Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike the previous speaker, I am actually going to talk about the dairy industry. I support the Dairy Produce Amendment (Dairy Service Levy Poll) Bill 2016 that is before the House today. Let me say at the outset, I am a dairy farmer and definitely have a vested interest in this bill. Equally, I want to say hello to every dairy farmer in Australia, who was probably up before dawn this morning milking cows. Local farmers all around Australia, I just want to say hello to them too. They do an enormous job and they are part of that Australia's well earned international reputation for producing clean and green food. It is our competitive advantage and one we need to protect.

I have repeatedly said that in my opinion many Australians take our locally grown food and amazing quality food for granted. The Western Australian dairy industry is a prime example of this. Western Australian milk has been identified as some of the highest quality in Australia. Western Australia is an efficient producer of high-quality milk sold to both South-East Asian and domestic markets. It is a very important industry in Western Australia, particularly in the south-west of my state and in my electorate. WA has a very high herd health status, free of any disease like foot and mouth or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Farmers in my part of the world milk all year round, twice a day every day of the year. WA's dairy industry may be relatively small in size but it is highly reputed for its innovation and high-quality products—that goes back to the farmers, it goes back to research and it also goes back to organisations like Western Dairy. The local farmers keep a very close eye on the research and the strategic work of Western Dairy. They do some great work in the implementation of dairy research and extension back to farms. Their Greener Pastures and feed based integration projects are both examples of what Western Dairy does. Rumen8, a software app to help manage dairy cow diets, is also a useful tool for local farmers. We have internationally competitive production costs in Western Australia. Our processors have modern processing facilities owned by local and international companies. The state's fast and efficient transport links are also vital in delivering high-quality fresh products in the shortest amount of time to both our domestic and international customers. I look forward to the freight out of the Busselton airport being a part of that process.

The Dairy Produce Amendment (Dairy Service Levy Poll) Bill 2016 will amend the Dairy Produce Act 1986 to remove the requirement for the dairy industry to hold a dairy levy poll every five years. There are around 6,000 dairy farmers who pay this levy, with around 160 in Western Australia. Under the Dairy Industry Services Reform Act 2003, Dairy Australia Limited is the declared industry services body for the Australian dairy industry. Dairy Australia has two categories of membership. Group A members are dairy farmers, who pay the dairy levy. Membership is voluntary and entitles members to vote at Dairy Australia Limited annual general meetings. Group B membership covers the peak dairy organisations. Australian Dairy Farmers and the Australian Dairy Products Federation are Group B members.

In accordance with the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Act 1999 and the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Act 1999, dairy farmers pay a dairy service levy to Dairy Australia based on the fat and protein content of their milk. Section 9 of the Dairy Produce Act 1986 requires Dairy Australia to make recommendations to the minister in relation to the amount of the dairy service levy. Before making each recommendation, Dairy Australia must conduct a poll in accordance with the regulations and the recommendation must accord with the results of the poll. The regulations stipulate a dairy levy poll must be held, currently every five years.

The dairy industry was concerned about the regulatory and financial burden associated with a poll every five years and where that funding could be better spent in research, regardless of whether a change in levy rate is to be sought. So if there is no change, the poll is still required. ADF and Dairy Australia commissioned an independent review and it recommended simplifying the levy poll process. In November 2015 the dairy levy payers, the dairy farmers, supported simplifying the dairy levy process including removing the requirement to hold a dairy levy poll every five years. The poll process costs up to $1 million every five years. Imagine the additional research and development activities that this could fund. There is a range of subordinate legislation in the instrument to require the industry services body to do a poll on the levy rate every five years and require a poll if a variation to the rate is recommended to the advisory committee—an advisory committee will be a part of this. It also includes a mechanism for Group A members to request a poll if they disagree with the advisory committee's decision not to convene a levy poll. It must be supported by 15 per cent at least of those in Group A so there are checks and balances.

When we look at the dairy industry, we know that our dairy farmers need incredible skills in feeding and nutrition, herd management and reproduction, genetics and livestock health and diseases. Wrapped up in this is needing to calve cows at any hour of the day or night and dealing with all forms of herd health. You need the skills to be able to manage your pasture to produce that fat and protein that pays the levy. That is what you are paid on as well. You need to know the correct fertiliser regime for your particular property, the necessary cattle management skills and how to manage irrigation systems.

