Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

Like the member for Page, I own several pairs of RM Williams; however, that is really as close as I get to the rural sector in the seat I represent. The member for Page gave us a plethora of fine examples, the highlight of which was quite clearly the Deputy Prime Minister and how seriously he takes biosecurity. When it comes to taking head-on two of Hollywood's heavyweights, he did not flinch. Into battle he went—forgive the pun. Pistol and Boo originally came here unannounced and undetected, but the Deputy Prime Minister was not prepared to let this slide. That is the measure of how he became an instant overnight Hollywood success. And we laugh about that, and Hollywood made fun of that. What the member for Page knows better than most in this place, I would argue, given that he is the holder of a proud rural seat, is the importance of our agricultural sector to this great country.

I note the change in the deputy speaker, with Deputy Speaker Coulton now being in the chair. He holds an agricultural seat, in which my brother-in-law has a substantial landholding and is a farmer, up near Moree. Although I do not hold an agricultural seat, I have the honour of being the Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science. One of the first growth centres coming out of the National Innovation and Science Agenda in December 2015 was the agricultural growth centre, the most developed of the six. Earlier today I met with the leader of that growth centre, listening to the success stories that are feeding into the $60 billion role that this industry, agriculture, will play in the next 12 months in this great country. I am married to a country girl. I remember being down in Coolac a few years ago, when cattle farmers were getting $1.75 or $1.80 per kilo. Today the same cattle is selling for $3.70 a kilo. The resultant change in business has come. Capital has flown into the sector. We hear a lot about foreign investment in our agricultural sector, but it pales into insignificance when you consider the capital that has been freed up, with increased commodity prices, for so-long depressed farmers to reinvest in their landholdings and their families' future. It is great see as I travel around.

I could list innovation after innovation that I have seen spawned not just from our agricultural growth centre but from great government institutions like CSIRO. Recently I was there talking to a great company that has cattle collars—it is a virtual fence concept. They use GPS technology, solar charged, around the neck of cattle. They program the fences on the software. It has an electrical charge and a noise. You can more efficiently chart how the cattle move around the paddocks and their proximity to water without building the traditional, capital-intensive fence. Because the cattle are walking far less distance, the profile of their weight gain is far more attractive, productive and profitable, and that feeds in.

This bill is a great bill because it makes that $60 billion safe. We take this seriously. This is an international treaty. It was started in 2004-05. We have signed up to it and it will be implemented later this year. The member for Page mentioned waterborne prawn viruses and the role that we have with our shipping—not often thought of. You know when you go overseas on a plane and you come back and you see them walking along with aerosols to get mosquitoes that could be travelling—

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