Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the House to tell of great news from my local electorate. I have a co-operative called Norco. It is 119-year-old cooperative. They are owned and operated by local farmers. They employ, across the cooperative, over 650 people. Not only do they do that but they buy milk from many dairy farmers in my wider community.

They have just announced a trial shipment of fresh milk to China through new export protocols. This has reduced the time to get fresh milk onto the shelves from a time that would not work—14 to 21 days—to less than seven days. I congratulate Greg McNamara, the chairman, and Brett Kelly, the CEO, for this achievement. This pipeline has the capacity to deliver more than 20 million litres of fresh milk in the first 12 months. This obviously has the potential to be great news not only for the employees of Norco but also for the farmers who may start to get a higher farm gate price, which is necessary for their survival.

It also highlights the importance that this government has placed on trade agreements. We have already done two in our first seven or eight months, with Japan and Korea. We are now moving to do one with China, which will again help companies and cooperatives, like Norco, in my electorate.