James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator Davey, which has also been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The Albanese Labor Government's policies are driving up the cost of living while driving down confidence in the farming sector and failing to keep farmers farming.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The proposal before us is:

The Albanese Labor Government's policies are driving up the cost of living while driving down confidence in the farming sector and failing to keep farmers farming.

With the cost-of-living crisis smashing Australian families, relief is urgently needed. The last thing any government should do is introduce policies that have the potential to exacerbate the problem. What government would implement policies that have the potential to stop our farmers farming, add to the cost of production, make homegrown produce less competitive than cheap imports, and deliberately make food and fibre more expensive? More importantly, what government would implement such policies without a comprehensive understanding of the impact of them? Well, as we found out in question time today, this government would. This government is banning live exports. This government is failing to introduce a dedicated visa pathway for agricultural workers. This government is pursuing renewable energy projects and transmission lines across prime agricultural land and introducing punitive industrial relations reforms that will hurt farmers.

But probably most egregious of all is this government's policies to reintroduce water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin. Irrigated agriculture is a key mitigation tool in dealing with the extremes of climate change. It is one of the best tools to cope with increasing droughts punctuated by floods. Capturing water during floods and using it to grow food and fibre during the dry times is key to providing an economic base for many agriculturally dependent communities and businesses.

Tonight politicians across the spectrum will get the opportunity to savour a taste of the basin, with food and fibre producers from across the Murray-Darling Basin bringing their goods to parliament, and I welcome some of those producers in the chamber today, listening to this debate. This event has been organised by basin based MPs and senators to highlight the vital role the Murray-Darling Basin plays in the production of food and fibre. There will be a wide variety of produce, including wine, dairy, fantastic Australian rice from my home town of Deniliquin, fruits, nuts, and cotton—all of which are dependent on irrigation.

But there is another motive for these producers coming here to showcase their wares, and it's the motive of having the opportunity to tell politicians firsthand how important our rivers are to food and fibre production, from Queensland to South Australia and everywhere in between, because it is our nation's food bowl. They want the opportunity to talk about the impact of buybacks, because we know from question time today that this government hasn't modelled the impacts. No regulatory impact statement is provided with the water amendment bill that we are going to be asked to vote on in the Senate in the near future. The consultation on that bill consisted of a webinar and less than a handful of invite-only consultation sessions that the department carried out. And the minister has barely set down on the basin.

Unlimited water buybacks will impact our productivity and will make food in Australia more expensive, leading to greater pressure from imported products from countries that don't have a government actively working against food and fibre producers. Make no mistake: everyone wants a healthy river, including our food and fibre producers. But they also want and need healthy industries and communities and to provide the jobs across the supply chain to get our food to the supermarket, to your table. And a healthy working river is about more than flow, yet we have a basin plan that is a one-trick pony, with water recovery the only tool to improve environmental outcomes. We need more than water recovery from the productive pool to ensure that we have working rivers and healthy working communities. Thank you. (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I look forward to making my contribution on this matter of public importance from Senator Davey, and I must say at the outset that I have the greatest respect for Senator Davey. She is from the land. I know your passion—but you're not the only one. I'm just saying that, Senator Davey, because for the last 18 years that I've been here I have, as you know, chaired—either in opposition, for 15 of the 18 years, or in government—the Rural, Regional Affairs and Transport Committee. And I must say I've been a massive supporter of Australia's food and fibre producers and processors for all those years, and it's been an interesting journey. But for those listening out there, you'd think that we're the worst thing that ever happened to the farmers, so I just want to give you a balance. In my humble opinion, thank goodness we had a change of government.

I believe that the Albanese government has been the greatest saviour of the agriculture industry because—I'm not having a crack at my colleagues over the bench, but I have to say this—a lot of the fantastic food that we develop in this nation had hit a brick wall in trade. Let's not fool each other: trade, to the Australian agriculture and horticulture industries, is paramount. We know we export some 70 per cent of our food and fibre and also our seafood. We know we import just as much of the seafood, as well. But seriously, with the greatest of respect to my colleague Senator Davey, damage had been done to our trade with our largest trading partner, China, so that the opposing minister from China wouldn't even take the Australian minister's phone calls. How bad is that—the largest trading partner we had! Let's not fool ourselves: farmers were in pain. Fortunately, the grown-ups have come into government. I'm happy to take criticism—if you can find it, throw it at me, no worries. But we saw the destruction of our barley trade, the crayfish, the wine and the timber. Now we're on the way back, and now we have a grown-up relationship with China that has been managed by adults. Fortunately, we're starting to get trade going across to China, and thank goodness for that.

