Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All members of this parliament would understand how important succession planning is, and there is no industry for which this is more important than agriculture. I am proud today to welcome to this House 20 young members of Australian Women in Agriculture, who have come as part of a leadership course to get their skills up, to understand networking and to learn how this place works and how they can influence it.

Their participation in this leadership program, which is sponsored by the Merlyn Myer Fund and supported by Australian Women in Agriculture, and of course the young people themselves who have funded their way here and taken time from their work, reflects all Australian industries and all sectors of agricultural industry. They have been learning skills about leadership, public speaking, being courageous and stepping up.

But I think there is nothing more important in leadership than actually understanding how to influence this place, so the rules and the legislation that we make truly do reflect the reality of the people in our community, particularly in agriculture. There is so much change going on and these young people, these young women, bring the new face of agriculture—their innovation, their creativity and their courage.

So, I have a call-out to the members on the other side of this place to look around your membership teams of women on agriculture. How many young women are there? Why aren't they there? And what do you need to do to make sure that that new face of agriculture, the young women that we work with, are represented on all your committees.