Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to talk about a very important subject—that is, Australia's food production systems. We have an important role to look very seriously at how we can identify Australia's food systems as clean and green to our consumer markets. Australian food producers are really well placed to benefit from the growth and demand from the Asian area to our north, particularly China. I know you are seeing an enormous, insatiable demand for dairy products from your home state of Tasmania, Mr Deputy Speaker. I use that as an example because it is important, but the important point I want to raise here in the chamber this morning is that we will be facing increasing global competition for this market. We should not assume that we will have a mortgage on access to these markets. We will have to hit that demand and the competition head-on. We have negotiated a free trade agreement with Japan—I like to talk about them as trade agreements, not free trade—and right now our Treasurer and trade minister are in China negotiating for a trade agreement with China.

Consumer demand will drive the demand for products from Australia, and they are curious about what we produce, how it is produced and a lot more about the production systems. I recently had the Australian Nuffield scholars here in Parliament House before they headed off to China and to India on the Global Focus Program. As a Nuffield scholar, I understand very well the important study that they will do and how they will have their eyes opened as they travel with the Global Focus Program. One of those Nuffield scholars is already exporting citrus into China. She was explaining to me just how curious the consumers are in China. This product here, this iPhone, has more power than the first space mission into outer space. Consumers want to go along the supermarket shelves, hold their phones up against a product and let it take them to the farm where the product was produced. They want to know a lot more about it: whether it is organic, grass fed, hormone free; they want to know a little bit about Landcare. They also want to learn a little bit about the animal practices on that land.

It is possible to have a certification that will identify all of those things—some are there now, such as Landcare—but they will demand that. They are demanding it now. From my own background in the wool industry, we had a pure wool symbol that sold around the world, a swing tag on clothes that said something about the woollen product that the consumer was about to buy. The wool industry has three symbols now: gold for the upmarket, the pure wool symbol and the green one that Prince Charles is promoting. It is a very good example of a symbol talking about Australian production of wool.

We should not just talk about clean and green. I want to see a debate about how we can identify and certify a whole range of criteria to do with production systems and not just talk about— (Time expired)

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