Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here today to speak for the pastoralists and broadacre farmers in regional, rural and remote Australia—the hardworking men and women who wake up before the sun to feed this nation and, indeed, the world. Right now, those farmers are feeling a deep sense of disappointment. Actually, let's call it what it is: they feel betrayed. The government has sold out Australian agriculture with this unfair deal with the European Union.

It says in front of me and behind me that this is an EU free trade deal. What is free about quotas, tariffs and other trade restrictions? Remember that in the EU they subsidise their farmers. This agreement was pushed through during a crisis and it is a missed opportunity. As I said last week, it's a dog's breakfast. But, for variety today, I'll call it a dog's dinner. The EU continues to protect its own interests while Australia's left picking up the tab once again. Our trade minister gave up too easily. He stayed at the table when he should have walked away. No deal would have been better than this bad deal. Instead, we have a lopsided arrangement that treats world-class producers as second-class citizens.

It's not just me and the coalition howling at the moon; this is coming from industry, the very people we should be listening to. Meat and Livestock Australia said:

Australia's red meat sector has been profoundly let down by this outcome.

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To land a deal so far below what other suppliers have secured is genuinely bewildering.

The Australian Meat Industry Council said:

The meat industry has worked tirelessly and been very clear with the Australian Government about the importance of a meaningful outcome in an agreement with the European Union. This outcome is worse than those achieved by Australia's competitors, and it caps and restricts Australia's trade.

The NFF said:

… farmers will rightly be concerned that after years of negotiations this deal hasn't delivered commercially meaningful access for Australian agricultural exports.

They will now pay the price for this subpar EU deal for decades to come.

Australian wine grape growers said that, after years of negotiation, they 'expected better'.

Let's look at the numbers, because the maths simply does not add up for our regions. Let's consider the beef sector. This agreement allows just over 30,000 tonnes of access over the next decade. Our industry experts were crystal clear that 50,000 tonnes was the absolute minimum required to stay competitive. This is stark reading. On sheepmeat the result is just as insulting. We got 25,000 tonnes, while New Zealand sits on over 160,000 tonnes. How does the government explain that? Did our negotiators forget how to use a calculator or did they just stop caring? Our sheep farmers continue to take blow after blow—first the killing of the live meat trade and now this.

It's just like how this Labor government is putting further restrictions on our law-abiding gun owners. The member for Hunter has again drawn the short straw, having to bring up this deal in parliament on behalf of his constituents as a regional MP. Who gave him his script? Who put the poor bloke up to this? Because I can tell you that it certainly wasn't farmers. If the member for Hunter, who I have a great deal of respect for, thinks the industry likes this deal, he's been spending too much time in the cafes and not the paddocks. Every major red meat group in this country is devastated. Asking the member for Hunter to defend this deal is like asking a vegan to promote a steakhouse; it's awkward for everyone involved.

The truth is that the government signed off on this deal far too easily because they desperately wanted a distraction. They wanted a shiny headline to hide the fact that the economy is weak and that fuel supplies are under threat. They wanted to pretend everything is fine when we all know that it is not. But their plan has backfired. We had a real chance to make trade fair, and we totally blew it. We need to start putting Australians' interests first. Our farmers deserve a government that fights for them, not a government that signs every piece of paper that is put in front of it.

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