Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I caught the last part of the member for Hume’s contribution. I know he spoke from the heart on the difficulties that people in regional Australia—including regional Victoria—experience. I acknowledge his contribution. Whilst the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is here, I would also like to put on record my thanks for the recent Landcare announcements. The announcement about the coordinator positions has been well received within my electorate. I would also like to acknowledge Martin Breen, the adviser in this area. I wish him all the best in his exciting new career ahead.

I am pleased to rise today to speak on the Rural Adjustment Amendment Bill 2009. This is a bill that is important to Australia and, of course, my electorate of Corangamite. As most members would know, this bill is about the Rural Adjustment Act 1992, which covers the critical issue of addressing change in the farming sector. Whilst the amendments proposed in this bill are technical in nature, ensuring continuous governance, the bill gives me a chance to talk about the fantastic contribution made by the farming sector in my electorate and the challenges that it faces.

This bill makes a relatively minor amendment from a legislative point of view. Basically, it amends section 7 of the Rural Adjustment Act 1992 to allow the members of the National Rural Advisory Council, the NRAC, to be appointed for two subsequent terms after their initial term. There is no financial impact resulting from this bill. The bill needs to be passed in the winter sitting in order for the four current NRAC members whose second terms cease on 30 June 2009 to be reappointed for a third term. If this legislation is not progressed in the winter sitting, the remaining members of the NRAC will be required to take on additional responsibilities and will have an unacceptable workload as a consequence, or new members will need to be selected to replace the existing notionally retiring members.

The National Rural Advisory Council is a skills based, independent advisory council to the Australian government. It was established in December 1999 as a statutory consultative body, following legislative changes to the Rural Adjustment Act 1992. It replaced the Rural Adjustment Scheme Advisory Council and expanded the range of roles and functions of the original council. The NRAC advises the minister for agriculture on rural issues such as exceptional circumstances, or EC, applications and extends the EC declarations where required. When the Australian government receives an EC application, the minister may refer it to the NRAC for assessment if he agrees that a prima facie case has been established.

In doing assessments, the NRAC must look at a wide range of issues and data. It looks, for example, at the National Agricultural Monitoring System and at analyses provided by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, state and local governments and local producers. Additionally, the NRAC may undertake an inspection tour of an area to witness firsthand the devastation that drought might be causing. If the NRAC assesses an area as no longer being subject to exceptional circumstances and the minister accepts the advice not to extend the declaration, assistance ceases on the date the declaration ends. If the NRAC supports extending the declaration and the minister agrees, assistance continues until the new declaration date ends.

So you can see that the NRAC representatives are very powerful people who represent the interests of the communities and the government. They can hold people’s futures in their hands by making a simple declaration or by ending such a declaration. It is a job that has enormous responsibilities and requires enormous amounts of experience, so it is very important that there is continuity of service on this body and a higher level of experienced management in place. It really is important for my own electorate but also for people right across the country that the skills and knowledge of the current NRAC members are continued.

Corangamite, like most farming areas today, is facing some very real challenges. To show how important farming is to Corangamite, I will run through some of the recent ABARE figures. Milk is one of south-west Victoria’s most important agricultural products in value terms. Milk accounts for about 30 per cent or nearly $690 million of the $2.1 billion total value of agricultural production in the region. Cattle trail by only a marginal amount, with 17 per cent of total production, while sheep and lambs contribute 15 per cent to the total value of agricultural production within my seat. Wool accounts for about 14 per cent and vegetable production around three per cent. Pasture and hay production account for just over six per cent of the total value of agricultural production and barley, canola and other oil seeds each account for around two per cent, as measured in 2004-05. There are about 7,900 farms in south-west Victoria. Most farms in the south-west Victorian region are small or medium in size, and over half the farms produce less than $150,000 in agricultural outputs, as measured in that 2004-05 financial year. In 2007 around 294,000 people were employed in south-west Victoria, with 27,000 people—or eight per cent of the workforce—employed in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector.

As you can see, this is a very important industry to my region and, I know, a very important industry to the whole of south-west Victoria and the whole of Australia. It provides us with employment, it provides us with food and it provides us with exports that we desperately need. Climate change is now having a real impact. A number of areas across south-west Victoria have been drought declared. A number of areas have been drought declared for quite some time, and almost all of these areas have been affected by climate change to one degree or another. Farmers are very familiar with El Nino and La Nina events and with how they can greatly affect seasons and rainfall. We all know that it will just get harder for the farmer to respond to climate change. All the science tells us this. On top of climate change challenges, farmers have to deal with the real impacts of worldwide markets. These can have a very big impact upon their small businesses. For example, the dairy price index of international dairy product prices recently fell by 58 per cent from its peak in 2007. Prices appear to have bottomed out in the first quarter of 2007 and to have recovered a bit. Production prices in the Oceania region this year were about half of what they were in previous years, I understand. Of course, dairy is not the only farming sector that is subject to quite volatile variations. Most other sectors are too.

The point is that it is very important to have experienced people in charge of schemes such as the Rural Adjustment Scheme so farmers can get help when they need it. The Rural Adjustment Act 1992 specifies that the NRAC’s main role is to provide advice on rural adjustment and regional issues, including on whether areas should be assessed as being in exceptional circumstances. Four of the eight currently serving NRAC members cease their second terms on 30 June 2009. Without this legislative amendment being passed they will not be eligible to serve for a third term. Passage of this bill will ensure that the current and past members, who have developed considerable expertise in undertaking EC assessments, can continue to make significant contributions to the NRAC. What we are doing here is a very sensible thing—that is, making sure we have the right people in place to make these very important judgements on behalf of the government or for the government. I support the intent of this bill, and I commend it to the House.

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