Matters of Urgency — Agriculture Industry

Andrew Bragg

I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 10 September 2024, from Senator McKenzie:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Labor Government to end its anti-farming agenda, which is damaging Australia's competitive advantages, driving up the cost of doing business for Australian farmers and further increasing the cost of living for all Australians."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will now set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Bridget McKenzie

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Labor Government to end its anti-farming agenda, which is damaging Australia's competitive advantages, driving up the cost of doing business for Australian farmers and further increasing the cost of living for all Australians.

I move this motion in the Australian Senate today because it is today that the Australian farming public—and I see many people in the gallery from Western Australia and beyond—have had enough of a Labor Party that does not care about the future sustainability, prosperity or security of their present business or, indeed, their intergenerational operations.

We have had thousands of farmers from right across this great wide brown land here on the front steps of parliament. Did the Prime Minister bother to come out of this ivory tower onto the front lawns and face the accusers? No. He gave the President of the NFF a bit of a shellacking, and might have used choice words that aren't very parliamentary, but the Prime Minister refused to meet the thousands of people who gathered this morning. The Minister for Agriculture—cooee!—couldn't be found either. Nor did she bother to go over to Western Australia to actually face a state that is on the front line of this government's anti-farming agenda.

The live sheep trade out of Western Australia is a trade that is celebrated, is a key system in primary production in the west and provides culturally appropriate protein to the Middle East. Never mind that it is world leading in animal husbandry and that it underpins thousands of jobs in the west; this Labor government and this Prime Minister were prepared to trade the livelihoods of these Western Australian primary producers for a few cheap seats in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Dirty deals done dirt cheap, and who pays? The Australian farming family.

It wasn't just those that support the Keep the Sheep campaign. There were irrigators from the Murray-Darling Basin who have seen this government decimate their future by removing the socioeconomic test that was required before a government would remove additional water from these farmers. What's Tanya Plibersek done? She's just said: 'We're taking it anyway. We don't care about the science. We don't care about how healthy the Murray River is. We don't care about how many suicides this will cause in the Murray-Darling Basin. We're taking the water anyway'. Any farmer worth their salt, any of us nine million Australians who don't live in capital cities, knows that if you remove water you remove wealth from these communities.

The cattle industry, the NTCA, was in town. We know that it is sheep first and it is the cattle industry next, and I know my colleague and cattlewoman herself Senator Susie McDonald will have more to say on that later in this debate. This government let their mask slip when we had the Rural and Regional Women's Award in this very building a couple of weeks ago. The Prime Minister almost choked on his beautiful Australian beef! He wanted to swallow his words instead of swallowing that fabulous product when he let it slip that he is coming for the live cattle trade next. The NTCA were also out there. But it is not just our primary producers who are under attack by this government; it's our trucking industries and the whole supply chain that underpins them and our regional communities. This government doesn't care. They think we're out of sight, out of mind, and today, we made our voice heard.

I was very proud, as a National Party leader in this Senate chamber and as a rural and regional woman myself, to stand next to the National Party's candidate for the new seat of Bullwinkel in the west, Mia Davies, a woman who comes from primary production stock. She's been the Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia. She's experienced, passionate and serious about standing up for the west here in this place. It's about time Western Australians had someone in the House of Representatives that is prepared to back them in a way that Prime Minister Albanese and his government haven't.

Anthony Chisholm

It's a real pleasure for me to speak and to dispel the myths that the opposition have been purporting when it comes to this motion. I welcome the opportunity to oppose it today.

I was recently appointed the Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and I have very much enjoyed the engagement I've had from industry in the month or so that I've been in that portfolio. They are very welcoming, very knowledgeable and very happy to share their thoughts and knowledge with me, which I appreciate. I acknowledge that there is a lot to learn in this space; it is such a big portfolio area, and I am very grateful for the engagement I've had with industry. My door is always open, and I am always happy to have a discussion with them.

One of the first opportunities I had was to speak at the National Farmers Federation Leaders Summit in Canberra a number of weeks ago. That was something I really enjoyed and valued. I was very clear, when I outlined the agenda the government is pursuing when it comes to agriculture, fisheries and forestry, that we know we're not going to agree on every issue, but we are committed to working and finding common ground and ensuring that we can advance the industry. That's exactly what we have been doing since we came to government. We've delivered on our election promises but we've also been focused on the future, because we understand not only how important this area is to the country but also the export potential that avails itself in this portfolio.

