Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a privilege to speak today on behalf of the Liberal-National coalition government about its commitment to backing Australia's primary producers. As the member for Nicholls, I am proud to represent one of the most productive agricultural regions in country. Over the last 18 months, on a daily basis we've heard words and phrases like 'resilience', 'adaptability' and 'the ability to bounce back' being bandied about and those words were applied to all sorts of different situations. But I believe Australian farmers have written a book on resilience, adaptability and bouncing back. These characteristics just seem to be in their DNA. Despite one of the worst droughts in history, a global pandemic and natural disasters including bushfires, floods and now a mouse plague, we see agricultural production has hit $66 billion, with a target of $100 billion by 2030 firmly in its sights. Not only are our farmers resilient but they're also entrepreneurial. They are business men and women, land stewards, real conservationists, while at the same time embracing the cutting edge of science and technology to produce the greenest and cleanest food and fibre in the world, and they produce it for the world as well.

The coalition is right behind our farmers, and in this budget there's $233 million in new funding to help implement the National Soil Strategy and a $120 million investment in the national soil monitoring and incentives pilot, which will bolster our understanding of Australia's soil condition and improve how our soil can be managed. One of the most significant commitments to agriculture by this government is the $5 billion Future Drought Fund. This fund provides secure and continuous funding for drought resilience initiatives. It's no good running around in the middle of a drought trying to find the answers. It's a matter of investing in the better years to make sure that the answers are there, ready and waiting, for when droughts hit so that programs can be implemented. Each and every year $100 million will be made available from this $5 billion fund to support Australian farmers and communities to prepare for and become more resilient to the effects of future droughts. As part of this fund, the government is importantly investing in eight drought resilience adoption and innovation hubs across the country. The research and adoption program will help farmers and regional communities build drought resilience through investment and collaborative research, development, extension and adoption.

The Victorian hub will be based in my electorate of Nicholls, at the University of Melbourne's Dookie campus. There are also going to be five nodes across Victoria that directly affect the diverse farming systems that the state has, as well as a node in the southern Riverina within New South Wales. These farming systems include dairy, horticulture, cropping, beef and sheep and viticulture. The hub nodes will be based in the north-west, the north-east, the south-west, Gippsland and the north-west irrigated areas. The program's going to be a grassroots program, so it's going to deliver practical solutions for our farmers, the communities that they support and the communities that support them. The University of Melbourne will be taking a direct lead in this, with Professor Tim Reeves and Professor Ruth Nettle as directors. Importantly, this is a collaborative program that draws upon the best of the best in agricultural research and resources in agribusiness within Victoria. Hub members are to going to include Agriculture Victoria, the Birchip Cropping Group, Deakin University, Federation University, Food and Fibre Gippsland, La Trobe University, Riverine Plains Inc., Southern Farming Systems and Mallee Regional Innovation Centre. This is just another example of how this government is getting behind our farmers so that they can adopt the newest technologies that are available to them, increasing their ability to become even more resilient. In times of difficulty, that's when we need to have done all the work in the better years. It is very important that the government invests in the infrastructure that's going to enable our farmers to adapt with the latest technology but also to get their produce to market. Over the last few days we've seen increased trade deals, more and better trade deals, to give our farmers better markets and better farm gate prices. That is also critical to the nature of what we are doing. I congratulate the minister, Mr Littleproud, and the Treasurer for delivering this initiative within the budget, an initiative that backs our farmers and regional Australia.

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