Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources, I wish to make a statement concerning the committee's visit to New Zealand. As a farmer myself, I've always looked at New Zealand agriculture with envy. They certainly seem to have a much greater focus from their government on agriculture. That's of no surprise, of course, when you learn that 70 per cent of their export income is earnt from agriculture. They not only have always seemed to get better trade access, particularly in the European Union—and I know that, as a lamb producer, I've often been frustrated and envious of the fact that they get a much greater quota into the European Union—but also had a free trade deal with China many years before our government successfully negotiated a free trade agreement with China. One important point to note that we learnt while we were in New Zealand is that the dairy industry there has grown by 300 per cent since the year 2000.

The visit was hosted by the New Zealand parliament, and I especially want to thank the Speaker of the New Zealand parliament, the Rt Hon. David Carter, for his welcome and hospitality. Mr Speaker, I can assure you that your undoubted hospitality to other delegations that have visited our parliament was reciprocated very much in kind by David Carter, and I do thank him.

We did learn some interesting facts about the New Zealand political system and how it differs from ours. We all know that it not only is a unicameral parliament but also has a dual voting system which, in some respects, replicates our Senate and House and brings them together in one parliament, which seems to give them more flexibility to get things done, as we've seen in recent years. Perhaps that's something that we should consider. However, New Zealand doesn't have a written constitution, which allows much greater flexibility to make those sorts of changes.

While we were in the New Zealand parliament, we also met with the Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, and discussed issues around biosecurity. Of course, uppermost in their mind, at the moment, is the incursion of myrtle rust. We also discussed trade issues and some of the opportunities that might come around the Brexit issues and our country's new country-of-origin food-labelling system and how that might impact on New Zealand. We also met with the New Zealand Primary Production Committee, which is chaired by Mr Ian McKelvie MP. That was a very interesting discussion, given that parliamentary committees in the New Zealand parliament have a more important role, I guess you could say, in developing legislation and policy. Once legislation is introduced into the parliament by the minister, it is then automatically referred to the committee who conducts public hearings, takes public submissions, gathers evidence and then goes back to the minister with a recommendation. Once again, many members of our committee thought that that was a good system.

Of course, the main focus of our visit, complementary with our current inquiry, was looking at water resources and the most efficient use of water resources. Of course, in New Zealand they have a different set of challenges and circumstances. They only capture three per cent of the water that falls and utilise that in agriculture. Of course, we have to make sure we use every single drop here that falls. Once again, they are looking at—

See this speech in context