Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The honourable member is from the seat of Parkes, so if anybody knows anything about agriculture he does. He initially comes from 'Avondale'—that was the name of the family property.

A fundamental part of what our Intergenerational report is about is making sure we have a future in agriculture. There is no better way to talk about how things are going than to put numbers to it. Everything this government has done has been about making sure we get a better return through the farm gate, that we get real dignity back to the people on the land, that we give them something they can use to make sure that they can experience a comparable standard of living to people in an urban environment.

That is why through this government young cattle have gone up by 38 per cent. Grown steers have gone up by 14 per cent. We have seen that live cattle exports have gone up. Live cattle exports through Darwin have gone up in our term of government by 67 per cent. If you go to other sidelines, such as buffalo, you will see that they have gone up by 54 per cent. Camels, which we are always trying to export because they are a pest in Australia, have gone up 245 per cent. Lamb has gone up by 28 per cent. Mutton has gone up by 67 per cent. Goat has gone up by 87 per cent. Even pork has gone up. Everything that we have tried to do is to make sure that we get a better return. When we go to horticultural products, avocados have gone up by 43 per cent and bananas have gone up by 123 per cent. It is all part of an effective government. These are the numbers that put flesh on the bone about an effective government.

It is not just what we are doing; it is what we are going to do. We have started the process of building dams already. I know that the members for Braddon, Bass and Lyons are very aware of the dams that we are building in Tasmania now—$120 million investment in dams. We could go to the electorate of Mallee and see that $120 million has been spent in the upgrade of lift pumps that were part of the previous government's $10 billion announcement in the Murray-Darling Basin. We are moving right now on country-of-origin labelling, and we have 25,000 emails in our inbox that reflect that we are moving on country-of-origin labelling, and the previous government never did anything about country-of-origin labelling. We are the government that actually delivers. If it is about drought, we are delivering on drought. We are making sure that we respect people who are under the pump. What is the alternative? The alternative is the member for Hunter, who says that he will have a debate any place and any time. And when you give him the place and the time, he never turns up, because he has nothing to say.

See this speech in context