I have to say this, too, as someone who does know the price of diesel: the other day I heard one of my colleagues from the other side of the chamber make one of the most ridiculous statements, saying that the Labor Party government makes up all this stuff about the war in Ukraine putting up prices. Ladies and gentlemen, before Russia's illegal invasion into Ukraine, diesel was coming at around $1.80, I can tell you. Six months before that, when I was fueling up at Port Hedland, it was about $1.50, and it kept climbing. Whether some believe this or not—and I don't know how it all works, because we've still got plenty of fuel; I don't know if the fuel companies are having a bit of fun here too—the cost of diesel is $2.30 to $2.50, depending on what part of Western Australia you are in.

I'm from the trucking industry, but the last time I looked the agriculture industry relies on trucking and relies on diesel just as much as we do in the trucking industry. It's the cost of doing business. Let's not forget that about two years ago the previous government, Mr Morrison and co, were caught asleep at the wheel. For those who don't know, we had a diesel additive called AdBlue. All of a sudden we had a massive shortage of AdBlue in this nation, and the transport and agriculture industries were doing somersaults. Fortunately, now we've put that to bed. There's stability there. These are true costs. You're shaking your head, Senator McDonald, like it's not a true cost. Well, I tell you it is a true cost.

I know that the trucks bring it into the farms. I have the greatest respect for our farmers and our horticulturists. I know how it all starts: we bring in the fuel, we bring in the seed, we bring in the fertiliser, we bring in the equipment. It's not all done by farmers themselves; it's the trucking industry. When our export markets are booming, I know who carts it out. It's our trucks. We're the ones who pick it up from the farms and we're the ones who pick up the meat and all that sort of stuff. We're the ones that take it into the cities. We're the ones that take it to the rail or to the ports. The product has probably been on the back of a truck six, seven or eight times before it ends up on your table. So I think we have to tell some truths, and that gets overlooked.

I respect Senator Davey's knowledge of water. I get all that. This has been an ongoing problem for years. When I first walked into this building back in 2005, we were in an arm wrestle with the Howard government. And it wasn't our plan; it was your plan. You had the Basin Plan, and you still couldn't get it right. We've got to tell some truths.

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we heard there from Senator Sterle was, 'If you've got something, throw it at me.' Well, here I am. Get ready to catch! It's a two-trick pony. We talk about China. We talk about how great it is for farmers that we've got China. We're suckling on the teat of China as our one trick in trade. The other one is we're talking about trucks and truckies and their great input costs. We won't have things to put on the trucks. We won't need truck drivers, because we won't be able to grow anything with the way this government is going.

The role of government is to look after its people and its national interest and its security first, and this government is not doing that. This government is looking after other interests. We go out there in the world and we say: what are we going to do about our Pacific island friends? We need to do something for them, so we're going to change the visa regime for farm workers. We do that for our Pacific island friends—I get it—but not for our farmers. They can't use the same thing of foreign workers on their land. They can't hire the same people. They can't have the same arrangements. We'll just do that—we'll just look after that there.

We talk about what we're going to do for the world on climate change. We're going to take their land. We're just going to put some transmission lines here. We're going to put some solar farms here. We're going to put some wind farms there. We'll just take a bit of their land; the farmers will be alright with that. That won't be a problem. It's bit by bit by bit. What are we going to do with water? Oh, we have to have more water flowing to meet our obligations. We'll just take a bit of water off them here. The farmers will be fine with that. It's not a problem. Oh, we need offset zones, so what do we do? We'll allow companies to buy zones and put these zones on this land and those zones there. Farmers will be okay with that. It's death by a thousand cuts.

