A blueprint to harness "the anger and frustration" of farmers by attacking Labor-held electorates on slender margins in the lead-up to the federal election is being pushed around the ridges.
The influential Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia's plan is to make farmers a big dilemma for Labor - but rests on raising upwards of $6 million from those feeling most disenfranchised by state and federal government "anti-farming" policies, particularly a looming ban on live sheep by sea exports.
An internal PGA document titled "marginal seat campaign - potential seats to target" has identified several divisions principally in WA as potentially vulnerable to nuanced campaigns led by farmers, but also some around the country they believe primed for protest if there was a local appetite to take up the fight.
These are Lingiari in the Northern Territory, held by 0.95 of a per cent, Tangney (2.37pc), Hasluck (5.95pc), Pearce (8.98pc), Swan (8.99pc) and Cowan (10.7pc) in WA, Paterson (3.27pc), Hunter (4.08pc) and Shortland (5.25pc) in NSW and Blair in Queensland (5.23pc).
"If anyone thinks European farmers are the only ones that are angry they are kidding themselves, the feeling across regional Australia right now is just the same," PGA president Tony Seabrook said.
"But we don't go into town here and pump pig faeces around the place and dump hay on the road. We'd just be arrested, we need to work out exactly what our political leaders will respond to and that is putting four or five of their MP's under pressure."
In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, he said farmers will get nowhere telling voters in these seats that "we love our sheep or don't want to pay a new (biosecurity protection) levy", and so must frame the politics around cut-through issues such as interest rates, income, inflation, living expenses and energy, supply chain squeezes, red tape and housing and worker shortfalls.
"All of the things that they promised they would fix or would not turn sour, and how what is happening to us is hurting them," he said.
The plan has similar vibes to the Climate 200 campaign that propelled Teal candidates to win federal seats in 2022.
And while it currently lacks rich benefactors, it does have plenty of "unnecessary policies doing staggering amounts of harm to our industry" to galvanise supporters.
These include the live sheep by sea ban, BPL, industrial relations and migration reforms, energy and decarbonisation policies and welfare topics - as agriculture becomes ground zero for climate and animal activists.
"We have to do them more electoral harm than they perceive they would receive if they walked away from, say, the banning of live export," Mr Seabrook said.
He also admits the plan "sounds fanciful and naive" but he is also "done throwing sticks and stones at an army with rifles."
And is also acutely aware of the backs to the wall power of producers after co-leading a WA farmer fightback against Aboriginal heritage laws subsequently repealed by the state government last year.
Meanwhile, one of the few other doors to protest may have quietly closed.
WAFarmers president John Hassell confirmed plans for a farmer protest to coincide with the federal cabinet meeting in Perth two weeks ago were cancelled after the organisation was handed a $40,000 public indemnity insurance bill.
The PGA's plan, on the other hand, is to approach "beneficiaries" of agriculture, like Elders and Nutrien, for seed money then ask farmers to tip in.
"If we look at the WA sheep farmers who are going to lose at least $50 to $60 a head off the value of their stock anyway, if they tip in 50 cents a head to help save the live sheep trade that's $6m," Mr Seabrook said.
Funds would be used for a range of measures, including helping farmers use their own credibility and contacts to relay messaging through their local communities and hiring specialists with the "right skill-sets to make a national impact" that potentially includes radio ads, social media campaigns and localised community actions, including bombarding local media and sensitive live audiences with poignant stories.
Like the cherry farmer tipping over his trees that featured on 4 Corners two weeks ago and drew public ire towards Canberra and corporate titans clocking up record profits.
The plan is being road tested as polls are tightening up for Labor in Queensland and WA - where it only secured government with a handful of close division wins.
A letter, co-signed by Hassell and Seabrook, and sent to 15 parliamentarians, including 14 Labor and 1 Greens MP, asking for a meeting on live sheep export attracted 13 knock-backs and only two - Labor's Josh Wilson and Louise Pratt - accepting the offer.
