Last December a Senate Inquiry was established to inquire into the secretive 'Commission of Audit', set up by Tony Abbott's government shortly after asssuming office in September 2013.

This Commission is operating in a non-transparent and largely unaccountable manner, with an apparent mandate to act as a de-facto 'razor gang', whose goal is to impose savage cutbacks across the public sector in the next few months and years.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance shares the concerns of many others regarding the establishment of this Commission and its secretive modus operandi, and today (31st January, 2014) we issued a brief submission to the Inquiry, which we reproduce below.

• Food is a basic human need, so access to good, healthy food at all times for all people is a basic human right, which our governments at all levels are obliged to
• uphold, having regard to the fact that Australia is both a signatory to the United Nations Covenant on Economic and Social Rights, and has ratified this foundational document of international human rights law
• Thriving rural communities and viable family farms are basic to a healthy food system
• Agriculture is impossible without healthy land and waterways, so farmers must be supported in their role as environmental stewards caring for soils and landscapes
• Sustainable agriculture for the future will increasingly be based around the principles of agro-ecology, where knowledge is freely shared amongst farmers and growers
• Our prime agricultural lands are the basis of our future: they need to be identified and protected from suburban sprawl, coal-seam gas mining, foreign ownership and control
• Food systems that are fair to farmers and eaters, and that are environmentally sustainable, are ones that are diversified and decentralised
• Excessive corporate concentration and control over any sector of the food system – seeds, inputs, land, distribution, retail, trade - is inconsistent with the democratic core of Food Sovereignty