Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am here today to support the motion moved by the member for Murray, Dr Stone, and to acknowledge that the economic contributions of the fruit growers and workers in the local food-processing industry are vitally important to Australia and its economy. Like Dr Stone's electorate, my electorate of Flynn houses the biggest citrus farm in the Southern Hemisphere and also we have some fine lemon plantations, many of the seedless variety, which have proven popular on the international market.

Also within my electorate I have 2PH Farms in Emerald and Abbotsleigh Citrus farm in Wallaville, near Bundaberg. These are major contributors to our export market. A few years ago the Emerald citrus industry was flattened by the terrible citrus canker disease. That meant the removal of hundreds of thousands of trees on that particular plantation and many other, smaller plantations around it. It also meant that any lemon trees and citrus trees in the township itself had to be removed. So if you had an orange or a mandarin tree in your own backyard, then that had to go. There was a complete shutdown of the industry for three years. Then they had to replant.

If you now go to 2PH Farms you will see any tree on that plantation is no older than five years. It just goes to show the resilience and the energy of these citrus farmers. Australia produces food for 60 million people in the world and, in the next 10 years, we know that number will increase to 120 million people. So we need these vitally important citrus plantations and canneries to keep on producing food as we know it today or have known it in the past.

There is plenty of competition and I believe that all states grow lots of citrus. They have enough competition amongst themselves to ensure that they are always thriving for more efficient ways in which to do their farming. I think our farmers are the most efficient in the world when it comes to citrus growing.

Some of my farmers in the Flynn electorate have moved overseas and set up plantations in South America. They are wary of the canker disease coming back and wiping them out again and they cannot afford to rebuild a second time. Because of that, they have invested some money in overseas ventures.

The problem we have, as the other speakers have said, is the high Australian dollar. We have cheap imported foods, which include canned fruit. With the cost of production in Australia, it is not easy to compete with the rest of the world. We have an uneven playing field when it comes to exporting and importing fruit. We import less fruit than we export. We face imports from South Africa, China, Spain and Greece. Italy is a big exporter to Australia of tinned tomatoes.

There are other smaller-scale players in my electorate in the Burnett region, Mundubbera and Gayndah, which are also very big producers. The Gayndah crop this year was flattened by a hail storm and then later we had those devastating floods which devastated the towns of Mundubbera, Gayndah and Monto and Bundaberg, where there was significant damage done. However, the industry is starting to get back on its feet.

It quite amazes me, when you go to the citrus plantations how much, I believe, good fruit is thrown on the ground. About 40 per cent of the fruit ends up on the ground. When you are walking around the plantation you do not want to step on it because it looks like good fruit but it gets rejected by the cannery and markets. Another high cost to Australian citrus farmers is near perfect fruit not being accepted by the canneries and associated markets. It all adds up the fact that our farmers are very efficient. They have very real problems with anti-dumping and we need to tighten up our anti-dumping legislation. (Time expired)

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