Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am just catching my breath after that contribution from the member for Kennedy. I am not sure whether anyone in the chamber understands where the honourable member, who just resumed his seat, actually sits with his intention on how he might vote on this bill. I am surprised that he went for a full 15 minutes and, yet, I have no idea whether the honourable member will be supporting the Dairy Produce Amendment (Dairy Service Levy Poll) Bill 2016, because he chose to take his time to address a whole range of other issues. I may come to some of those if time permits, but I will get to the substance of the bill first so that I do not fall for that same trap.

As we say over and over again in this House, this government is absolutely committed to supporting small business and farmers, and reducing red tape. We have listened to industry and to the people who are impacted by the legislation we create. As a result, this bill will introduce flexibility into the dairy levy poll process following a request to do so from the Australian dairy industry. The dairy industry has shown some concern regarding the regulations that mandated a dairy levy poll be held every five years, as required by the Dairy Produce Act 1986. There is a regulatory and financial burden associated with this poll being held every five years. The dairy industry estimates that the cost of holding this poll at the current frequency of every five years is up to a potential cost of $1 million. This $1 million burden comes out of a fund that is paid into by farmers in the form of a compulsory levy. Where farmers are obliged to pay this compulsory levy, it is important, I believe, to ensure that farmers have the ability to make sure that the money is being spent in a way that benefits them the most and to ensure that every single dollar gains the most benefit.

Without the need to hold a levy poll every five years, this is going to be an extra $1 million that can be spent on vital research and development or other investment directly for the farmers' benefit in the dairy industry. Whilst research and development often sounds like an intangible good, the benefit of research and development in the dairy industry is something that can assist the farmers in my electorate and all over Australia enormously. With research and development in dairy production, I think there is much more potential for innovation to improve efficiency and the production of milk or to create new management strategies or technologies to deal with drought.

As many farmers around Australia will know, as will the members of this parliament who represent rural and regional Australia, as I do, the lack of rain has been seriously affecting farmers in the dairy industry. In my home state of Tasmania, milk production will be down by approximately 2.5 per cent by the end of the year. This, of course, has obvious flow-on effects impacting the financial situation of farmers in Tasmania and in my electorate of Braddon. With the money saved by not being obliged to conduct levy polls, these kinds of issues could be addressed—something of benefit to farmers in the present and in future years.

As with all changes to regulations, there are the obvious questions of whether it will expose farmers to added risk or unfair changes that diminish their say in the matters of their industry. In situations where the majority of dairy farmers support the current rate of the levy, and where there is no widespread demand for change in the levy, it just does not make sense to spend so much money on a poll of farmers when it is completely unnecessary to do so. This is the obvious rationale behind this legislation. It is only when there is a change in the dairy levy proposed that a poll is required. This gives the industry the flexibility and autonomy to hold polls only when needed, rather than on the obvious five-year rotational basis, as is currently mandated by legislation.

Whether there should be a change to the levy or not will be determined by an independent poll advisory committee, which will be established periodically by Dairy Australia, as required by this bill. If no changes to the levy are proposed, then no poll will be held, generating significant savings to be used to benefit the dairy industry. There are safeguards in this bill to protect farmers. The poll advisory committee cannot become a tyrannical overhead recommending against polls to stymie the voice of farmers. If dairy farmers, who collectively represent 15 per cent of levies paid, disagree with the poll advisory committee in its recommendations, then a process is able to be put in place to enable a levy poll to be held.

This legislation is not the dairy industry or the government telling farmers what is good for them in some paternalistic way. This legislation has come about as a request from the industry to improve the way that those farmers' levy funds are used. In 2014 and 2015, Australian Dairy Farmers and Dairy Australia, as the primary national dairy farmer representative organisation and the industry services body, undertook a review of the dairy levy poll process. This review process took place following the 2012 dairy levy poll. The reform proposed in this bill comes from recommendations by that review.

This legislation has also been consultative. Six thousand two hundred and eighty eight Australian dairy levy payers received an information pack, 1,221 dairy farmers attended 30 separate presentations and 785 telephone conversations were had with dairy levy payers. In addition to this, a vote on the proposed changes was held, with almost 90 per cent of voters in favour of these changes. Every single dairy levy payer has been contacted in some way, in relation to this change, and was given the opportunity to provide feedback during a wide and extensive consultation process.

In talking about the legislation that will impact the dairy industry, it gives me a good opportunity to paint a picture of the dairy industry in Tasmania for members of this House. There are approximately 150,000 dairy cows in Tasmania spread across about 500 dairies. These cows produce hundreds of millions of litres of milk per year. In 2010, Tasmania produced 7.5 per cent of the Australian milk production total. The dairy industry in Tasmania is a very significant part of the Australian agricultural sector. For a state that accounts for just over two per cent of our population nationally, I think it is fair to say that, once again, in yet another industry, the great state of Tasmania is punching well above its weight in the dairy production sector.

