Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House what action the government has taken over the last few months to grow the agricultural sector; and what are the biggest threats to the agricultural productivity going forward?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, and he knows more than most about what is happening in the agricultural sector and how it is growing. We are currently negotiating greater access for peaches, plums and apricots into China. That will go on the back of nectarines, which we have access to—and the access that we have previously done with grapes—and how we are actually turning around the agricultural industry and have been since we have been in government.

It should be noted that the national gross value of agriculture production when we came to government was $48.6 billion. It is now in excess of $63 billion. A 31 per cent increase is a remarkable turnaround—the biggest turnaround that we have had in this nation—and it comes from good luck and also good governance. Good governance is so important. We stand behind things such as the free trade agreements, which drive products in, but it is not just those; it is also getting things up such as the sugar code.

I note how important that sugar code was for the member for Dawson, the member for Capricornia and the member for Flynn. We went into bat for the sugar producers up there and made sure that we delivered for them—or for the Australian people in general, when we got the country-of-origin labelling through. The country-of-origin labelling clearly shows whether something is made in Australia with Australian workers, with Australian farmers and backed by the Australian workplace health and safety requirements or is made overseas. There is nothing wrong with things coming from overseas, we just need to know. Also, the proportion of what is in the package—how much comes from our nation.

These are all incredibly important, and we know that there are also a number of threats. Probably one of the greatest threats is the price of power. The price of power is so vitally important for irrigators, for abattoirs, and for so many. We are working so hard to make sure that we get a better outcome, but we do not get much support from the Labor Party. I would like to acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from Queensland and what they are doing. They are brave enough to build a coal-fired power station. They have the capacity to do it. Over here, they do not believe. They want to shut them all down—in fact, the member for Port Adelaide wants to shut all the coal-fired power stations down. They were actually celebrating when they shut down Hazelwood. They said it would not cause a problem. What did we see after they shut down Hazelwood? Where did the price of power go? It went up, and that is what you get. If you had the nation run by them, you would have had South Australia across the nation—just complete chaos.

We are not scared of having coal-fired power. We are not scared of making sure that we have affordable power so that working men and women have manufacturing jobs. We believe in them having manufacturing jobs. We believe in the coalminers. We believe in the steelworkers at Whyalla. We still stand up for them, but the Labor Party has given up on them. The Labor Party no longer believes in labourers, and the head of the Labor Party, in opposition, is the former head of the AWU. (Time expired)

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned.