Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The honourable member, with a degree in economics and I think 10 years experience with Colonial, has a real understanding of the economics of our region, and a real desire to make sure that we are part of a region that gives us the best chance of a better return through the farm gate in Australia.

That can be seen with the Casino meatworks in his region which employs 1,400 people and exports around 70 per cent of its product. It is on that basis that it is incredibly important for us to go to our region and make sure that we have strong ties with the respective ministers and with the key people in business so that we can be a greater benefactor of that expanding growth. For that purpose, it was great to meet up with Minister Thomas Lembong from the Ministry of Trade, who has worked in the past with the good Prime Minister. He reminded me of that and said that the Prime Minister was in the higher echelons and incredibly capable—so praise for him comes from far and wide.

Amran Sulaiman, the Minister of Agriculture, was one of the first ministers we were to meet. I thank him for that. I thank Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who has shown us not only how you stop the boats but how you can burn them to the ground when they turn up—the fishing boats. She was obviously a person who strongly believes in border security in her own way—with Edhy Prabowo and Franky Sibarani, who is the head of Investment for BKPM.

It is incredibly important that we understand that when we are dealing with Indonesia—a country of 250 million people, a country that is growing at 5.2 per cent, a country where it is incredibly important for them to have that food security—we have a symbiotic relationship. We have the capacity to produce the product, and they now have the capacity more and more to pay for the product.

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