>Does Australian agriculture get large subsidies like in the US and the EU?
Interesting question. Not like the US and EU, no. Cockies in Australia would tell you that they are completely unsubsidised. Which is true on the surface in that there is little direct protection. There's centralised marketing schemes like the Wheat Board and so on, but the direct government subsidies or guaranteed prices are all but gone. Even milk production and sale has now been de-regulated (devastating many small farmers.)
But in a country like Australia, simply providing the basic infrastructure like communications, transport, water etc. to the bush is a huge indirect subsidy. Thiago mentioned the rice industry, which is constantly whinging about not getting a fair crack at Asian markets like Japan (they reckon Australian rice is poisonous) but the truth is that these industries are able to produce cheap commodities because the true costs are not factored in. The rice industry for example (like the cotton industry) uses massive quantities of chemicals and of course water in a dry continent, causing untold environmental damage downstream as the major river systems become infested with algae blooms for thousands of miles.
Roads are not cheap to build and maintain either and cockies pay little tax. In fact owning a farm is a traditional tax dodge for the city elite. Thiago also mentioned the cross-subsidisation of telecommunications in the bush. This is not even questioned, but it obviously costs a lot more to provide such services in the cities, where nearly all Australians live, because almost the same quality of service is expected in from Bourke to Bracknell. Not that I'm complaining. ;-)
(I'm starting to worry that I'll never get access to cheap broadband internet here, they keep promising it'll be another 3 months, but nothing ever happens. Must remember to write a whinging letter to the paper.)
Tasmania has a huge opium poppy industry, but you'd hardly call that a free market. Its a privilege granted by the international pharmaceutical cartels, but you have to wonder whether Tasmanian farmers would really be able to compete with, say, Afghan farmers, if there was a real free market.
Really though, a lot of agriculture in Australia is quite unsustainable. Virtually a soil mining operation that quickly destroys the already meagre capacity of the land, turning it into desert and salt pan after a few years. That isn't unique to Australia, but most of the continent's soils and climate are uniquely unsuitable for farming. Farmers who moan about droughts that occur 7 years out of every ten should be regarded as slow learners, but people actually sympathise with them in this country. Instead of telling them to face up to the reality that this is what happens when you try to farm in a desert.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas