House debates Motions

Agriculture Industry

Monday, 7 September 2026 House of Representatives

Rebekha Sharkie

Rebekha Sharkie Mayo, Centre Alliance

5:10 pm

If we look at citrus in South Australia, we had cheap imports in the 90s and early 2000s of juice concentrate that came from Brazil. That had a massive, devastating impact, and it made juicing of our own product largely uneconomical. Then, of course, there are the biosecurity threats, as the member for Kennedy raised, with respect to citrus canker and citrus greening disease. We need to look after Australian farmers. We need to put Australian farmers first. Now, even entertaining the idea with respect to pineapples and bananas is not doing that.

I would also just mention, away from horticulture, pork. Right now, try and find Australian bacon on our supermarket shelves. Around 75 per cent is imported. We have cheap importation of our pork. If it doesn't have a bone in it, it's largely imported. Why do we do that? I don't know, because it's no good for our pork industry, and it's no good for our farmers. They are on their knees. Australia must think about what happened during COVID-19. We rely on Australian farmers. We must support them better.

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