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

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for his question. I know Senator O'Sullivan not only is a strong advocate for farming in Queensland but also has spent much of the last five weeks or so travelling through those parts of Queensland that are particularly affected by drought. Last week, unfortunately, the Queensland parliament passed laws which will restrict agricultural development in Queensland. They passed them with almost 100 per cent opposition from the Queensland farming sector. They passed them without a regulation impact statement. They passed them without consulting the Queensland agricultural sector itself. Indeed, their own parliamentary committee accepted that the government had not consulted with the Queensland farming sector before those laws came in.

Queensland farmers are deadset against these laws for a range of reasons, but one that's particularly pertinent at the moment is their ability to manage and respond to drought. As I mentioned, Senator O'Sullivan knows well how much of Queensland at the moment is in the grip of drought. Some areas have not had proper rain for a good seven or eight years. One grazier from Charleville, Scott Sargood, has said:

Mulga tree is like our insurance policy—they eat the grass, they eat the younger mulga, and if it still hasn't rained you push the mulga over so they can reach it …

As a result of these laws, Scott is being quoted $10,000 just to apply for a development application to be able to thin the mulga to respond to drought. The Queensland parliament is passing laws that require farmers to spend $10,000 while they are in drought to respond to that drought. That is why Queensland farmers are as one against these laws. That is why, at beef week this week in Rockhampton, the farming sector will unite against these laws and against the Queensland government that is no longer listening to producers; it's listening to protesters.