Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next week on 7, 8 and 9 March is the Wimmera Machinery Field Days. I invite all my colleagues to come and visit the electorate of Mallee and see the field days. The people I represent in the Wimmera-Mallee are some of the most hardworking, fair-minded and decent Australians you will find. I would argue that they are some of the best looking, but that might be indulgent!

Madam Deputy Speaker, can I just say that if you come to the field days what you will see is first-rate farming techniques that are in practice now across Australia—no-till farming systems. We have just been able to grow more grain across the Wimmera and Mallee than we have ever grown before and during seasonal conditions that we have normally encountered. You will see a community that is very vibrant, very profitable and very enthusiastic about the future of agriculture and also about the future of their towns. It is something to behold.

At the Longerenong site, we have the Longerenong Agricultural College, which is full of young graduates, who are coming out and contributing to agriculture—men and women. I think it is a fifty-fifty gender split. We have the Bayer CropScience research centre. It is a wonderful facility; it is a wonderful place. Come out for a day out. You will learn more about Australian agriculture, you will learn more about country people and you will get an appreciation for just why I am so passionate about the people I represent.

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