No-one is keeping up on all of these things—on their staff, on their water, on their lands and on their productivity—'Oh, you can't use this method now. You can't grain feed this. You can't do that.' In this building, we think we know better than the people that actually grow things, make things and build things. That's the No. 1 problem here, and it's the problem with this government. No-one is keeping up with these things that have all been done in the last 18 months. I think we were in estimates when the trade minister was saying, 'What a great deal we've done for farmers in this country.' It's not. The price of protein now shows that. The meatworks can't get enough meat workers to slaughter the meat. They can sell more meat, but they can't kill enough meat to keep the protein prices down.

All of these things are happening because of the decisions made by this government. When we sit here on this side and say, 'Can we have an inquiry to look at transmission lines and the effect they have?' the response is: 'No, we can't do that. We don't want to know the problems. We don't want to own up to the problems. We don't want to do this. We want to stop the people that feed this nation and feed the region.'

If you want to do something that helps Australia and helps the region both at once, let's make agriculture better so we can feed everyone. We're good at it. Our farmers are great at it. They care for the land. It's their asset. It's their livelihood. They've been on it for so long. Let them have their way and keep farmers farming because that's what they deserve to do. They look after their animals because it's in their interest. They look after their crops because it's in their interest. They look after their land because it's in their interest. But here we go—we know better. And it's not just that side; it's not just this side. It is this opinion that across the world we know better than the people who actually do things. We don't want to talk to them. We don't want to inquire about it. We don't want to hear their stories.

Down at Henty ute muster, I was told a New South Wales farmer's story. He has solar farms on three sides of him. He has a half-billion-dollar investment around him. How great is that for the region? It's a great investment. What can this farmer not do? He can't get public liability insurance anymore. His neighbours have half a billion dollars worth of equipment, so he can't get public liability insurance, because if there's a fire—his tractor starts something up or he's burning off and goes away—he burns half a billion dollars worth of other stuff. These are the added-on layers upon layers upon layers of new government policy that means that all we'll be exporting in 50 years will be pollution and jobs. There won't be food. There won't be manufacturing. There won't be this.

Australia is a lucky country because we got in and we did things. We trusted our people to do things well and they did. This government, this parliament, should be out there backing our people, letting them be the best they can be—and Australian farmers are the best—and feeding the people of the region. Every bit we do hurts that. Every bit that we restrict them costs Australian people in cities more for their food. Everything we do to restrict them means they aren't as innovative as they could be and Australia is less productive. Let them have their head, and keep farmers farming.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find it absolutely incredible that any of those opposite have the temerity to want to debate the cost of living when they all live in glass houses. First of all, they've opposed every measure put forward in our $23 billion cost-of-living package, a package that was carefully calibrated to ease the pressure on households without adding to inflation. Then they tell us that we're spending too much, even when we're delivering the first surplus in 15 years. Remember that it was the coalition that gave this country a trillion dollars in debt, with nothing to show for it. And then, finally, they tell us that we should be doing better when it comes to wages, yet they've opposed every measure we've put forward to get wages moving again.

Those opposite appear to have the memories of goldfish. They must have forgotten that when they were in government they openly admitted to deliberately keeping wage growth low. It was, to quote the then finance minister, 'a deliberate feature of our economic architecture'. Remember that? Then there is their criticism of us for inflation, but once again the opposition have got very short memories. The inflation challenge that we are dealing with was inherited from the previous government. Those opposite are very good at sniping. All they seem to be capable of doing is sniping, yet they did nothing to ease the pressure on struggling households, whether those households were in cities or rural or regional areas. They opposed almost every measure we put forward to ease that pressure, so we know that this situation would be a lot worse if they are still in government.

In fact, talking about farmers and the impact on farmers, let's look at just one thing that they did for farmers when they were in government because they do not do all that much. They made lots of announcements and appeared in the media and on TV a lot, but they didn't actually do all that much. There is one thing I must admit they did do. The former government cut the federal biosecurity budget by about $100 million per year. They were happy to jeopardise our biosecurity system, a system that I must remind people is critical to the prosperity of industry and obviously farmers. I don't think they were actually working in the farmers' interests. But we on this side do understand that, just like other businesses and households, our primary producers are also facing a series of challenges, including the collapsing livestock prices caused by oversupply due to impending dry conditions.

