Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on the Rural Research and Development Legislation Amendment Bill 2014. It is rather timely, given the very remarkable behaviour of the Minister for Agriculture in question time today. It certainly reflects on his lack of commitment and skill when it comes to making sure that we are providing good policies and plans for those in regional and rural Australia. I think they would have concerns about the lack of ability of the relevant minister.

This bill makes amendments to the rural research and development legislation and gives effect to yet another unfair budget measure. What we see is a very definite pattern with this government of broken promises and unfair budget measures. In regional areas like mine, locals know that when it comes to unfair budget measures and broken promises it is the National Party who are to blame and they are very vocal in their criticisms. We can add this bill to the long list of promises broken by the National Party which includes the doctor tax, the petrol tax, cuts to education and cuts to the pensions.

The bill is designed to allow the government to recover the cost of membership fees to international commodity organisations and regional fisheries management organisations from the matching amounts paid to rural research and development corporations. Other measures included in the bill will remove the requirement for the minister to organise an annual coordination meeting for the chairs of the statutory RDCs and removes some parliamentary tabling requirements. As I have said, this is another unfair budget measure which will impact greatly on the research and development work undertaken by the rural research and development corporations.

The government's proposed changes to the current RDC matching funding model are fundamentally changing the focus of the RDC system. The fact is the RDCs should not have to pay the membership fees for the Australian government, which is the reality. If the government believes that there is value for it to be a member of these international organisations then it should pay the membership fees. Matching funding by the government to the RDCs is an investment in the future of our agriculture, fisheries and forestry. It is generally estimated that for each genuine R&D dollar there is a $10 return and our RDCs should be allowed to invest in projects that will benefit their industry and not bear the brunt of the government's lack of strategic planning for our RDCs. As it states of the Department of Agriculture website:

The RDCs invest in R&D and innovation to improve the productivity and delivery of high quality products in order to underpin the competitiveness and profitability of Australia's agricultural, fish and forestry industries. RDC R&D and innovation also supports the sustainability of primary production and the natural resource base.

That is what the website says, and that is what the government should be properly investing in, it is what they should be properly focusing on, but of course that is not the case.

Also, we do hear the government talking about agriculture being one of the five pillars of the economy, yet its actions are completely opposed to that. By cutting funding to research and development, that is what we see. That is what we see from this Minister for Agriculture, who I see is now back in the chamber; that is indeed what he has been responsible for. Look at some of those cuts: an $80 million reduction in cooperative research centre programs; more than $100 million in funding cuts to the CSIRO, which will cost around 500 jobs. What a major impact that will be with around 500 jobs going. As we have said, we on this side of the House oppose this bill and its unfair measures.

As we know, there are up to 15 rural research and development corporations covering our agricultural industries. These 15 research and development corporations are made up of nine industry-owned companies that provide R&D services and marketing for the benefit of their industries, and six research and development corporations that provide leadership and investment. Those industry owned companies are—I will run through that list; it is important to have that list on the record—the Australian Egg Corporation Ltd, Australian Livestock Export Corporation Ltd, Australian Meat Processor Corporation Ltd, Australian Pork Ltd, Australian Wool Innovation Ltd, Dairy Australia Ltd, Forest and Wood Products Australia Ltd, Horticulture Australia Ltd, Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd.

The research and development corporations are: Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and Sugar Research and Development Corporation. The RDCs bring together industry and researchers to investigate and implement strategic directions and to fund projects that provide industry with the innovation and productivity tools to compete in those very, very important global markets. And it is the demand of these global markets that is really effectively driving our agricultural industries and the government should be supporting that, not undermining it.

The RDC model of joint industry and government funding has been absolutely vital in the success of Australia's R&D effort, having helped Australian agriculture double its productivity over the past 25 years—what a great achievement. In fact, this co-funding model is the envy of the world, and that is why we in Labor are here fighting to protect that. We know how good it is. Labor's R&D model is what working with industry is all about: not telling industry what to do, but facilitating and helping it; to be in partnership with industry. That is what is important.

The government-industry partnership model works well. It has successfully functioned for more than 20 years, which is absolutely fantastic. It is about government matching industry contributions; that is the key. But this bill, like so much else this Liberal-National government has introduced into the House since 2013, really has been an unfair attack on those ordinary, hardworking regional and rural Australians who have really been severely impacted by many of the plans of this government. And this bill is just another example of its dismantling of the matching contributions component of this particular scheme.

The fact is Labor understand how important research and development corporations are. We created them in 1989, so we understand how important they are. We established them for the purpose of undertaking scientific research for the benefit of Australian rural industries and with benefits then flowing onto the community. As we have said: the government would put in half the amount—match dollar for dollar—into R&D if industry was prepared to levy itself and make its own contributions to improve the innovation within particular sectors. These industry specific plans for R&D have transformed agriculture in this country. As I have said, we have seen that increase in productivity.

