Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take note of the report for 2005-06 of the Sugar Research and Development Corporation. Over the years in my former role as a minister I had quite a bit to do with research and development corporations, mainly in the fisheries and forestry area but I also had a lot of interaction with the Sugar Research and Development Corporation. I was delighted last Thursday night in Townsville to renew my association with the Sugar Research and Development Corporation at a conference they were holding titled Generation Next.

This conference—and it was the formal dinner as part of that conference which I attended—was run by the Sugar Research and Development Corporation plus other sponsors, including CSR, Westpac bank and a number of other high-profile sponsors. Unfortunately, I do not have my notes in front of me. The Generation Next conference was all about getting young cane farmers involved in thinking about the future, thinking about how the next generation, ‘generation next’, could assist in getting a viable and sustainable industry and one that was positive towards the environment.

The sugar industry has been criticised—perhaps fairly in the past and not so fairly in recent times—for environmental damage, particularly to the Great Barrier Reef from run-off of chemicals and soil from the land into the Barrier Reef lagoon. That is still happening to an extent. Not all farmers accept this and are prepared to do something about it, but I was delighted at the Generation Next conference to see that the young farmers were interested in these issues and were prepared to do something about them. As well as that, they were looking at other ways that the sugar industry could be sustainable into the future.

As I remember, growing up in a sugar area—where money just grew out of the ground—a huge price was being paid in those days for sugar and it did not really require a lot of effort, and people got into a certain culture. Nowadays of course things are much more difficult. There is huge international competition. The sugar industry in South America is enormous and it can change overnight—they can increase production, reduce it, divert it into ethanol or put it onto the raw sugar market at very short notice. There is real competition. There have been real problems with the world price over the years, which caused disaster in the industry. Senators will well remember the $440 million sugar rescue package that the Howard government provided for the sugar industry a couple of years ago.

The new generation of cane farmers are conscious of this. They are determined not to let the industry fall into the economic and environmental problems that it had in the past. It was a delight to be with these young people and to see their enthusiasm, their open-minded approach and the way they looked at new ways of doing things. Bob Granger, the Chair of the Sugar Research and Development Corporation, should be very proud of the work that was done at the Generation Next conference.

I think it is essential that the government, indirectly, through the SRDC and other means, gets young people involved in looking at a different culture, looking at a different way of doing things and making sure that the industry will be there forever, will be sustainable and will not need propping up by the government every decade or so. The work of the SRDC is fabulous in that regard. I give every credit to the Sugar Research and Development Corporation’s board and staff for what they do and for the 2005-06 report, which is tabled and under discussion in the Senate today.

Question agreed to.