Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question and note her longstanding interest and advocacy for what is an incredibly important sector for our country. It is in fact the third-largest rural industry in our nation. There are more than 6,000 dairy farmers across Australia and a majority of them do reside in Senator McKenzie's home state of Victoria—more than 4,000 are in Victoria. It is also a sector that makes money for us as a country. Its exports are $3 billion a year and, we think, growing, and we think there is great promise for growth in exports going forward.

But, as Senator McKenzie has outlined, it has been a difficult and challenging year for the sector. Earlier this year, as most senators would know, Murray Goulburn and Fonterra announced retrospective price cuts to farmgate milk prices. They are up to $2 a kilogram of milk solids for the sector, and more than 65 per cent of dairy farmers face a cut of more than 80c per kilogram. On a farm basis, to give a notion of this at a farmgate level, at an individual household level, this meant that an average farm producing 150,000 kilograms a year was facing a drop in revenue, a drop in income, of $15,000 to $90,000—a devastating impact for any family farming business in this country, one that was felt very hard and was very concentrated in a part of Victoria.

Those decisions are why we announced in May a $579 million assistance package for the dairy industry in Victoria, including $555 million in concessional loans, $900,000 for Dairy Australia's Tactics for Tight Times advice program, a $20 million investment in the Macalister irrigation district, and additional rural financial counsellors for affected farmers. It is a very important industry to our country. It does have a bright future, although it has had a tough time, and the government stands with it through these challenging times.