The government is now seeking to achieve a $7 million saving over four years, but this will be at the expense of tens of thousands of genuine R&D investment dollars. Essentially the government is seeking to achieve this saving over that time by changing arrangements for the payments of membership to international commodity organisations. From 2014-15 membership fees for four international commodity organisations—relating specifically to the cotton, wine, sugar and grain industries—and six international fisheries organisations will be made from the government's funding envelope for its matching contributions to the relevant RDCs instead of direct appropriation funding and, in so doing, will reduce actual R&D funding. This means that the government will make payments to the international commodity bodies from the same pool of money it says is for matching industry contributions. This is just not logical and it is certainly not an appropriate way to be looking at funding these very important matters. Much like the other policies of this government, this bill actually constitutes a cut in funding in real terms.

Worse still, this government did not even give the Australian people prior warning about any of these cuts. And we have seen that across so many other measures in so many other areas, whether it is health or education or pensions. They did not tell anyone in regional or rural Australia they intended this to be their plan. In fact, they have been telling untruths by not telling people about their plans—a real deception by omission—which a lot of people are now aware of and are pretty angry about as well. In fact, prior to the last election the then opposition made no reference to any of these particular cuts. What I think is even more insulting is the government, and many of its members, have actually acknowledged that research and development investment returns far outweigh the costs. They are aware of the reality of it, but are still allowing this to occur. With these changes, RDCs have not even been given the option to withdraw their membership to international commodity organisations.

This bill will really be quite devastating for farmers in rural and regional Australia. In abandoning matching funding for regional development and innovation, it will make it much harder for many agricultural industries in my electorate—for example, when it comes to the sugar industry—to do their business. And I am sure, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, you are very much aware how important the sugar cane industry is to people of the North Coast of New South Wales; I would certainly hope the member for Page, who is here in the chamber, would understand how important it is as a major employer and as a major driver of our local economy. We should be out there supporting industries like our sugar industry, not placing impediments on them instead—particularly not impediments on their future research and development.

Hidden in this legislation is the repeal of subsections 6 and 7 of the Sugar Research and Development Services Act 2013. This act provides for a company to receive, under a contract, Commonwealth funding for research and development for the Australian sugar industry and to be declared as the industry services body for the Australian sugar industry. The subsections allow the minister to make R&D payments, or matching payments, to the Australian sugar industry representative. These will now be repealed, and I think it is absolutely appalling that that in particular is happening.

This government's decision to essentially withdraw funding is going to create a situation where you are leaving those struggling in regional and rural areas—those farmers—to foot the additional costs. I would assume those are subsequently passed on to consumers. It also puts them at a greater disadvantage when it comes to their overseas competitiveness and competing in those global markets. I believe this bill is another example of how the National Party in particular has abandoned rural and regional Australia.

Labor, on the other hand, have a very proud record of standing up for rural and regional Australia over a very long period of time. We created the regional development fund which, of course, is now being totally changed and watered down by those opposite. That delivered so many great projects around Australia, especially in my electorate of Richmond. I will not run through all of those again, but there were millions of dollars in projects that really transformed so much of the North Coast of New South Wales. In fact, Labor in government really took the national leadership to build competitive and sustainable agriculture industries to support farming families that contribute more than 1.6 million jobs. We understand how important it is. That is why we invested so much.

We also developed Australia's first-ever National Food Plan to boost Australia's $30.5 billion food export market by 45 per cent. We had that in place and understood how important it was. We established the Office of Northern Australia to realise the north's potential. We developed real solutions to climate and market condition challenges, including the farm finance package, which provided $420 million in low-interest loans to help viable farmers ease debt pressures.

We also invested a record amount in rural R&D, providing R&D corporations with $1.4 billion in funding over the last six years, increasing from $189 million in 2008-09, to $251 million in 2013-14. We also addressed many of those skill shortages in the agricultural industries. We understood how important it was to be making sure there was adequate funding for training and addressing some of those skill shortages, particularly through many projects and trades training in schools and a whole range of different measures that we took to address those skill shortages right across the agricultural industry. Also, through Caring for our Country and continuing support for Landcare, which was, of course, a legacy of the Hawke government, we have supported farming communities to manage and protect our natural resources, protect and conserve our biodiversity and promote the adoption of sustainable farm practices.

The Labor Party has a very proud record of standing with those in regional and rural Australia across a whole range of different areas. We continue to do that today on this side of the House. We continue to condemn this government across a whole range of areas where they did not tell the Australian people the truth going into the last election whether it was in relation to health, education or now, as we are seeing clearly, with particular aspects of rural and regional Australia as well.

I started off by saying we do have a Minister for Agriculture who does not have the skills and ability to represent these people and deliver adequately for them. They do not have any faith in him, his ability or his government. The fact is he has failed those in rural and regional Australia. He has failed those people, and they are severely disappointed by that. They are hurt by the cuts this government has brought in, particularly these cuts to R&D. It is devastating. We need to be encouraging growth. We need to be investing more. We need to be providing more for those in regional and rural areas, not cutting as we are constantly seeing from this government and this minister, who is incapable of delivering for regional and rural areas. That is why we are opposed to this bill.

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