Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. What is the government doing to help position Australian agriculture for the future?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Blair for the question and acknowledge his strong engagement with the farmers, including the dairy farmers and the sunflower, lucerne, vegetables, bean and grain crop farmers, all involved in his electorate of Blair. It has been an extraordinary year and a year of great contradictions for many of the challenges that Australia’s farmers have faced during the course of this year.

Commodity prices rose to record highs and there has been some easing but the easing happened at the same time that the dollar fell back as well, which meant that we were insulated from some of the advantages of those farm input prices being eased. There were some good rains in some parts of the country and some honourable members from each side of a House have been giving me reports in recent days. There is some good news. I received a text message from a farmer in Cowra, just as question time began. He has been lucky that his grain harvest is happening today. That is very good but it is certainly not the story across the whole of the country. There are some parts of the country where the harvest did not come off because of drought. There are some parts in recent weeks where the harvest did not come off because of rain. Such have been some of the challenges faced during the course of this year.

While many areas of the country have come out of drought declaration, it is important to remember that 48 per cent of the land mass in Australia remains drought declared. Forty-eight per cent is a fairly extraordinary figure across the nation when these figures are based on whether or not it has been assessed historically that you are dealing with a one in 20 to 25 year event.

The year in terms of our agricultural policy has been a combination of implementing the promises which we gave and commissioning two very major reviews which have now nearly concluded and will form the work program very much for next year. The promises to be delivered on began this year with the wheat marketing reforms—

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame on you!

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The show of coalition unity which wheat always attracts! We have also been implementing with Australia’s farming future in mind a significant investment in making sure that our R&D programs are squarely aimed at preparing farmers for the future and preparing farmers for the challenges that climate change brings. We have also established the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, AFMA, on a bipartisan basis as a commission and $20 million to help our forestry industries prepare for the future.

Of the two major reviews I referred to, one refers to quarantine and the other refers to drought. All honourable members are aware of the devastation that was caused following equine influenza. Industry estimates a billion dollars damage to it through that. It is probably more, but we will certainly never know. Roger Beale has handed his report to me and that is now being considered by government as a comprehensive view of how Australia can better protect its biosecurity status. The national review of drought policy has formed a good part of the discussion this year, acknowledging that the challenges the climate is bringing us in the future are different from what we have had in the past. I reiterate the guarantee that I have consistently given and that the Prime Minister has repeated: it is a review of how we will handle the next drought and does not carry changes to the protections people enjoy—they are going through the current drought and some of the most difficult experiences of their working lives. I would also add the Economic Security Strategy. More than $4 billion of that money goes into rural and regional Australia, forming a very important part of that total package.

Many of the issues that have gone on around the world have all come down in agriculture, and we knew from the beginning of the year when they were predicted as an agricultural theme for the year when the United Nations deemed 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato, which honourable members may not be aware of. It was a year where we saw a global food crisis, a global financial crisis and climate change, all of which put very strong pressure on us to make sure that we get the policy settings right to prepare our primary producers for the future.