Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Without doubt, the No. 1 issue that people speak to me about is the cost of living. That is representative of many in this chamber. It doesn't matter whether you come from the city or the bush, everyone everywhere has been impacted.

Current research suggests that 80 per cent of Australians are concerned about rising food and grocery prices. Right now, about two million Australians are struggling to put food on the table, and that is alarming. This is impacting around 1.3 million children. The cost of food has continued—

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The price of food and alcoholic beverages have increased nine per cent in the year to September, helping push overall inflation to north of 7.3 per cent. That's the steepest annual rise in 32 years.

We live in a prosperous nation and we produce enough food—in fact, we produce enough food for 75 million people, which is enough to feed the entire population three times over. But in the last three years Australians have had everything thrown at them from pandemics to natural disasters, labour shortages, geopolitical tensions, animal disease outbreaks and financial challenges. The ongoing barrage has laid bare Australia's food supply system's discrepancies, risks and vulnerabilities. What has been highlighted, however, is the fact that it's time to fully understand the complexity of Australia's food supply chain. How will specific events impact the supply of food from paddock to plate at any given point?

I want to congratulate the partner associations who have recently formed the National Food Supply Chain Alliance. The NFSCA represents all facets of Australian food supply chains from farmers, processors, grocers, butchers, independent supermarkets, convenience stores, wholesale suppliers and distributors to food retailers including cafes, restaurants, hotels and clubs. The nine associations represent over 160,000 businesses with a combined revenue of a staggering $224 billion. They employ almost a million workers in Australia. There is no doubt that a more efficient and resilient food supply chain will provide greater stability, boost innovation, enhance food supply and processing capacity, create jobs and provide confidence from farm gate to fork.

From the perspective of the government, the Standing Committee on Agriculture has commenced an inquiry into food security in Australia. The committee will examine how we strengthen and safeguard food security and supply chain resilience. Submissions are open until 9 December, and I encourage anyone in the industry with any interest in improving our food supply chain to have their say.