Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

On this side of the chamber, we are excited about agriculture—the beef industry, the lamb industry, the rice industry, the dairy industry, the horticulture industry. We recognise the huge opportunity to grow Australian agriculture to reach its potential, despite the current challenges, because our farmers are world class. We're a government who are on their side, who want to enable them to do what they do best: producing the very best food and fibre in the world. Agriculture drives rural and regional economies and supports local communities. It drives our national prosperity and it always has. Supporting farmers is not just in the Nationals' interest; it's in the national interest.

Today the Senate passed the farm household allowance and, since our victory on 18 May, we've already delivered on our election commitment and secured the $5 billion Future Drought Fund in the face of resistance from those opposite. We are progressing our tough new penalties to help protect farmers from the real threat of activists invading their farms, damaging their property, stealing their animals, and harassing and intimidating their staff. Farmers have the right to farm and to feel safe, and workers have the right to go to work and be safe and free from harassment and intimidation. This side of politics recognises that farm invasions are more than civil disobedience, Senator Di Natale and Senator Rice—through you, Mr President. We know that farmers are terrified and some have been driven from their industry. What the Greens wants to see is that we're no longer farming in this country; we're only farming vegan produce rather than farming livestock.