It's interesting that Senator McKenzie didn't talk about the record of the previous government, when they were in power, and what we inherited, but that has been a big focus of this government, in terms of correcting what we saw from the previous 10 years of those opposite. What did we actually see when we came to government? We saw a $100 million black hole in the biosecurity budget. There's one thing that unites the agriculture sector: the concerns they have about biosecurity. That's something we had to go about fixing in the budget, which we have done.

We saw a decade of climate denial and no support to help the agriculture industry meet their own climate targets. This is something that industry see as an opportunity. Previously, they didn't have a government that was committed to working with them. They have that now in this current government, and we see tremendous opportunities. We know about the damage those opposite did to the APVMA and the dysfunctional mess they left it in for so many years. That has taken so much time to fix, and it is now on the right path. Also, there are the trade relationships that are so important in this sector that they neglected and eroded over 10 years of time. We've been getting on with the job of fixing these challenges, which the opposition couldn't be bothered to do or had failed to do. We are delivering for Australian farmers and producers, and we are committed to a robust, sustainable agricultural industry that continues to thrive in Australia, because we understand how important it is for so many parts of this country.

We've been strengthening Australia's biosecurity system, ensuring long-term sustainable funding with an investment of over $1 billion. We know the threats will continue; that's why it is important that we have a robust biosecurity system in place that can do what is needed to keep Australia free. We've delivered $11.1 million to uplift northern Australia's ability to detect, prepare for and respond to exotic plant, animal and aquatic pests and diseases, through funding the implementation of the Northern Australia Biosecurity Strategy.

We've boosted the agriculture workforce, securing fee-free TAFE and vocational education and training places for courses right across Australia. So far we've seen over 14,000 enrolments in agriculture courses. We've also worked with industry to adjust program settings for the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme to continue the transition period for minimum-hour settings until 1 July next year. The May budget included $1.9 million over three years to provide targeted grants for industry led projects, with benefits across the sector. We'll continue to invest in programs that support the employment and retention of our best people.

We're opening up new trade opportunities for our sector to grow and diversify overseas markets. In 2023-24, Australia exported over 70 per cent of its agriculture, fisheries and forestry production to 169 markets globally—the most diversified trade has ever been. Restoration of market access for several agriculture and forestry products contributed a record $17.4 billion in exports to China last year alone. We've delivered over $3 billion in extra funding for agriculture since taking office and over $500 million to the National Reconstruction Fund. We understand how important this sector is to the economy and to Australians. That's why we will continue to support it, despite the rhetoric of those opposite.

Peter Whish-Wilson

It's always good to see farmers in Canberra. Good on those farmers who travelled from around the country to exercise their right to protest and have their voices heard in this place. The Greens don't agree with everything they were here protesting on today, especially the ban on live sheep export—that's something we have supported—but we do support farmers in other areas. And, I've got to say, it's good to see the Nationals today standing with farmers. In the 13 years I've been in this place, I've watched them abandon the farming community and join forces with the coalmining industry and the resources industry. That's where their heart has been in the past decade.

What is ironic about that is that the biggest threat facing farmers in this country and indeed all around the world—the same for our supply chains in this country—is climate change. And the Nationals, more than anyone in this place, in the past decade have undermined climate action—in this building, decisions we've made on acting on climate. My state of Tasmania recently had another record flooding event—last week. My mates who have farms lost a significant number of cattle, sheep and trees, and this is happening right around the country. Extreme weather is a function of our changing climate, which is caused by rising emissions, which is caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuel and the approval of fossil fuel projects, which this government continues to do, and the previous government championed it while they were in this place. And, if we look at Australia's winter, this was the third winter in a row where we've set records—42 degrees only a couple of weeks ago, a new record, and temperatures across the heartland of over 16 degrees Celsius above their long-term averages. We're continuing to see weather records broken everywhere.

And we talk about concerns over water in the Murray-Darling Basin. We talk about biosecurity risks being presented to Tasmanian farmers and to farmers all around this country. And it's climate change. So, how ironic that Senator McKenzie comes in here today to put up a motion talking about how this government is somehow making life worse for farmers and has an agenda to put them out of business, when what is actually putting them out of business are droughts and famine and pestilence and everything that goes with what we know is climate change.

I just wanted to make it really clear today that if you're an Australian farmer you need to be rightly concerned about the government not acting fast enough. And I'm pleased that there are thousands of farmers around this country who have joined Farmers for Climate Action and are calling, in a bipartisan and tripartisan way, for more action on the climate from politicians in this place. That's what I think I would like to hear farmers calling for. That's what we need.

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