David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for her question. She knows better than anyone the important role that agriculture plays for the electorate of Mallee but also for our nation. I'm proud to say that, for the first time in our nation's history, ABARES is predicting that we will exceed over $70 billion worth of agricultural production. That is in the face of fires, droughts and floods. Australian agriculture has continued to get on with the job. We are on our trajectory towards hitting the $100 billion goal. We're doing that by supporting it with our Ag2030 plan, with seven key pillars, and that's being backed with cash.

The first and most important pillar is around trade. We're a nation of 26 million people but we produce enough food for 80 million. So, if we don't engage with the world, if we don't trade with the world, we don't need the farmers or the communities to support them. We've done that through making sure we're digitising our market platforms and our trading platforms to make it easier for farmers to export their goods around the world when we find them the new markets and the market access. Over $300 million has been put aside to achieve that. It's also about putting boots on the ground. Agricultural counsellors in 22 of our high commissions and embassies are getting market access, commodity by commodity. There are also more scientists making sure we get through our risk assessments more quickly so that we can tick off the biosecurity risks that those trading partners want us to remedy before we're able to send that product to them.

We're also protecting our brand through our biosecurity—the second main pillar. Nearly a billion dollars over the last two budgets has been committed to making sure we're protecting our brand with new technologies. The 3D X-ray scanners which will go into our postal services will scan the over 140 million parcels that go through Australia Post every year. We're trialling, with New Zealand, X-rays for baggage so that we will know what's in people's bags before they come to Australia. This is a world-first. In fact, if they don't declare, we will simply fine them. We've lifted the fines from $444 to $2,664 and we have cancelled 14 visas of those that have tried to breach our biosecurity. So it's not just technology; it's also fines.

We're working through a stewardship program and rolling out pilots to reward farmers for the stewardship of their land, which is the third pillar. We're moving into remnant vegetation to reward farmers who, while they have had vegetation management laws placed upon them, can still be rewarded with a payment for that piece of work. We're looking at our supply chains through our modern manufacturing, making sure we go deeper through producing and promoting our products even more. There's also our infrastructure—the $3.5 billion set aside to plumb the nation, to make sure that we have the water infrastructure to grow Australian agriculture. But it's also the innovation, with over $86 million in eight innovation hubs to make sure that our farmers have the tools of the 21st century to adapt. But the most important pillar is the last one, which is our people—our human capital. We are reducing university fees for courses in agriculture by 59 per cent. So we are putting the infrastructure in Australian agriculture— (Time expired)

See this speech in context