Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr. Can the minister advise the Senate why he has announced the formation of a strategy group for the food-processing industry when the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is already putting together a group to develop a national food plan?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. I trust that the Senate is aware that, following the last election, I was given responsibility for food manufacturing. This is an area of responsibility that had under previous administrative arrangements been within the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. As a consequence of those changes, I have set about the development of a consultative mechanism to ensure that we get all the relevant players together to discuss the impediments and opportunities that exist for food manufacturing in Australia.

This is particularly important given that food manufacturing is our largest manufacturing sector. As a matter of urgency, a great deal more work needs to be done to encourage that sector to be more innovative and to take up more opportunities so we can produce better processes, increase investment, increase employment and increase exports.

The Innovation, Industry, Science and Research portfolio already provides substantial support for the food industry—including through policy development, through programs, through service delivery and through agencies such as the CSIRO—but a great deal more could be done to ensure that we provide the necessary support, through Enterprise Connect and other networks, to ensure the food-processing industry strategy group can focus attention on the industry assisting itself— (Time expired)

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister agree with his colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, who said at the Australian Food and Grocery Council Conference three weeks ago:

For many years Canberra, both political and bureaucratic have thought of food in a siloed way which suits and reflects the way Government does business, but not the way business does business.

Isn’t the minister’s decision to form a second food industry group just another government silo?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You will be surprised to hear that I agree with my colleague. Unlike the Liberal Party, we are actually committed to working together. You are committed to tearing each other apart.

This is an industry sector in Australia that requires additional attention. When the agriculture ministry was nominated by the National Party, the policy framework was all about farm processes. Beyond the farm gate was not an area of particular attention for previous coalition governments. We have to ensure that, given the importance of this sector to Australian manufacturing, further action is taken. This is particularly significant given the importance of Australian food exports—and we are a food-exporting nation so we have— (Time expired)

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. When will the minister be releasing the terms of reference for this food group? Will he be releasing it after the date originally set for final report, as he did with the pulp and paper industry strategy group?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The fact remains that the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research has achieved a great deal more than we ever saw achieved by the previous government in regard to the promotion of manufacturing in this country. Senator Colbeck mentioned the Pulp and Paper Industry Strategy Group, which for the first time in the history of this country brought together all the players in the pulp and paper industry. In regard to the food industry we will follow the same pattern, but that process will be engaged in after consultation with the industry so that we can ensure that all the players—all the stakeholders—get a chance to have their say and that we get a more innovative approach to the manufacturing of food in this country than we currently have and have historically seen. We want to ensure, for instance, that CSIRO—which alone has some 200 researchers working on food—is able to work more effectively with the investors, more effectively with workers and more effectively with the food companies in Australia. (Time expired)