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

I'm very pleased to be talking about irrigated agriculture in Australia and the opportunities for growth, particularly in the WA agricultural sector. Of course, the importance of the quality of the water can't be understated. For the irrigators in the South West, we see everything: centre pivots, pipe-and-channel systems, pumping from aquifers and flood irrigation.

I see in the dairy industry Michael and Leanne Partridge at White Rocks—fourth-generation dairy farmers with an irrigated property. They've been farming almost 130 years as a family and they milk well over 650 cows. Dairy is a critical industry in my South West but is dependent on irrigation of a sort.

Out at Myalup I've got Ivankovich Farms, a family-owned growing-and-packaging business specialising in onions, carrots and shallot production. They are also supplying the local, national and export markets. Their irrigation system is actually tested to international standards, scheduled to deliver water to crops on a needs basis. They're constantly monitoring their soils and equipment. They also host a local weather station that provides evaporation data publicly available on Vegetables WA and the Agriculture and Food departmental websites. They also have solar power and battery storage and are part of the EnviroVeg program and Vegetables WA good practice. They are doing an outstanding jobs.

At Capel Farms the Norton and Blakers families grow broccolini on 150 acres of irrigated agriculture out of the Yarragadee Aquifer. They also grow avocados, chard and red beetroot lead.

Pennie and Michael Patane of Patane Produce grow carrots, potatoes, onions and broccoli and supply to the international, national and local markets. They also run 300 head of European and angus steers, part of their environmental sustainability program, so that they can consume vegetable products that are not fit for commercial use. This produces a grass-and-vegetable-fed animal, and you can imagine the quality in that.

We look at whether it's the beef industry or the dairy industry, right the way across, and I'm particularly pleased to see that our federal government has made funding available for the Myalup-Wellington project, a critical project to help secure water supplies and the quality of water in the South West region in, in my view, perpetuity. There is $140 million directly and a $50 million loan. We will see the upgrade and desalination of the Wellington Dam. This is really critical because the quality of the water is what matters. Anybody who is a farmer understands the importance of the quality of the water. This is also water for growth. It's a gravity-fed system. It's environmentally sound. It'll be upgrading the pipe system in the Collie River irrigation district. This will be a very important project for the south-west to secure the water supplies in the longer term. At the moment, the Collie River irrigation district has 200 kilometres of open concrete and earthen channel still using over 350 of the Dethridge wheel type supply points.

Negus Enterprises down at Tutunup are milking around 1,300 dairy cows. It's run by Oscar and Tammy and Oscar and Wendy. They're using a centre pivot as their form of irrigation. They are what's known as 'legendairy' dairy farmers. They milk their cows fresh about three times a day to get 15 to 20 per cent extra milk production out of them. They're constantly upgrading what they do and how they do it. They use versatile feed sources and a corn harvester.

I look around at the opportunities that go with irrigated agriculture, like beef, and at the other industries that go with it, like the abattoirs, that exist because of irrigated agriculture. In Australia, I've said previously, we tend to take our farmers and the access to quality, beautifully grown food for granted. It's irrigated agriculture that is providing a huge proportion of that on a small amount of land. I commend every irrigated farmer in Australia. I think you're doing a fabulous job.

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