The Albanese government is committed to protecting and growing Australia's agricultural industry. But it is pretty rich, as I have said, that we are being lectured by the Nationals in the opposition on driving down confidence in the sector after the mess that they left behind from their decade in government. The opposition have been demanding to know why, after 18 months in government, we have not cleaned up the mess that they built over 10 years—their neglect, their incompetence. I am happy to remind those opposite of their record because they seem to be suffering from some sort of collective amnesia, not only forgetting that they created the mess but that they tried to stand in the way of our efforts to clean it up. As I said, I think they live in glass houses. But they still insist on throwing too many stones. The next time the opposition want to lecture us about the cost of living, I suggest they take a very long, hard look in the mirror.

Let's look at some of the elements of the cost of living. Housing: they spent a decade doing nothing to create affordable housing while waiting lists went through the roof. But then they voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund. Child care: costs went up by 28 per cent, and so once again it fell to Labor to make child care cheaper for 1.2 million families. Power bills: they had over 20 different energy policies in the 10 years that they were in government. That chaos and confusion led to increasing electricity prices, including increases they took deliberate steps to hide on the eve of an election, even going so far as to change the regulations to hide this fact. They also voted against our energy bill relief for millions of homes and businesses. Now let's talk about health care. They froze Medicare rebates for years and caused bulk-billing rates to fall. We have tripled the bulk-billing incentive and made medicine cheaper, a measure they threatened to oppose. Their record in government and their record for the past year and a half in opposition show their feigned concern for the pressures on households is little more than lip-service. (Time expired)

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor's policies are not only driving up inflation and making the housing crisis worse but also a direct attack on Australia's farmers and our world-leading agricultural industries. Labor will soon introduce legislation that will risk food and fibre production in the Murray-Darling Basin, which is valued at more than $20 billion per year. Labor has chopped water security projects like the Hells Gates Dam in Queensland, and these are critical for our food security. Australia is already a net food importer and has been for many years. In 2021 the deficit grew to $7 billion, and according to the Bureau of Statistics food imports have grown by almost five per cent every year since 1980. Most of these imports come from countries with much lower quality standards and poorer land stewardship credentials, like China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Labor's obsession with climate change is destroying prime agricultural land, with transmission lines, wind farms and solar panels contaminating the land with heavy metals. It's attacking our livestock farmers by forcing them to account for methane emissions while New Zealand excludes its agriculture from carbon accounting.

In 2019 Labor voted for my Protecting Australian Dairy Bill, but, since coming to power, it has done nothing for an industry still in crisis. Of course, Labor aims to end the live export trade, which supports thousands of jobs in regional Australia. Labor continues to pursue bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements that force Australia's farmers to the bottom end of a very uneven playing field. Labor is chopping infrastructure projects that are a vital part of our food supply chains, increasing costs for both farmers and consumers. Labor must end its offensive against Australia's farmers in the best interests of our nation and its people.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this very important matter of public importance and congratulate Senator Davey for moving this issue to the forefront of our debate. We on this side of the chamber—people like Senator Davey, and I'd throw myself into the category as well—actually come from the bush. We come from regional Australia, and we're here to represent regional Australia. I was born in the small country town of Manjimup in the south of Western Australia, and my family have farmed in Pemberton for over 150 years. That gives us linkage. That gives us knowledge. That gives us ties. That gives us a care for regional Australia, for the bush. The trouble for Labor is that they simply don't have that. Senator Sterle is someone on the other side who I do admire and who does have a genuine affinity for the bush. But I think Senator Sterle looks to his left and looks to his right and says, 'There's nobody else.' In fact, we've heard the minister for agriculture in this place try and defend Labor's linkages to agriculture—

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's not fair. My parents were farmers too.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and we get that kind of interjection: 'My mother's second cousin twice removed once visited a farm.' That's Labor's link to the bush. They simply do not understand regional Australia, so they cannot represent it in this place.

