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

The show of coalition unity which wheat always attracts! We have also been implementing with Australia’s farming future in mind a significant investment in making sure that our R&D programs are squarely aimed at preparing farmers for the future and preparing farmers for the challenges that climate change brings. We have also established the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, AFMA, on a bipartisan basis as a commission and $20 million to help our forestry industries prepare for the future.

Of the two major reviews I referred to, one refers to quarantine and the other refers to drought. All honourable members are aware of the devastation that was caused following equine influenza. Industry estimates a billion dollars damage to it through that. It is probably more, but we will certainly never know. Roger Beale has handed his report to me and that is now being considered by government as a comprehensive view of how Australia can better protect its biosecurity status. The national review of drought policy has formed a good part of the discussion this year, acknowledging that the challenges the climate is bringing us in the future are different from what we have had in the past. I reiterate the guarantee that I have consistently given and that the Prime Minister has repeated: it is a review of how we will handle the next drought and does not carry changes to the protections people enjoy—they are going through the current drought and some of the most difficult experiences of their working lives. I would also add the Economic Security Strategy. More than $4 billion of that money goes into rural and regional Australia, forming a very important part of that total package.

Many of the issues that have gone on around the world have all come down in agriculture, and we knew from the beginning of the year when they were predicted as an agricultural theme for the year when the United Nations deemed 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato, which honourable members may not be aware of. It was a year where we saw a global food crisis, a global financial crisis and climate change, all of which put very strong pressure on us to make sure that we get the policy settings right to prepare our primary producers for the future.

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