Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to add my words of support for the report, and to acknowledge the chair and the fantastic job he has done, and to the secretariat: really well done.

I would like to just highlight one aspect of the report that I was so proud to be involved in. The committee came to North East Victoria, to Wodonga, and we had the chance to have hearings in Wodonga, and also to go and make a site visit to the Kiewa Valley, where we learnt about the Alpine Valleys Dairy Pathways Project. And we saw, in real practical terms, how innovation takes place in a community context—we had industry working with manufacturing, working with local government, working with schools, working with the farmers, working with the men and working with the women, and working with the local media. We were able to demonstrate that if you actually get all of the players working together, innovation is created and transformed, and becomes part of the fabric of that community in a very cost-effective, efficient and extraordinarily rapid way. So in acknowledging the work that has gone into this report, I would particularly like to thank the farmers of North East Victoria for the fantastic work they have done in modelling how we can take innovation and have it picked up, on the ground, in under two years.

Like my colleagues, I would recommend this report to all people involved in agriculture, and particularly to the research organisations. It has many recommendations about how we can get that connectivity between research organisations, farmers and community groups, and really work it. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be part of it. I would like to congratulate the member for Grey, Mr Ramsey, on your fantastic work, your leadership and the support that you have given to us. It was a real pleasure to be involved in the project, so thank you.

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