Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on the report of our visit to Singapore and Malaysia. It is important, as good stewards of taxpayers' money, that at times people in senior leadership go and see what is going on in different parts of the world to gain a full understanding so they can bring good policy, ultimately, to the Australian people.

The Chair of the Standing Committee on the Environment has mentioned the smoke haze which was very evident while we were in both Singapore and Malaysia. I found myself wondering whether I was coming down with the flu because I had a sore throat, I was lethargic and my eyes hurt. The smoke haze was really significant. It was a strong reminder to members of the environment committee that humans are not just custodians of the environment; we live within the environment. When the environment impacts us to that level it does focus the mind on what are the issues at hand.

The discussions around how we deal with smoke haze in a regional context were very relevant. I represent farmers who talk about a drier situation because of climate change, but here were people who were being impacted in terms of air quality because of the different farming practices being adopted in Indonesia. There are lessons that we can learn from that as to how we can use agricultural exchange to help our regional countries lift their farming practices so they can, in turn, diminish and reduce any negative impacts on the environment for people who live in Singapore and Malaysia.

The discussion on the way we construct buildings was very relevant. There is a lot of work being done in Singapore on building things in an environmental framework. With urban planning and building natural airways through cities you lift people's standard of living as they go about their daily lives, simply by having good construction.

The discussion on local answers that empower people was also relevant. We looked at, rather than having a garden city, having a city in a garden, with people growing things in their own communities. Whilst the agriculturalist in me likes broadacre agriculture, and would rather this than buying their food, there is real value in empowering people to grow their food, even in very small, land-constrained areas, using hydroponics and so on. As well as giving people a sense of ownership as to where their food comes from, it allows them to feel, as part of being a human, something about the environment in which they live, even within an urban construct.

There was a lot of discussion around even the future of coal, as we looked at the global energy mix. It became quite evident that coal will certainly be part of the energy mix in the future. The question of course is, 'How can we not denigrate the resource but make sure we use the resource cleanly?' If you think about a 1960s car and the emissions that came out of the 1960s car as opposed to the emissions that come out of a 2015 or 2016 model car, both using petrol, the one is a whole lot cleaner than the other. So there were some discussions around that.

It was also evident that the palm oil industry is addressing some of its big challenges. The world demand for vegetable oil is substantial. On average—and this will make your heart palpitate when you think about this, Mr Speaker—the average Western diet consumes 52 litres of vegetable oil a year: one litre a week. No wonder that we have health problems! The average Eastern diet consumes 13 litres of vegetable oil per year. But that has been increasing as their diet becomes more Westernised. Probably, we should advise them not to become more Westernised! But palm oil is certainly a significant supplier of vegetable oil. There is some really good work being done as they look at how to manage palm oil environmentally and how to use integrated pest management—using owls to control rats and using weevils to control pollination. I found that just fascinating, as a farmer. We always thought that weevils were a pest.

I thank my parliamentary colleagues for their sense of good nature. There is value in travelling with people who we sometimes abuse across the corridor. We get to know them as friends and get to discuss some of the big challenges for Australia. I also thank the secretary, Julia Morris, for all her hard work and for putting up with us. I think this was worthwhile and I hope it has helped our understanding in order to formulate better policy for Australians when we think about how we live and work responsibly within the environment.

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