David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the minister update the House on the implementation of the coalition government's white paper on agricultural competitiveness and how it is helping to build a stronger Australian economy?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the honourable member for his question. It is a great pleasure to get a question from the gentleman with whom I went to the top of the Comboyne Plateau not that long ago. We did not get to meet Moses on the top of the mountain but we certainly did meet Rodney Fisher, who is a rather remarkable person with a handshake that would just about crush any other living being!

What is really important also is that we say clearly to the people, especially in the agricultural economy, what this government is delivering. There was 9.7 per cent growth for the year ending 30 June 2014—agricultural and rural exports had grown by that amount. Rural exports grew a further seven per cent to 30 June 2015, and in the first quarter of the 2015-16 year, in comparison to the first quarter of the previous year, they are up 12.3 per cent. So often the opposition asks questions about revenue. We actually deliver the answers; we actually deliver the outcomes that have our nation earn more money.

But I am very excited about the work that we are doing, especially around the white paper—especially around dams. We have a great vision for dams—a great vision for dams in stage 3 of the Ord; for the feasibility study for an Alinga dam; and for the resource assessments of the Mitchell River catchments. These are all part of a $50 million tranche of money which will roll out, followed by a further $450 million, as this nation has a better place to be. This nation still has the vision, this nation still has the requirements and this nation is still brave enough to build dams. And we will build dams.

It is also through the white paper that we saw work on issues such as country-of-origin labelling, which is vitally important for selling to the people of Australia and overseas the importance of our product. We are so incessant about having the best product. We have a quality product.

If we go away from there, we have also seen—and we saw up on the Comboyne Plateau—the money that has been delivered and what the outcomes are by reason of a 100 per cent write-off on water reticulation so that people can upgrade their water infrastructure. It did not matter whether it was with dairy—the work we are doing in dairy. I am glad that ChAFTA has now made it through the Senate, so ChAFTA is now in place, and I would like to congratulate the absent trade minister for the work that he has done there. But this is all part of the process of how we have a vision—a strong vision—for people on the land, where we can actually show the figures that we are delivering greater export income for our nation and that we are actually going to continue this work on as we roll out further in dams, further in research and development, further in fencing and further in water reticulation. I think that ultimately it is the coalition that is going to provide a better outcome for the nation in total.