Lake Grace is a small county town in Western Australia where the current price of unleaded is over $2 a litre and diesel is $2.36 a litre. These are families that need petrol in the tanks of their cars just to live their lives. They live hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from a major centre. They live in a very isolated part of this great continent and of our great state. In a major centre like Geraldton, which has a population in excess of 60,000, I think—Senator Smith might correct me—it is $1.95 for unleaded and $2.13 for diesel. In Onslow, further north—admittedly a bit more remote again—it is $2.42 for unleaded and $2.35 for diesel. These are people that need to fill their tanks. It's not an optional extra; it's life. The cost-of-living pressures on Australians living in regional Australia are even more heightened than they are on those living in the city. We understand the pain that those in the city are feeling, but those in the bush are feeling it even more.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is absolutely appalling that we are seeing the perfect storm of rising cost of living and rising food prices thanks to the complete disaster that this Albanese Labor government is for agriculture right across Australia. When Senator Cadell was speaking about the layer upon layer of outrageous antifarming policies, it reminded me of a Sara Lee cake—the Sara Lee policy construction for anti-agricultural policies.

I'm going to start in the north of the country, in my country, where every bit of water funding has been ripped out. One of the first actions of the Minister for the Environment and Water was to take back every planned water policy. It didn't matter whether it was a dam, a pipeline, small, large, because they hate dams and they hate farmers in the north. To make matters worse, they took that funding—$6 billion, Senator Davey?—

Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and walked it down to the Murray-Darling to rip that out of agricultural production in the southern part of the country. Just to be clear, that will be over a hundred thousand hectares of intensive agricultural land. If you don't think that's going to mean less fruit and veggies on your table then you are mistaken. It means, Senator Sterle, that there will be fewer trucks driving around with produce that comes from our food bowl in the south and ends up on people's tables right across the country.

Those opposite have planned to ban live sheep exports out of Western Australia, smashing that market. It was devastating to listen to ABARES make excuse after excuse about how they'd examined the impact of the live export decision on prices but not be able to demonstrate one bit of data they'd extracted that was relevant to the Western Australian situation.

They have failed to support the dedicated visa pathway for agricultural workers that the Liberal-National coalition announced before the last election. If there is one thing that farmers across the country talk to me about, it's the workforce shortage—how they can't get suitably qualified people. The agricultural visa would have provided them.

The renewable energy transmission line projects across highly productive agricultural farming country are a disgrace. They have been poorly planned, and the Labor government will not allow us to have a Senate inquiry into them. What are they trying to hide?

We're going to see more changes to the EPBC Act, and you can guarantee they won't be about protecting farmers and maintaining productive land use. In the north, where bushfires are raging, nobody is able to clear a firebreak. What is happening to farmers and graziers in the northern part of the country is absolutely appalling.

What about the industrial relations impacts? Last week we saw rolling stoppages at abattoirs. Chains stopped because the CPSU in Canberra feel they need a pay rise, but what does that mean for graziers who can't get their stock in to be slaughtered? It means lower prices for them again.

We've seen the banning of gillnet fishing. This is a personal favourite. In North Queensland, we have gillnet fishermen who will lose their livelihoods, starting this December. Merry Christmas, fishermen in North Queensland! When you can't buy wild-caught barramundi or wild-caught grey mackerel, Mr Acting Deputy President, say thanks very much to this Labor government for the secret, sneaky deal that Tanya Plibersek, the minister for environment, has done with UNESCO. It is somehow going to save the Great Barrier Reef. I must send the environment minister a map, because the Gulf of Carpentaria is nowhere near the Great Barrier Reef. That doesn't seem to matter. It does mean that it will cost more to buy wild-caught fish—if you can get it.

There's the cost of electricity. I see graziers with electricity bills that would make your eyes water. An 82 per cent renewables target—what rubbish!

They have not signed a trade deal since they've been in government. It was the coalition that, during its last period in office, took agricultural products from 25 per cent to 85 per cent under a trade deal. That allowed farmers to get better prices, more scale. This government, the Labor government, hates farmers. They hate the regions and they certainly don't support lower food prices for Australians. It's shocking.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love farmers. That's a lie!

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Pratt, that's not helpful. Interjections are disorderly. Senator Scarr has the call.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order: Senator Pratt should withdraw.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order: I will not withdraw. Senator McDonald said, 'You hate farmers.' I love them, and that's a notorious lie.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Pratt, it was a reference not to any senator specifically. It would assist the chamber, Senator Pratt, if you could just withdraw, please.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Pratt.

Order! It's a nice day, everybody.