Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

The process will be rolling out at the start of next year. It never happened under you on the other side. It is easy for you because nothing ever happens under the Labor Party in agriculture, not a thing except bad news. Although they did do one thing: they shut down the live cattle trade. They managed that. That was a great day in the office, that one!

We are streamlining the regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemicals. That is part of the white paper and that is underway. We are standing behind cooperatives. We have been having the discussions with cooperatives. We had CBH in the office today as we start that process of trying to make sure that that runs out further. We are going through the selection process right now for a commissioner to sit with the ACCC so that farmers get a fairer deal. That is a policy that has happened under us. It never happened under Labor because no policies for agriculture happen under Labor. They do not believe in agriculture. All Labor can ever do is comment on our policies because this is the only side that has policies.

We brought forward opt-in for income tax averaging. We had opt-out and now we have opt-in. Once you got out of income tax averaging, you were unable to get back in. We are putting it back in so that after 10 years you can get back in. We are doing this.

We have already brought forward 100 per cent write-off on fences, 100 per cent write-off on water reticulation, a write-off over three years on fodder. These are the processes that are already happening, that we have already done, that are already there. We have done freight modelling for agriculture expansion to try and attract money into agriculture, to attract money for the construction of major nation-building infrastructure. We are already starting the process of better seasonal forecasting. We are putting $29.9 million towards trying to get multi-peril crop insurance up and running. We could go on.

Those opposite pooh-poohed the drought recovery loans because that is nothing. They only ever comment on our policies because they have got none of their own. They said what have we been doing? At this point in time, the total value of loans that have been allocated is $354.87 million—so I am informed right now—between farm finance, drought concessional and drought recovery. What is also important here is 675 applications have been approved. Do you know how many were approved under them? We had eight approved under the Labor Party-Greens-Independent coalition and 675 under us. That is a vast difference. You have to look to the government as to who actually does something in agriculture. We are actually doing it.

The Labor Party got farm household allowance, which is not a loan but a direct payment to those doing it tough, out to 367 people. Under us, 4,522 customers have received the payment. We can see the difference a government makes. We heard from the shadow minister for agriculture, the member for Hunter, that I had died without a trace. What do you call that? A block of flats? It is on the front page. It is not a bad 'look at me'. It is quite obvious that not only did we work hard but we got the respect back from people because they knew we had gone into bat for them.

We heard from the shadow minister for agriculture. It is like a booby prize for the Labor Party—anything agriculture, they hate it. They always wish they had something else, anything—a trip overseas. It is a bad-luck day when they get the Minister for Agriculture. But for us, it is the centre of government. We love it because it represents our work, our key constituency and the things that we need to do, the things that we are doing right now.

The member for Hunter said that the China free-trade agreement had more to do with them than us. I had a look. It started back in 2005. I was trying to remember who the government was back then and I thought, 'Hang on, it was the coalition that started it and the coalition that delivered on it.' Or we are going to do deliver on it if the Labor Party ever decide to come out and publicly state they will support it like the Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, wants it supported. The Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, wants it supported. The Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk wants it publicly supported like the premiers of every state. Other people I have some respect for like Bob Hawke wants it supported. Martin Ferguson wants it supported. Simon Crean wants it supported. Who does not want it supported? The love child of the BLF, the CFMEU, does not want it supported. Who do those opposite listen to? They listen to the love child of the BLF. Norm Gallagher, he is back. He is running Labor Party policy.

I know the shadow minister opposite knows full well it is a very bad look for a prospective government to look at its biggest client in the face and say, 'We are considering whether we want to do business with you.' That is a very peculiar thing for a prospective government to say out there away from the sensationalism of the BLF. You would probably do better to listen to the VFF or the NFF or AgForce. They would be better people to listen to than the BLF, but, anyway, you have made your choice. You have built your cross and now you are happily climbing up on it.

What we are doing is making sure that agriculture is at the centre of government. What we have done is made one of the most major policy deliveries in my time in parliament. What we are waiting for is that at some point in time, when all the angels are aligned, when all the things are right that a Labor Party member will come into this chamber and actually deliver what their policy for the future is going to be, any policy, any idea or maybe a question at question time about policy rather than a grab bag of gotcha moments. Because that is what competency does.

You should be spending your time in opposition—and the way you are going, you may be there for a fair while—developing policy. That is what we did. And then when we came to government, we delivered the white paper and we delivered the policy outcomes. If you cannot deliver any sort of vision, any sort of plan for the future in agriculture then when are you going to deliver your plans?

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

We have heard his agricultural policy is now family violence. That is incredible. We will run that one out there. I will take the interjection. The interjection from the member opposite was that his plan, as close as he could get to agriculture, was an issue about family violence. Family violence is extremely important and it needs proper diligence but it has nothing much to do with agriculture. Until you are able to come in here and talk about agriculture then we are going to call you for what you are. It is a pastime. You are incompetent. You have no hope because, if you do not have the acumen to come up with agricultural policy after two years, I believe you do not have any agricultural policy.

We will continue working as hard as we can on the policies that we have delivered. We will start rolling out the infrastructure, which we are already doing. We have got Chaffey Dam under way. We have got Tasmanian irrigation schemes underway. We are rolling forward now with the 1,500 gigawatt cap on the Murray-Darling Basin. This will put some form of security back into the Murray-Darling Basin, which was absolutely decimated by the previous governments and their interaction with the Greens and the Independents, which left us in a bizarre position. There is only one group of people that the Australian people need to listen to if they want to hear agricultural policy and that is the coalition, because the Labor Party, the Greens and the Independents have offered and do offer nothing. (Time expired).

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