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

It is clear, by those comments that he just made, that the member for Hunter has never been a dairy farmer like me and been an absolute price taker in the marketplace. As someone who has been through this process, I would desperately have liked to have had access a number of years ago to the revised section 46 to assist my group of farmers in what we were trying to do.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

I would remind the member for Hunter that I have been through that process with the ACCC. The process was particularly difficult. There were many breaches of what was then the trade practices act associated with that. So I speak from a position of experience of being an absolute price taker in the market, and focusing on consumers is a challenge when you are in that position in the marketplace.

It is important that we minimise the regulatory burden on our nation's farmers and food manufacturers. It is also vital that we maintain our reputation for producing high-quality, safe food that is the envy of the rest of the world. This is our greatest advantage in the international food marketplace. Australia's gross value of farm production is worth an estimated $48.7 billion a year, with an export value of farm commodities well over $30 billion a year. We export 60 per cent of what is grown in this country by some of the best farmers in the world.

There is no doubting the quality of Australia's food production. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said:

Australia has a worldwide reputation for producing superior quality, premium food. Australian food producers are committed to providing the highest international standards of quality management and food safety.

As a dairy farmer myself I can say that that is exactly the case in my industry. It is an industry that is focused, and has to be focused, on innovation. It is focused on increased productivity, often with less land, less water, less fertiliser and less profit. Agriculture keeps many rural and regional communities alive. Although the nation may no longer ride on the sheep's back, as we have heard historically, agriculture is still the lifeblood of the bulk of the Australian landmass. Australia's rural industries are among the most innovative and productive in the world. Continued investment in rural research and development is vital to ensure ongoing growth and improvement in the profitability and competitiveness of Australia's agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food sectors. In recognition of this, the Australian government works with industry to co-invest with the growers in research through our world-leading rural R&D system.

The RDCs were established under the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989 to provide research and development services or, as they are commonly known, research and extension services. They are vital to keep Australian primary producers at the forefront of industry around the world. Continuous innovation underpinned by pertinent—it has to be pertinent—and high-quality research is essential to maintaining competitive and profitable industries and maintaining the rural communities that depend on them right around Australia. There are 15 R&D corporations—five statutory and 10 industry owned—supporting a wide range of rural industries. Through them, primary producers invest in themselves and their future. They invest in research, development and extension. Like all industries, it is essential that the agricultural sector invests in its own future, as we have for many years. With the development of an RDC, the respective industry has the capacity to set up and collect a levy paid by its own members. Government helps this process by doing the collection and passing on the proceeds after, of course, recovering costs. To encourage producers to invest in their own productivity and to support the industries themselves, the government matches the corporations' eligible R&D up to legislated limits.

The national interest demands a healthy agricultural sector, and a healthy agricultural sector requires farmers to be both competitive and profitable. There are approximately 134,000 farm businesses in Australia, 99 per cent of which are Australian owned. Australian farmers produce almost 93 per cent of Australia's daily domestic food supply and export 60 per cent of what they produce. There are around 300,000 people directly employed in agriculture, and over 1.6 million people are employed in food and fibre production, processing, distribution and marketing. Farmers themselves contribute around $48.7 billion, or three per cent, of Australia's total gross domestic product. With the value-add, this comes to around 12 per cent of GDP—approximately $155 billion.

There is no doubt that farm profits have been squeezed in recent years. We have seen constant demands for farmers to become more efficient. Australian farmers have responded magnificently. They remain internationally competitive, often in one of the toughest environments to produce, if you look at Australia. They have done this through efficiencies and productivity growth. This has been strong relative to other sectors of the economy and comparable with other OECD countries. It had increased steadily over a 30-year period at 2.8 per cent, consistently outperforming other sectors to the point of doubling the rate of some other industries. Without this level of growth, the gross value of production in Australian agricultural sectors would be approximately $12 billion per annum rather than $40-odd billion. In recent times, agricultural productivity growth has slowed to one per cent per annum, further highlighting the need for research and development to ensure that the industry can continue to grow and develop, and, of course, those profits are received at the farm gate.

Rural industries are engaged with and firmly support the R&D corporation model. The development of levy-payer registers has been identified in a number of reviews and inquiries as important to the ongoing strength of Australia's rural R&D system. The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into industry structures and systems governing the imposition of and disbursement of marketing and R&D levies in the agricultural sector recommended the imposition of and disbursement of marketing and R&D levies in the agricultural sector, legislative amendments to allow for the development of a levy-payer register, improving consultation with levy payers and ensuring the accurate allocation of voting entitlements.

