David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Cowper for his question and acknowledge the contribution that the Cowper electorate will make towards agriculture's ambitious goal of $100 billion by 2030, and part of our budget was to clearly articulate our plan to support agriculture achieving that goal. It has seven key pillars in making sure we not only protect the 270,000 Australians who work in agriculture but grow more jobs in agriculture, particularly in rural and regional Australia.

The first pillar is around exports and making sure we continue to invest in the modernisation of our export system, adding single-touch, getting the paperwork out of people's lives and making it more of a digital approach, getting rid of the 200,000 certificates that we issue in a paper based system and going back to just issuing them digitally, compromising nothing in terms of our biosecurity. There is a record $873 million spend in biosecurity to protect brand Australia. The stewardship of our land is the third pillar. We want to make sure we investigate ways to reward farmers for the stewardship of their land, and in fact there is an extra $14 million to explore soil carbon and the role farmers undertake in that.

We are also looking at infrastructure. A key pillar of our agricultural plan is around investing in water—plumbing the nation and making sure we add the water. We will actually grow productivity. The story of agriculture is just to add water. On top of that, there is $1.3 billion in manufacturing, making sure that we look to go further through supply chains here in the agricultural sector, and also the roads. There's a billion dollars in roads, building on the connectivity and the rail right across this country, and getting our product to plate as quickly as possible.

We're also looking at innovation, making sure that we're modernising our innovation systems and ensuring that there's more transparency on levy collectors and that those levies get back to the RDCs—the research and development—so that there's greater accountability and more money going back to research and development and investing in smarts. We're investing in our people. There's a significant investment in education, reducing the cost of agricultural courses by 62 per cent, to get the next generation of young people into agriculture.

But we've also understood that there are pressures right here, right now—we have a shortage of seasonal workers. We've said to every Australian: these jobs must be market tested first. Australians get first crack at these. Up to $6,000 is being made available for travel costs, to get around this vast nation, to help us support farmers. We've also said to young Australians: this is your opportunity to lend a helping hand. We've said to them: we can accelerate your pathway to youth allowance. Go out and work in agriculture and earn $15,000 and you will accelerate to youth allowance. You will go to uni with money in your pocket for O week, and you will accelerate your way into youth allowance. Farmers have a real opportunity, after this prolonged drought, to make a real difference to our nation's economy. Now is the opportunity of every Australian to give a helping hand. (Time expired)

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