Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's budget is supporting regional Australia, particularly through the additional investment in the aviation sector and through the International Freight Assistance Mechanism?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the former Geelong star for his question. He'll be very interested, as I know the deputy leader of the Labor Party will be, in Geelong's fortunes on Saturday, when they take on the Richmond Tigers.

Nicholls is a great electorate, and they are very pleased about the International Freight Assistance Mechanism, which the questioner asked me about. I know that the member for Nicholls kicks a lot of goals. He kicked a lot of goals in his VFL career, and he's kicking more with delivering infrastructure and certainly with IFAM. That has been so, so important. To date, this mechanism has secured the commitment of more than 6,400 freight flights nationwide, carrying more than—this is a big statistic—169,000 tonnes of product, to the value of more than $2½ billion. That product may not have gone anywhere but for the assistance provided under the sectorwide aviation assistance that we've put in place.

In the Nicholls electorate, there's a company called Ryan Meat Company. It's in Nathalia, a town of 1,900 people. It's a good little town and it's well represented. It's north of Shepparton. The Ryan Meat Company is predominantly geared to the export of chilled lamb to the Middle East. As a result of COVID-19, air freight costs for this business increased from $1.50 a kilo to $6 a kilo. That's a hard hit to their bottom line. In effect, the business virtually stopped overnight. When IFAM was introduced by this government, on 1 April, it saved the Ryan Meat Company and many other companies besides. Linton Ryan, the CEO of Ryan Meat, said, 'The subsidy has allowed our business to keep operating, albeit at reduced levels, however, still providing employment for a hundred people.' In a town such as Nathalia, a hundred people—that's a big industry. That's a major business. A hundred people means kids at school; it means a hundred incomes coming in and washing around the local economy and providing regional capacity.

The IFAM has helped pork from Toowoomba, cheese from Bega—the best cheese there is—crayfish from Geraldton and salmon from Tasmania to be shipped around the globe. They're just some of the beneficiaries of more than $2.7 billion of sectorwide aviation support that the federal government has provided during this time of crisis. It is a crisis. We know that it's a crisis. That's why we've provided industry support, that's why we provided JobKeeper and JobSeeker and that's why we've put in place those mechanisms to help businesses such as Ryan Meat. Planes in the air, as I say, mean jobs on the ground. It goes right throughout the whole economy. It helps towns such as Nathalia. It helps regional Victoria. We know that, when regional Victoria is strong, so too is Victoria and so too is our nation. We're getting on with the job of supporting businesses such as Ryan Meat and places such as Nathalia in Nicholls.