Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Ms Collins, I table a statement concerning agriculture.

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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I note that the Labor government is taking credit for the headline figures today. It's a $100 billion headline figure out there in the ABARES report on agriculture. I want to point out that this result does not belong to the government. It belongs to those out there working in the industry. It belongs to the farmers, the foresters and the fishers and all the work they do to make Australia great. They are the ones who sweat out there to feed the nation, to feed the world and to do the hard work despite what this government's doing to the agricultural industry.

ABARES shows us the truth behind the spin. The water trade has collapsed to only 759 gigalitres this season. That's less than half of what it was last year. The median water price is now $260 a megalitre. That is more than three times the average for the last five years. When government buys water off producers this is what happens. The price of water for agriculture, the price of water for communities and the price of water for the things we need go through the roof. That isn't good governance. That is a deliberate policy by this government to put ideology over the basin communities.

Farmers across southern New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are facing droughts. Fishers in South Australia are facing an algal bloom, and there is not enough to keep these people in the game. People are selling up every day. People are getting out of the industry because of the lack of response of state and federal governments. The answer here is to give loans through RIC and other bodies. That isn't a fix. That is giving a farmer at the bottom of a hole a shovel to dig deeper. What they need is a hand to get out of that hole. Farmers were promised stronger biosecurity. Instead they copped a fool's biosecurity tax that had to be stopped in this chamber and mixed messages on import restrictions. We've seen things like the varroa mite. We're seeing things like white spot in prawns. We see all these things going on, yet agriculture and agricultural people get on, do the job and deliver for Australia.

When you're really looking at a measure of how Australia really feels about this government, you only had to be at the recent bush summits. In Ballarat, we saw farmers not turn up with polite applause. They didn't say, 'Well done.' They didn't say, 'Thank you.' They showed up with raw frustration. They protested directly to the Prime Minister, the very man who claims to be listening to the bush. Their protest wasn't theatre; it was real. You don't get a farmer in an audience with a noose around their own neck because they think things are going well. When we sit here and say that this is a great headline figure, we need to thank the people that work under the threat of closure of their marine environment systems and forestry areas by the different national parks. People are buying up farms for twice their value to make farming areas national park. This is not something that is a good thing for this country.

One thing Australia does well is feed the region. That's through all of our protein, our grains—through all of these things—and our growers need to be supported. When the government sits there and says, 'Look at the agricultural access that we got back into China,' even that isn't fair. We're seeing the tropical lobster not being able to be sold into these areas. We're seeing a fragile market in China for lobster because there is no security around what goes on. I say to the farmers of Australia, the fishers of Australia and the foresters of Australia: thank you for what you do. While we are seeing decreasing productivity across the nation, farming and agriculture is one area that it is ever increasing. We couldn't do the things we do without you. We have your back. Thank you very much. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.