Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Primary Industries and Resources, I present the committee’s report, entitled Farming the Future: the role of government in assisting Australian farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

This report addresses a matter of great importance to the future of Australia.

Our agricultural industries are facing increasing challenges in the face of climate variability and climate change.

If our farmers are to maintain their productivity into the future, we must start investing now in new and better ways of producing food and fibre.

We must promote sustainability in production and resilience in our farming enterprises and the communities which support them and depend upon them.

During the course of the inquiry, the committee spoke to many people who have the welfare of our farmers at heart.

We were pleased to note the good work being done to create innovation, promote new ideas and improve our understanding of agricultural production and the forces that drive it—economic, environmental and social.

Many government initiatives are promoting innovation and enhancing resilience and this is all good.

We are, however, only at the beginning of a journey which will take many years. Assisting Australian farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change will take coordinated and sustained effort on the part of government, industry and the community over a period of decades.

The committee had the chance to visit the properties of farmers who are already implementing innovative ways to manage the impacts of climate variability and climate change.

These people are proof that adaptation is possible. There are a range of adaptations that could increase the resilience of farmers in the face of climate variability and climate change.

Many have win-win-win potential in that they improve productivity and environmental sustainability and reduce or mitigate emissions. They also confer social benefits, as improved productivity and sustainability increase personal and community resilience.

However, many of these adaptations are being undertaken by farmers in isolation or with limited support.

Given the potential consequences of climate change, and the potential benefits of many of these adaptations, it would seem that a better coordinated response is required.

One of the potential benefits of changing agricultural practices is soil carbon, which has huge potential as a form of carbon sequestration..

Just as importantly, restoring carbon to our farmlands is vital to soil and plant health. Carbon rich soils improve soil biodiversity and improve soil moisture retention. By rebuilding our soil carbon, we are making our farmers more resilient in the face of climate change.

The evidence received by the committee during the course of its inquiry also demonstrates that climate variability and climate change have the potential to have significant impacts on farming communities from a social and a psychological point of view.

The need to understand the thought processes, social pressures and attitudes that both hinder and promote adaptation are essential parts of the response to climate variability and climate change.

Communicating a clear and consistent message on climate change is a forerunner to successful adaptation and it must be delivered in a manner relevant to the experience of farmers for whom managing climate variability is a long-term and everyday experience.

Part of this is in understanding the decision-making processes of farmers. Another part is the creation of positive messages—how adaptation can improve business resilience, maintain or increase productivity and promote personal and social welfare.

Moreover, strong local networks—supporting farmers and their families, providing access to services and information and providing connections that allow problems to be identified and addressed—are a vital part of the response to climate change in rural Australia.

I would like to express, on behalf of the committee, our gratitude to all those who participated in the inquiry and to the staff of the secretariat.

On behalf of the committee, I commend the report to the House.

Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to rise this evening to speak to the report of the Standing Committee on Primary Industries and Resources, entitled Farming the Future: the role of government in assisting Australian farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change. I open by backing all of the comments by our chairman, the Hon. Dick Adams. Your chairmanship has been greatly appreciated. You led us through some troubled waters rather well and I believe we have given the industry a report which will give guidance in matters of climate change and how the very nature of adaptability is the key to successful and sustainable profit-making in the future.

I say ‘profit-making’ because, after all, that is what it is all about. We purchase land and maybe choose to pursue agriculture as a way of making an income for our families and, consequently, the nation. If we, as a result of changing climates in parts of Australia, find that we cannot use that land productively for the pursuit of making money through agriculture, then we need to be sufficiently well-informed and adaptable to change. That is what this report is all about: adapting to climate change.

My participation in the committee’s investigation was always a little troubled by the very fact that we were debating something I did not particularly agree with and that was ‘climate change’ as opposed to ‘weather’. But I was very happy to be part of a group who were investigating what is happening in agriculture and horticulture today—dryland, irrigated and natural environment—in regard to addressing adaptability.

I was quite impressed to find that the agricultural industry out there is very receptive to change. Even though we report about the recalcitrance of those involved in agriculture in relation to adapting and overcoming generational fixation on particular methods of farming, we found, and I was impressed with the fact, that there are so many people running sustainable businesses who are pushing the envelope constantly in finding a way to make their land more productive by adapting to the latest that technology has to offer and embracing change. If one is going to be successful and find that their farming practices, their use of land, is a sustainable and finance-producing operation, they firstly these days have to embrace change readily.

One of the areas that I was most impressed with was the ability of the industry today to embrace some of the most revolutionary methods of bringing depreciated country back into a productive state. Rehydrating, I found, was almost a buzzword, the idea being to slow the passage of water down through country to push it back underneath the surrounding floodplain country to rehydrate that country and make it more productive. However, I was very conscious of the fact that those very productive methods of sustainability are totally at odds with practices that I find in other states, in other soil and climatic conditions, where the very opposite is practised and embraced as revolutionary new techniques for farming that particular soil.

In closing, I wish to express my thanks on behalf of the coalition to the secretariat. I think you did a great job in keeping the cats together and guiding us through the whole process. Farming the Future is a report that I would thoroughly recommend to members of industry and members of this House.

Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. Does the member for Lyons wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a future occasion?

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with standing order 39(c), the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.