Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I look at it in the terms in which I have just described. The member for Flynn asked for other members for families while they adapt to climate change. I have referred briefly to the transitional income support, but there is also the project through Australia’s Farming Future, which aims to help people, as much as we can, in the preparation for the challenges that the climate will bring in the years to come. I am sorry to be racing through the important issues that have been raised, but I now have to. The member for Solomon raised issues about recreational fishing. I am aware of the importance of recreational fishing in particular to the way of life in the electorate of Solomon. The Australian government has committed $2 million over three years to having the formal development and implementation of a recreational fishing industry development strategy. The member for Forde in many ways answered the question in advance of asking it with respect to what we were doing with food production down the whole value chain. The regional food producers grants will certainly go a long way to those benefits down the production chain to which he referred.

The Leader of the Nationals asked about managed investment schemes. During the election campaign we promised that there would be a review of non-forestry MIS. While the promise was made in my portfolio, the appropriate agency to conduct that review is Treasury. Soon after getting the portfolio I wrote to Treasury and they are undertaking the review of non-forestry MIS. (Extension of time granted) The member for Bass, whose seat I was privileged to visit very early this term, has made me aware from day one of just how important to north-east Tasmania the forestry industry is and, in particular, the opportunities that come for value-adding through the mills and though downstream processing. The $1 million to combat illegal logging is an important part of this. Combating illegal logging is complex and I have had some in-depth conversations with my counterpart in New Zealand about how we might be able to do some of this work together. Long-term work on combating illegal logging requires that there be an engagement with China, which is the primary receiver of timber for manufacturing. Once manufactured, it becomes hard to identify whether or not we are dealing with timber which has been illegally logged. With climate change, we often talk about drought purely in terms of farmers, and we need to remember with respect to forestry workers that if a drought kills their crop it is not an annual problem, it is a 40-year problem. The impact of climate change for forestry workers is very real, and the climate change initiatives that I discussed previously go part of the way towards dealing with that.

The member for Leichhardt raised the issues of weeds and the future of weed management. The previous government had not continued the weeds CRC and it was not to be funded after 30 June this year. I am pleased that the government has now been able to announce the establishment of an Australian Weeds Research Centre, which will allow the important work that was previously being done by the CRC to continue to be done for the benefit of people working on the land.

The reef rescue program, which was also raised by the member for Leichhardt, goes further with respect to the need to make sure that part of saving the reef is not just work that is done in the water. A whole lot of work also needs to be done on the land. That is why the largest part of the money dedicated for a single purpose within Caring for our Country on the election promise front was the money provided for the reef rescue program. Natural resource management is exactly that: it is not only management of land or of natural resources on farm or of natural resources on public land; it goes to entire methods of managing natural resources, from our land, to our river systems and all the way through to something as iconic as the Great Barrier Reef. I am happy to commend the appropriations to the House.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Human Services Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $1,828,805,000

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