mr Hawken said.
“We already have so much complicated and confusing compliance, accountability and responsibility and it actually needs to decrease and simplify, not increase.
“The government really needs to look at this and question what impact this will have on a small family business. It takes a lot of time and money to cost everything, if it’s even possible to work out.
“We often take a price for our pineapples and get paid some six to eight weeks later. These changes will make the produce at least five per cent more expensive to cover the cost of compliance.
“I am certain that there is zero consultation and consideration towards the impacts of how small business is equipped with the resources to be able to understand and implement legislation like this. We need life to be more small business friendly, but this just makes life harder.”
Mr Littleproud added the policy is also confusing and costly for accounting and recording on-farm emissions.
Labor still can’t explain how many of the 1762 entities considered for the policy are part of the agriculture industry.
The guidelines to help producers navigate emissions data requests are complex and still not finalised. The first tranche of drafts is a total of 359 pages long and the second tranche is yet to be released.
Industry has also informed the government that ‘there is a very real risk of unconscionable conduct by reporting entities against suppliers regarding the sharing of data to satisfy Scope 3 Obligations’.
“The Bill is a green tape bomb, because compliance costs will inevitably be passed onto families, meaning Labor’s self-made cost-of-living crisis is only going to get worse in 2026,” Mr Littleproud said.
