Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm also very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the report. A previous speaker did acknowledge the Chair, Mr Rick Wilson, and the Deputy Chair—this outstanding individual here with us today, the member for Lyons—Brian Mitchell. I'd like to thank the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources and all my committee colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but I particularly want to thank the secretariat for their work. There were many valuable contributions that were made in the last sitting by the chair and the deputy chair.

We had the last remote public hearing of the inquiry in Darwin, in my electorate of Solomon. This was back in March, before COVID-19 shut everything down and changed our lives in ways that we could have only imagined back then, and, indeed, in ways that we never thought would ever happen. But there we were, right in the middle of a visit to Darwin. It's great that the committee visited Darwin. I'm glad that we were able to hear from some stakeholders whilst we were there, because, in my opinion, as you well know Mr Deputy Speaker Falinski, Darwin, and the Northern Territory, is the best place in Australia—I do love Tassie and the South Coast of New South Wales as well! But there's huge potential for agriculture in northern Australia and huge potential for increasing the ag output, and, after all, that's what this inquiry was about. So, thanks to the chair for agreeing to come up to Darwin. I appreciate that very much, and I'm sure he and the other members who joined us in Darwin got a lot out of it.

I want to thank all our witnesses from the Territory and everyone who put in the effort to make a submission to this inquiry. The hearing up in Darwin was a great opportunity to hear about the possibilities and opportunities that exist and some of the considerations that may impact the expansion of those industries. We heard at that hearing from key players in the industry, such as the NT Farmers, NT Cattlemen's Association and Tiwi forestry.

The chief executive officer of NT Farmers, Paul Burke, told us about their $270 million farmgate turnover, which they believe can double to $600 million by 2030. This is from the Territory's principle crops of mangoes, melons and an emerging cotton industry, but also from other emerging industries like peanuts. They told us that over the next 10 years cotton could become a $300 million industry in the north. They also told us about a growth in exports focused on mango trees and melons, with the opportunity to create more markets into Asia, most predominantly into South Korea, Japan and China. Two weeks ago it was announced that overseas seasonal workers can now quarantine on farms in the Northern Territory. This will help to ease the burden on those growers in the Territory who have been doing it tough, like growers around the country, and who continue to face significant labour shortages. They're struggling to find workers who want to pick and are also trying to navigate those international travel restrictions, which are impacting their ability to bring a labour force into Australia. NT Farmers also mentioned some of the challenges that exist with access to land in northern Australia, as much of it is locked up in the pastoral state. It doesn't really need to be said that access to water is a major issue.

The Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association spoke about its beef industry, which is worth $1.2 billion to the economy. For a population of under a quarter of a million people in the Northern Territory and a herd size of 2.2 million, it's a pretty impressive figure. The NT Cattlemen's Association spoke about how, with investment in infrastructure, water security and roads, as well as more secure land tenure, they could contribute 15 times more than what they're currently projected to make between now and 2030. That will increase their output to $15 billion. Obviously that goes a long way when we're trying to increase our national agricultural output from $60 billion to $100 billion. That will go a long way towards helping us get to that goal. I'm sure you'd agree, Mr Deputy Speaker, that's a colossal level of growth—the Territory punching above its weight once again. The NT Cattlemen's Association spoke about live exports as well and how they send 400,000 head of cattle to Indonesia alone, representing 40 per cent of all Australia's live exports.

We also heard testimony from Mark Ashley, the general manager of the Tiwi Plantation Corporation. He spoke about how the plantation is exporting 16 shiploads of timber to global markets, including China and Japan, as well as exploring interest from Indonesia. He spoke about the significance of forestry as a major economic generator on the Tiwi Islands and how they're generating employment for local people through their harvesting operations. Last year forestry paid approximately $6.8 million in wages, including $2.3 million to Tiwi and other Indigenous employees, making it a major commercial employer on the Tiwi Islands. Indeed, there has been a recommendation made that the government commit to the establishment of a forestry hub for the Top End of the Northern Territory. This would allow Indigenous and private land owners alike to make the most of forestry investment in the Northern Territory, and it would enable the NT to contribute to that national goal of planting one billion trees.

At the hearing we also heard from the Humpty Doo barramundi farm. It's a great success story in the NT. They spoke about the fact that they anticipate the farm gate value of their existing business to be around $200 million per year by 2030. That's about a third of the size of the existing Tasmanian salmon industry, so it's big. They want to extend their lead as a leading global technology barramundi farmer, worldwide.

We were going to go to Tipperary station for a visit but we had to delay. That was unfortunate, because members would have really enjoyed that visit down to what is a very famous cattle station in the Northern Territory. I'm hoping that the committee has the opportunity to go there again. It is not only a cattle station; it is famous for experimenting and research and development. The potential of cotton there, as I mentioned, is fantastic. I hope we can try and get there some time down the track once the pandemic is hopefully under control. We're doing exceedingly well in the Northern Territory, but obviously if we can get some of those vaccines out around the country we'll be able to travel again.

My thanks to all the witnesses from the Northern Territory and everyone else who put in submissions to this inquiry. In closing, a big shout out to Frank Miller. Frank Miller is a champion bloke up in my electorate from the Forest Industry Association of the Northern Territory. It's great that we have an industry association now. I also want to thank Will Evans from the Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association and thank them for all the work they do for Territory farmers and getting our fantastic product to market. And of course I thank the NT Farmers CEO, Paul Burke, who has been a fantastic support to industry, not just during this very difficult year, but before that as well.

They all do excellent, tireless work promoting our Northern Territory agricultural industries, because we all have that common goal of wanting to see Australian agriculture get to the value of $100 billion by 2030. We can do it with the right investments. The Northern Territory offers a huge potential to support and achieve that aim. So thanks again to all the committee members, my colleagues, for a good report.

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