As such, this legislation will be of enormous significance to Tasmania. I am sure it will be welcomed by the dairy farmers in my electorate of Braddon and across the state. This legislation will remove some of the red tape and give dairy farmers the ability to collectively determine when they need levy polls and how often those polls should be. This government is continuing to be committed to small government and is giving those in industry the power to determine their own destiny without unnecessary regulatory burdens. It is on that basis that I have no hesitation this morning in supporting this bill that is before the House.

I would like to use some of the time remaining to talk a little bit more about the dairy industry in Tasmania and take a few moments to pay public tribute to the contribution that all farmers make. On this occasion, given we are focused on the dairy industry, I want to publicly thank the dairy farmers of my electorate for the way in which they are going about their business, for the way in which they are growing in their belief in their industry, for the way in which they are growing in confidence about the future of their industry and for the way in which they have unilaterally embraced the exciting potential that will be coming from the free trade agreements that have been signed and that will more than likely be signed.

I found the contribution from the member for Kennedy a few moments ago quite extraordinary. He talked about a previous speaker lacking reality. I thought that was quite ironic. I encourage those people who listen on a regular basis to the member for Kennedy to put that in some context about who in this House may hold a firm grasp on reality. He talked about the fact that we killed off the dairy industry—collectively the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and anyone else in this House except the honourable member himself. He talked about the number of farms being down from 13,000 to 6,000 but he made no reference at all to the way in which the industry has shifted significantly over the last decade or two. Obviously the smaller farms have come under enormous pressure—that goes without saying—but it has given them an opportunity to sell their properties, to sell their businesses. We now have more productive farms, more efficient farms, more economies of sale within those farms. It was an inevitable outcome that I think everybody in the dairy industry knew was coming and probably in their heart of hearts knew had to come. The traditional model of small farming was coming under enormous pressure with the growing influence of the dairy sector.

I think it is fascinating to understand a little bit about where the whole dairy industry has gone. I mentioned in my maiden speech a quote from Dr John Tanner, who was talking about the timber industry in fact when he said that wood fibre is the new milk solids. What he was really saying was there is still a lot to be discovered about the by-product of wood fibre if you look at the way in which the dairy industry of the last few decades, maybe 30 years in fact, has just grown so much by producing alternative products and consumer desired products out of milk. It was not that long ago that milk was just milk, a white liquid in a bottle. We got a bit of it at school. There were a few different flavours if you were lucky back in my day but really milk was milk and there was not a lot of excitement to it. But look at it now. It forms the basis of a whole range of saleable and exportable products. I think this is at the essence of the dairy industry—how it has rebirthed itself over the last 20 or 30 years. It has taken a natural product produced by tremendous producers across the country and has seen its way into a whole new future. Just the Asian markets alone, never mind anywhere else, want so much of our product. They want our cheese, they want our yoghurt, they want these products that their children can take to school in their lunch breaks and the list just goes on. What an exciting future that we have.

There is technology now in the whole dairy sector. I get the opportunity regularly to visit dairy farms, to walk out and about and to go into the new milking sheds of the 21st century. Gone are the old days. Dairy cows now are producing so much more per cow per year. It is an incredible story. It is really hard to believe that we can get so much more milk out of an animal than what we did 10 or 20 years ago. The husbandry and the care and the condition of these animals is exceptional. I dip my lid to those dairy farmers in my electorate and across the country for the way in which they are embracing the huge potential of the industry.

I want to spend the last two minutes on a very contemporary issue when it comes to dairy farms—that is, the approval yesterday by the Treasurer in accepting the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Review Board to allow the sale of the VDL company in Woolnorth in my electorate. It is the biggest dairy farm in the southern hemisphere. There has been a lot of chatter about it. I was quite disgusted really with the interview transcript I read from last night—I did not hear it live. Ben Fordham interviewed the Treasurer. I thought it was very rude interview and showed a complete lack of understanding of the industry or, in fact, the feelings of those who live in my electorate where obviously this sale has taken place. The reality is this property has been on the sale list for a number of years. It has never been owned by an Australian company. It is currently owned by a council in New Zealand. No-one wanted this farm. No-one wanted to buy it and then at the last minute we had two bidders come into play. One was TasFoods, which Jan Cameron has some involvement in, and also another investment company called Moon Lake Investments, which is the successful bidder.

Can I just say, for everybody listening, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, stay out of the interests of the people in my electorate. Get on about your own business. Stop using us as some social experiment because we do not need your opinion. The people of Tasmania, the people of Braddon quite accept that foreign investment is a part of our life. The original offer was well below the final offer. Not only that but the final offer had attached to it tens of millions of dollars of further infrastructure development. Then when a Chinese company identified as pretty well an unconditional buyer, Jan Cameron and some of her ilk like Andrew Wilkie and these sorts of people came in to make heroes of themselves when a contract was already in place, cashed-up, ready to go, subject only to approval. We do not want Jan Cameron or her like trying to lock up Tasmania as they have done in the past. We are quite happy. It would obviously have been better if somebody had bought it with Australian content. We understand that. (Time expired)

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