Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I had a very productive visit last Thursday from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig, whom I hosted in my electorate of Page. We began at a breakfast at Brookfarm. You would have seen some of their products for sale in Parliament House and offered on various plane flights. Brookfarm is run by Martin and Pam Brook, and they run a really good show. They launched a new product, called Porrij, of which there are three different varieties. Who would have thought that porridge could be relaunched, rebadged and remarketed? There were great chefs there—the Byron at Byron chef, Gavin Hughes, and Fin's Steven Snow; two really eminent chefs—cooking Porrij, the humble porridge. We all tried it and it was wonderful. I brought some down to Parliament House with me and had it for breakfast this morning. It is a great local product. It just shows that small business can do great things when they are creative and innovative.

We then had a productive meeting with a whole range of representatives broadly from the red meat industry. There were about 24 of them. Some of them came to my office and some of them spoke over the telephone from all around Australia. They raised concerns that their voices were not being heard in Canberra because they were not speaking with one voice on clear strategies and clear issues, and I have talked about that in this place before. In responding to concerns they expressed that peak bodies such as MLA and Cattle Council of Australia were not representing them well enough, the minister said he was 'all ears' to suggestions as to how the job could be done better. However, he also said it was up to producers to drive any change, based on long-term strategy for the sector. He said, 'It doesn't matter sometimes whether it is a single voice or multiple voices. What matters is that they clearly articulate what their top 10 issues are, what their goals are and what their overall strategy is so that we can then work with the industry.'

I also had a meeting with the Chairman of the Northern Co-operative Meat Company, George Bennett, and the CEO, Simon Stahl, and talked about some of the stresses that the meat-processing sector was under. I got some good assistance with that and heard some good ideas. I finished up at Primex, the premier national primary industries exhibition. It showcases the industries and is a great boost to tourism and our local economy. It is held in Casino, the beef capital of Australia, which hosts the biggest Beef Week in Australia. I congratulate the Wright family, particularly Bruce, and Primex staff and volunteers for organising Primex, our largest regional trade and commercial exhibition. (Time expired)

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