The Agricultural competitiveness white paper identifies a number of measures aimed at improving Australia's world-leading rural R&D systems. These measures and the outcomes they seek to deliver, including new R&D priorities, improved governance of RDCs and increased funding for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, will benefit from timely improvements to consultation between RDCs and levy payers.

I also want to touch on a few organisations. I looked at the Cotton Research and Development Corporation. There are 1,250 growers and they are running 150 R&D projects. There is $20.6 million, between the government and the growers, available to five key priority areas: farmers, industry, customers, people and performance. This is just a snapshot, but they look at weeds and pests—there is critical R&D in weeds and pests—water and self-cooling cotton fabrics for the market. Around the priority area of people, there is rural leadership investment. Frequently, CSIRO is a researcher in this space, along with these organisations. I looked at what the Grains Research and Development Corporation were doing: meeting market requirements; improving crop yields; protecting farmers' crops; advancing profitable farming systems; building skills and capacity; rot resistance; fertiliser, fungal and viral R? adaptive practices; and climate change. Of course, again, researchers were from CSIRO.

As to MLA, I looked at the R&D on grass-fed cattle and grain-fed cattle, and on sheep and goats and their supply chain. And I looked of course at Dairy Australia. I am aware of what is happening with Western Dairy on the ground in R&D. But, equally, at a Dairy Australia level, the investment arm is returning a $3 benefit for every levy dollar raised from the farmers. They are investing in things such as farm margin improvements, animal performance and elite genetics, in herd fertility and in milk quality, in farm business management and in benchmarking between actual farm businesses. They are also investing in resource management; in the things that are really live issues for our dairy farmers: issues around nutrients, water, soil and energy; in industry natural resource management strategies; in on-farm emissions mitigation; and in water-use efficiency. These are the practical matters.

So the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Amendment Bill 2016 makes legislative changes to the act which will allow the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources provide levy and charge payer—levy payer—information to the rural research and development corporations for the purpose of developing levy payer registers. As it stands, the act only permits the distribution of levy payer information to the wool and dairy RDCs. This bill remedies this by allowing the government to provide the levy payer information to the 13 other RDCs. Levy payer registers allow RDCs to identify and consult directly with the levy payers—the levy payers who actually fund the R&D system—and ensure accuracy in the allocation of voting entitlements. That is very important if you are the grower. Through greater levy payer engagement in their work, RDCs will be better able to align research investments to industry priorities, to improve returns to farmers, fishers and foresters, and to contribute to a more profitable, competitive and sustainable agricultural sector. The bill removes the legislative impediment to the development of levy payer registers.

However, recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach would not be appropriate, given the diversity of Australian agricultural industries, as we know well, the bill allows for the distribution of levy payer information to an RDC to occur only where an RDC, in consultation with industry, requests it and that request is approved by the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. The department would then work with the RDCs on the administrative design and development of a register. This is consistent with the government's approach to the broader R&D levy system where levies can be introduced or amended at the request of industry.

The bill allows an authorised person to provide levy payer contact information, and details of the levy paid or payable, to an eligible recipient. The bill defines an eligible recipient as an RDC or the Australian Bureau of Statistics; it is prescriptive in that form. This is consistent with the government's Public Data Policy Statement, which commits to securely—securely—sharing data between Australian Government entities to improve efficiencies, and inform policy development and decision making.

The bill also sets out the purposes for which the information provided to the eligible recipient can be used. This includes matters relating to the development and maintenance of the levy payer registers, the ability to make public any statistical, de-identified information, and any functions required of the recipient under Commonwealth laws or under a funding agreement between the RDC and the Commonwealth. The RDCs will also be able to use levy payer registers to allocate voting rights for industry polls more efficiently and accurately, without the need for paper based statutory declarations.

I will go back to where I started. The work of RDCs and the contribution of the growers, the farmers, to this, with the government, are critical for the future of the agricultural sector, and for the growers in particular, as well as for the industry as a whole. We need to not only maintain our international reputation as a clean and green producer of some of the highest-quality products and fibres in the world but also make sure that our farmers have sufficient profitable businesses to maintain the capacity to be effective in a constantly changing world.

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