There is the machinery—you have to know your machinery. You really need a very good ear if you are operating machinery. You need to know if you are working it too hard in the particular gear you are in. You have to be able to build your own equipment if you are a dairy farmer. You have to know how to cut your costs, and you really need to be able to weld. If you cannot weld you are in all sorts of strife. You need good mechanical skills, staff management skills and business management skills, and you need to be across finance and taxation issues—all the same things that affect small businesses. Of course, you need to be at the cutting edge of technology, which the industry is very good at.

Dairy farmers manage one of the most perishable products in any form. That also exposes us as dairy farmers to the market. Having a perishable product exposes us to the constant vagaries of challenging and changing weather, water shortages, dry winters, an increasing cost base and the challenges of having just two major supermarkets with their control in the marketplace and the use of milk as a loss leader in that grocery marketplace.

The dairy industry, through Dairy Australia Limited, is ready to co-invest in the continuing future of this very important industry. We need to ensure, however, that this investment represents value for money and provides tangible benefits for dairy farmers. Dairy farmers want to see on their properties and in their herds that the research done by Western Dairy and others is actually making a difference and adding to what they do and their businesses. This is and must be the prime focus of the minister, the government and the industry.

In the few minutes that are left me in this debate I want to mention another contribution that dairy farmers have recently made in my electorate. Everybody knows that we have had very serious bushfires in Waroona, Yarloop and in the Uduc area of Harvey, perhaps one paddock away from our own property. In each of those fires and in other fires our local farmers—and particularly, in these two fires, the dairy farmers who were affected—were front and centre in that fire effort. Pretty well most of them have fire units that they put on the backs of their utes. When they see a neighbour in strife, as we did at Uduc only two weeks ago, the first people on the ground were the farmers themselves, first seeing that there was a problem and where it was, and then not only contacting our local fire brigades and emergency services but then getting out there with their own equipment to help.

There were about 13 or 14 individual farmers' units running on the face of that fire recently around the Uduc area and in the paddock of our neighbour, Graham Manning. They were doing an extraordinary job on this fire. Added to that, we had farmers, including my own son, who had their tractors out discing all around our neighbours' houses. There were several instances where a combination of the farmers working with the discs on the tractors and the local fire brigades were able to save people's homes. This is something that often we do not necessarily see. We have wonderful fire and emergency services—DPaW and DFES in WA and our volunteers—and we also have this particular interface, which is our local farmers.

These same dairy farmers have lost a significant amount of fencing. Hundreds of kilometres of fencing have gone as part of this. People who milk cows know that you have to be able to keep them in a paddock to be able to feed them, keep control of them and milk them. These were some of the things that they could not do, which caused huge pressure and stress. I have seen it in some of my own farmers. When I was out on the ground in those early days they were covered in ash and dust, and I could see the whites of their eyes. One, it was shock; two, it was stress; and three, they were working their hearts out to try to save not only their cattle but also their homes, their dairies, their communities and their neighbours. They did a huge job. This was replicated over and over.

I also want to acknowledge the two farmers, one of whom was a dairy farmer, who, after the Uduc fires, got that group of people together, those fantastic dairy farmers who had helped to control the fires on their property and stop even more loss and stop the fire running into Harvey. They got those guys together, took them down to a local hotel and bought them a few drinks and a meal as a way of saying thank you for the work they had done.

This is replicated right across Australia, I would say, but in my part of the world in the south-west it has been a huge effort. There were other farmers, not just dairy farmers. There were beef farmers and those who grow fruit and vegetables as well, on the ground with their fire units helping their fellow farmers.

We have some great young people in the gallery today, and I would say to you that when you are out and see your farmers and the work they do on the land with their animals and their produce, they are producing fabulous food and fibre for you, for Australians and for other people around the world. Sometimes when you see them working you do not even consider what it is that they do. They have a multifaceted job and they are very, very skilled people. In my view they are often are underestimated for their intelligence and their manual capacity. Most farmers I know, particularly my dairy farmer friends and colleagues of all these years, can fix anything, anywhere, any time. They can make it work and they will never, ever go short of a feed. They are often people who are not only dairy farmers but grow their own fruit and vegetables as well and are almost self-sustaining. They are very focused on environmental management. That is one of the key focuses as well of Western Dairy and the research. So I commend this bill and the work of the dairy farmers of this nation to this House.

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