Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

It's an absolute pleasure to have this opportunity to speak about our wonderful diverse, resilient and crucially important agriculture sector, a sector that is forecast to be worth $71.2 billion this year, which includes $66 billion in farm gate value and $5.3 billion from the fishery and forestry sectors. It's impossible to overstate the significance of agriculture within our nation. We have 334,000 Australians employed in agriculture, while a further 243,000 have jobs in the food and beverage manufacturing sector. The entire national supply chain employs 1.6 million people.

Like many other industries, communities and households across Australia, agriculture has done it tough in recent times. The challenges have been immense and unrelenting. However, despite bushfires, drought, COVID-19 and global trade disruptions, agriculture is the only sector to grow in value last year. This is something to be very proud of as a nation. Agriculture is essential to our economy. It's essential to our identity as a nation and to the health and wellbeing of our regional, rural and remote communities. That's why, as a member of the federal coalition government, I am proud of what we have achieved and delivered for the sector. We are putting agriculture at the centre of our national recovery from the global pandemic. In this year's budget, we committed over $850 million to drive growth and competitiveness in the sector. It's all part of our vision to see this industry reach its goal of $100 billion in production by 2030.

Just this week, we announced one of the biggest structural reforms to agriculture labour in our nation's history: the delivery of a vital agriculture visa. I'm optimistic that this agriculture visa will help secure the future of rural and regional Australia and help provide the sector with a long-term reliable workforce to help alleviate the shortages and pressures that our farmers currently face. This visa will be in place no later than 30 September of this year, with the full implementation of this demand driven visa complete within three years. It will be open to applicants from a range of countries and will be available to skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers, including in meat processing, fisheries and forestry. Importantly, it will complement the Pacific programs we have currently got in place. We'll also be considering permanent residency options under the new ag visa. While our farmers and industries have gone about their work keeping Australians and people all over the world fed and clothed, they have done so under enormous workforce constraints. By announcing this visa we have listened and we are delivering.

As the member for Capricornia in Central Queensland I live in the heart of cattle country. Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia. Our beef week event every three years is always an opportunity to showcase and promote the importance of this industry to our country. In 2019 our government committed $3.9 million towards beef week 2021 and, despite the global pandemic, what an enormous success it was. In fact, it was more successful than ever before. More than 115,000 people attended this year's event, which is an impressive 15 per cent increase from 2018. Visitors to beef week 2021 included our Prime Minister and many of my coalition colleagues. I was also thrilled to see that it supported 795 full-time equivalent jobs in Rockhampton. It truly is a world-class event. It's wonderful to see the industry in such good shape.

It's obvious to point out that water is essential to agriculture. On this front the coalition government has stepped up to support farmers and irrigators in my electorate. I'm talking about Rookwood Weir, which has the potential to transform and revitalise Central Queensland, but, unfortunately, it has been a challenge to get there. I had to drag the Queensland Labor government kicking and screaming to commit to a joint funding arrangement for the project. After years of pushback and silly political games they finally came to the table. While the capacity has dropped due to the mismanagement by the Queensland Labor government, it is going ahead with in-river construction, which started in April this year. Thanks to $7.5 million in additional funding from the coalition the weir wall will be constructed higher, securing an extra 10,000 megalitres to the total water capacity. It will also deliver at least 140 jobs for people in Central Queensland. This is what supporting agriculture looks like. Whether it's at the national level or within Capricornia we will always have the back of this sector and those who depend on it.

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