Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Colbeck for his supplementary question. It is one of those areas where Senator Colbeck has been perhaps negligent. How many times has Senator Colbeck moved out of his comfort zone in Tasmania to be able to engage with rural Australia? Because what we find with the opposition, when we look between the doormats to the Liberal Party, the National Party, and the Liberal coalition, is that they do not have an interest in agriculture. That can be seen in foreign investment. On the one hand you are opposed to increasing agriculture, increasing the ability of transference of skills and being able to ensure that research and development is done in rural Australia. On the other hand, foreign investment from the Liberals is completely different from that. What we do have is research and development corporations that work very diligently across agriculture to ensure that we do have all that vital research work done to lift productivity in agriculture. (Time expired)