Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1917 a group of fruitgrowers in Victoria's Goulburn Valley decided to form a cooperative, which they named the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company. It's an iconic business, and SPC is in Canberra today. I welcome Hussein Rifai and Neil Brimacombe from SPC, and I thank the shadow ministers and the ministers who are going meet with this iconic company. SPC is so important to Australia, but it's also so important to the people of the Goulburn Valley. We all have personal connections with the company. In my case, my grandparents worked there in the 1950s and 1960s.

For businesses like SPC to continue to thrive into the future, we need to get the economic settings right and we need to get the policy settings right. We need settings that are business friendly and that help agriculture. I spoke in this place last week about us not wanting to have Chinese fresh fruit coming in, and making sure we've got a healthy Australian alternative. The same goes for the preserved product. What would a kids lunch box be without a snack pack of great, healthy Australian peaches?

SPC have told me that the most important things they want to talk about are a level playing field with imports to Australia and global competitors, and innovation and investment. We can work together as a parliament to make sure that the Australian economy supports businesses like SPC to thrive.