John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

We are discussing the cost-of-living pressures and the economic issues that face Australia at the moment, or more particularly the fact that the current government is not addressing them. When you talk about the cost-of-living pressures and what goes with them, nothing is more at the heart of or more central to them than the cost of fresh food and, more particularly, the ability of Australia’s farmers to produce that fresh food, and food and water security. I do not think there is any doubt that food and water security—whether treated either as one issue or as two separate issues—are two of the defining global issues of the 21st century. The world’s major food-producing regions have been hit with climatic issues over the past year, with the ever-present threat of disease and everything that goes with that affecting the major agricultural producers. There are also global food shortages. These are all happening now. In fact, our Prime Minister has been demanding action from the global community on the issue of food security and yet, at the same time, he and his ministers, his government, are doing anything but ensuring our long-term food security, particularly our long-term fresh food security.

We are faced at the present time with the drought. Over the last six to eight months this has led to a spiralling of food prices, particularly fresh food prices. There is a very real danger that with the government’s water and agricultural policy, or lack of one, we will go from a natural drought—that is, once it does rain, there is water—to a man-made drought. We are facing the very real prospect of a man-made drought along the Murray-Darling system and, as a consequence of that, we could have permanently increased fresh food prices in Australia, because most of that fresh food, as you would be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, is produced along the Murray-Darling Basin. If anyone thinks that it is out of order to suggest that bad government policy can lead to drastic food shortages or spiralling prices in the supermarket, then you only have to look at what happened to a lot of African countries. It has also happened in South America in the past and it could happen in Australia if we continue to treat Australia’s farmers and Australia’s water as though they were simply a political intellectual exercise.

In talking about the cost-of-living pressures and about fresh food prices, I have to talk about the Murray-Darling Basin. I have to talk about the National Plan for Water Security. We had a plan which was going to guarantee the nation’s food security and lead to sustainability in the basin. What the new government and in particular the new minister, Senator Wong, seem to be looking at is only one aspect of that—that is, pulling water out. At the moment she is buying water without putting a drop of water back into the system.

When you look at the policies being pursued, you see that, yes, obviously the drought is the main reason for spiralling food prices in Australia over the past six to 12 months. But that situation is going to be incredibly worsened because, on one hand, Senator Wong just spent $50 million—or we assume she did—on buying water. I would be very surprised if that $50 million or the water that was bought with it is anything but air space, because if anybody who had an allocation at the time—and apart from high security that has not been used, no-one does—needed money that badly, they would sell the temporary transfer rights for almost as much as the licence is worth in this time of shortage and still have the allocation or the licence. On the other hand, at the same time that Senator Wong is doing that without putting any water back in the river, she is quite happy to give Victoria— (Time expired)

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