Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too, along with the speakers before me, will be supporting the Criminal Code Amendment (Food Contamination) Bill 2018, a bill that brings on stricter penalties for anyone tampering with our fruit and vegetables. I commend the Queensland Labor government for the very swift action and steps they've already taken in relation to supporting our strawberry farmers. We saw on the Monday just gone, on the Sunshine Coast, that Minister Mark Furner joined with the strawberry growers on the Sunshine Coast to work through strategies around how we move through what we're dealing with here. We've had the Palaszczuk government offer up support. It was good to see the federal government finally meet that support for our farmers yesterday as well. So I really commend the Queensland government on the steps they swiftly took in supporting the growers.

There are around 120 farms in the region I come from. Longman sits in the Moreton Bay region, nestled between Moreton Bay and a bit of the Sunshine Coast region. The farmers in the regions of the members who spoke before me make up some of those 120 farmers. Less than an hour ago, I hung up the phone after talking to one of those farmers, Gavin from Pinata Farms. Gavin and I spoke for some time before I had to head to the chamber. He's feeling a lot more hopeful. He looked out into the electorate just in the last 24 hours, and there are people lined up in their cars to get to the farm and buy strawberries. So he's feeling a lot more hopeful. He is hopeful because he is seeing his local representative and the government taking this matter very seriously. He said, 'We're actually starting to see improvements in demand.' As I said, there are cars lined up at the farms to go and collect strawberries to take home, cut up and, of course, consume.

I asked Gavin: 'What else can we do? What would be helpful?' He said: 'We don't need people to go out crazy and buy lots and lots more punnets. We need people to go back to their normal behaviour of what they would buy. We just need people to go back to their normal consuming behaviour. That's what would be helpful.' We are about two or three weeks out from the end of the season. I said to Gavin, 'What about next year?' He said, 'Susan, a lot of us still haven't paid for this year's planting, so we're going to need some help next year.' Like I said, the Queensland government coming out nice and swiftly and offering some assistance will go a long way to helping meet those costs so our farmers are able to plant next season.

The other thing that Gavin and I spoke about, though, is what a wonderful community we live in and that real sense of community we have. He said: 'It's uplifting for all of the farmers and the growers to see people in the community really getting behind them, folding in behind them, and getting the message out: cut up your strawberries, eat them up and go back to your normal consuming behaviour.' He also mentioned to me that there is a very strong message at this time to the banks, in particular, about making sure that they are applying a sense of consideration to farmers at this very difficult time. He calls upon the banks to play a role in supporting our farmers at this time.

The other thing we spoke about was the local economy, and it wasn't just with Gavin. On Monday I also spoke to Luigi Coco, who is the president of the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association, and we talked about our local economy. Our farms consist of local workers—on Luigi's farm, for example, he employs 12 local people—supplemented by backpackers. You can spend winter walking up and down King Street in Caboolture and see lots of faces of those who aren't locals but are in our local community. They are living there and visiting our local businesses while they're out picking fruit on farms. Both Luigi and Gavin said that the other thing we have to consider is the cost to our local economy. Our backpackers come and enjoy the beautiful Pumicestone Passage and go out to the Glass House Mountains—they provide tourism dollars and they spend their money in the local shops. Their leaving two or three weeks earlier than they planned to leave will come at a cost to our local economy. It's a real testament to people like Luigi and Gavin, who are concerned about that. At a time when their own industry is really suffering, these farmers are thinking about other people and other businesses in the community. That's what's really beautiful about Longman. We consider everyone else—we think about other people and not just ourselves.

I am very anxious to get back to my electorate tonight. I'll go out to the farms tomorrow and next week and continue working with our farmers and the state government to work through this really difficult time. Going into next year we'll look forward to a good planting season early in the year.

The other thing I wanted to pick up on is that I had an opportunity yesterday to mention a school, Grace Lutheran College, that was visiting here. Our farmers aren't just farmers; they're parents, they're employers and they belong to community groups, such as sporting groups and other community groups. Yesterday we had Grace Lutheran College here and I met with Lachlan, who was here with his school group. Lachlan's parents are strawberry farmers. His mum has been very active in the media speaking about the issue that is plaguing our strawberry farms at this time. Lachlan said to me, 'We just need people to keep eating strawberries. This is what my family needs.' Sometimes we forget that while our farmers are our primary producers they are also parents and family people. Lachlan reminded me yesterday about that. He is a child of a farming community. His family relies upon this industry for their survival.

Labor will be supporting this bill. The speakers before me have outlined some concerns and some amendments, which we will be considering. But, for the most part, we do support this bill. We want to get the support to our strawberry farmers and we want to make sure that nobody is considering, in any way, shape or form, tampering with our fruit and vegetables. We want to make sure that our local growers continue to provide their produce to all of Australia. I commend them for their consideration for the broader community, as evidenced by some of the comments Gavin and Luigi have made to me over the last week.

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