Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Is the Treasurer aware that not only is Australia now a net importer of fruit and vegetables, pork and seafood but also the ABS international trade series indicates that Australia will become a net importer of all food items within the next 12 years? Would the Treasurer advise how Australia will feed itself when the Murray-Darling, currently producing 45 per cent of Australia’s food, is cut from eight million megalitres of irrigation to only five million megalitres?

Finally, in light of this and the dire implications of the diminution of our indigenous soil—albeit that all three are creations of the previous government—could the Treasurer assure the House that, in contrast, this government will look at some food and biofuel production in Northern Australia, where an area the size of Europe with almost all of Australia’s water has at present virtually no agricultural or biofuel production whatsoever, except for a minute coastal strip in a small dot of the Ord—

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