Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to speak on the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Amendment Bill 2016. This bill makes it possible for the rural research and development corporations to identify and connect directly with the primary producers who fund their work. Recent reviews and inquiries, including the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into industry structures and systems governing the imposition and disbursement of marketing and research and development levies in the agricultural sector, have identified improved consultation with levy payers as important for the ongoing strength of Australia's rural R&D system. Several of these inquiries recommended levy payer registers as a way for RDCs to consult more effectively with the primary producers who fund them. So this bill will amend the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Act 1991 to allow for the distribution of levy payer information by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to rural RDCs for development of levy payer registers.

Rural research is critical to the profitability and prosperity of this nation. Agriculture and the innovation around it has driven the economy of Australia for the last 200 years. As the mining sector goes through a tougher time, agriculture once again is coming to the fore in its ability to strengthen the economy of this country but also to provide sustenance, comfort, food and fibre to the people not only of this country but around the world.

In the vast areas of northern and western New South Wales in the Parkes electorate some cutting-edge technologies and innovations are now in place. The productivity of the farmers in my electorate continues to grow because of innovation and research. It is important that we have government investment through the RDCs to oversee this research, but we need the connection with farmers as well. It is important that we as a nation have this research and continue to understand the important role that agriculture plays. One of the great frustrations we have seen in recent times has come from a seeming disconnect from what once was considered basic common sense on what drives the economy of a country—primary production, secondary industries and tertiary industries. There seems to be a sector now that thinks we can be a country of just tertiary industries and not only not highly regard our primary production but, in many cases, work against it.

I will give you the classic example at the moment. The global green organisations of the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and the like are running a campaign against the chemical glyphosate, more commonly known as Roundup. They are citing a report that was put out by the World Health Organization stating that Roundup may be carcinogenic to humans following on from a study that was done on mice. The reality is that Roundup has the same level of carcinogens in it as red meat, coffee and hair shampoo. That was mentioned in the report, but the green lobby have not taken the full report in context and have taken that piece out of it. So now we have these calls around the country for shire councils and others to ban glyphosate on the grounds that it causes cancer and is harmful to humans.

The grain-growing economy of Australia is in such a healthy state largely because of the use of chemicals such as glyphosate. Indeed, in the early 1980s when this chemical was first invented and was in its early stages, I was involved with my brothers in early trials with the New South Wales department of agriculture. Once again, there is that constant ability of our country to look at new ways of innovation—in this case, at zero-till farming using glyphosate to spray the weeds instead of cultivating. Very soon it was evident that, in the climate we live in, this was a new and superior way of preparing the ground for growing crops. Following on from work that was done by Sydney university, by Jeff Esdaile at Livingston Farm at Moree and by others at other places, now zero-till farming is pretty well universally accepted. Over the last decade or so, as we have had a drier than average weather cycle, farmers have remained profitable because they have been able to store moisture, not lose it through cultivation and excessive growth of weeds. They have produced crops that their fathers or grandfathers would not have been able to. This constant need to be looking at different and innovative ways of doing things is so important.

The member for Calare mentioned cotton and the gene technology that has gone into a modern cotton plant. Cotton farmers work on this and lot of work is also being done by the Cotton CRC based in Narrabri, which has been a huge boost to the cotton industry and also to the community of Narrabri. Minister Joyce has been very firm in moving CRCs to regional areas, and Dubbo is going to have part of a grain CRC in the next little while. The Cotton CRC based at Narrabri has done amazing things, sponsored amazing innovation and has been a wonderful thing for the cotton industry and the Narrabri community.

Now we have farmers who know, remotely, the exact water level in their soil and the amount of available soil moisture. They have devices that monitor the contents of the leaves of the plants, so they know what the respiration is. They know exactly when to water, so they are growing superior yields with less water. As an aside, it has put some pressure on the telecommunication systems out there because now we have huge amounts of data going through the mobile telephone systems as farmers are using this remote technology more and more and being very precise.

With cotton, there are now more kilograms of fibre produced per megalitre of water and litre of diesel than at any time in our past, and Australia leads the world in this. I am amused at our green lobbyists and protesters who will be protesting about gene technology or GM crops while wearing cotton T-shirts with slogans emblazoned on them. I do not know where they think the cotton comes from to make their T-shirts—maybe it comes from the good cotton fairies. Once again, I speak about the disconnect that we have between what really drives the economy of agriculture in this country and the perceptions of our population.

It is not just in cropping but also in livestock. The member for Calare also mentioned gene technology. A couple of weeks ago I was visiting the Taylor family and their very well-regarded Mumblebone Stud at Wellington. I spoke with George and Chad Taylor about identifying certain genetic traits of merino rams and breeding an animal that produces a very even line of a certain micron wool while also taking into account carcass weight, birth weight, growth rate, fertility and a whole range of other parts of the animal that would normally take generations to breed to. Through this identification of certain genes within the animal, they are doing this much more quickly. The Taylors have also been able to react to the—I have to say, at times misplaced—global campaign to stop the process of mulesing. The Taylors have been able to speed up the process of breeding an animal that is highly productive in the wool that it produces but for which the need for mulesing has been eliminated. With that come lower or almost non-existent levels of flystrike, which is incredibly damaging to production and to the overall welfare of the animal.

The same thing is happening with beef cattle. Because of the work that has been done in the many beef studs throughout my electorate on selective breeding and identifying genes through artificial breeding programs, we are seeing animals that are vastly superior to anything that we have seen before. Basically, if you are going to have an animal that is going to be eating a certain amount of grass, it is best to be producing the most amount of produce of the highest quality for that amount of input. It is all about profitability, and I cannot agree with the member for Calare more strongly: it is profitability that breeds innovation and it is profitability that allows farmers to be conservationists as well. I support this bill. I would like to acknowledge the work that has been done by the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources and also his passion to put agriculture once again at the forefront of the mindset of the Australian people. In my eight-plus years in this place, I cannot remember when agriculture has played a more dominant part in debates in this place and been part of budget papers by the government. I have never seen a higher awareness than we have at the moment, so I acknowledge the minister for that. I strongly support this bill.

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