Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hunter for that question. He's one of many terrific regional members on this side of the House, and his region, of course, is home to some of Australia's best beef, dairy and wine, although I would like to say my own electorate also has some great Australian produce. But he, like all members on this side of the House, understands the critical role that our farmers, our fishers and our producers have in our communities.

Of course, our party have been supporting farmers, and we are indeed the party for our regions. We understand the importance of keeping our farmers farming and keeping our food production system strong. That's why earlier today I was really pleased to announce that our government have locked in over 80,000 tonnes of additional urea through our $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility. Through Export Finance Australia, we've partnered with Incitec Pivot to support the purchase of two shipments from Indonesia, and the National Farmers' Federation said today that they're pleased to hear more fertiliser is on the way to Australian farmers and that every bit counts.

As I have said, we do have enough fertiliser either in the country or on the water today for the current planting season, but we're adding to this to provide some certainty for farmers in the coming months. We have now secured, through Export Finance Australia, six shipments of over 209,000 tonnes of urea through our Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility. Of course, we also have secured, through the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, over 800 million litres of additional fuel, including critical diesel for our farmers. This is part of our $14 billion Strengthening Australia's Fuel Resilience package. The CEO of GrainGrowers, Shona Gawel, has welcomed this and has said it 'addresses a number of the priorities outlined in our longstanding fuel security policy'. We've also made changes to get fertiliser to farmers faster. We're getting it into the country, and by streamlining, but not compromising on, our biosecurity border processes, it will get to farmers faster.

I'm pleased to see that our work to get fuel and fertiliser to our farmers has also been recognised by those opposite. I want to give a shout-out to the shadow minister who said to Sky News that 'the feedback from farmers from right across Australia is that supplies in the country are going to be okay for the immediate future'. We do know that the war in the Middle East is impacting globally and it's also impacting here at home—with our farmers. We'll continue to stand up for our farmers and we'll continue to shield them as much as we possibly can from the impact of this war, because our government will always back the farmers.

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