Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's often said that our farming, fishing and forestry industries are at the forefront of managing and adapting to climate change. Yesterday, in my role as co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Primary Producers, I had the great privilege of welcoming to parliament the leaders summit hosted by the National Farmers Federation. In that group of over 100 people was a young farmer, and he told me he'd just recently been appointed to the NFF's youth council. I said to him: 'As a young farmer, what are your main desires and wishes and, seriously, what are the priorities for young farmers?' Without batting an eyelid, the first two things he said to me were: 'Meryl, net zero and innovation.' I was incredibly impressed with his answer.

Then we turned to commentary around the weather, as we often do with the ag sector, and he said: 'These floods and natural disasters are such a devastation for our industry.' Of course, fires—not to mention drought—have also presented great problems. It's like all things: we know that very soon we'll probably be staring down another drought. Even though we're right in the middle of a La Nina at the moment, we know an El Nino will once again rear its head as well.

In my own electorate of Paterson, oyster farms are suffering the effects of QX disease—the Q is for Queensland—which is caused by a parasite. That has been complete devastating. On top of that, we've had local bee farmers wiped out by the Varroa destructor mite, as well as the ongoing challenges of dramatic weather events. That's impacting not just local honey production; in the ag sector it affects pollination, and that will be a real challenge in the Hunter for the next three years and, potentially, the next five.

Over the years, farmers, small businesses and rural operations have had to adapt to all of these changing conditions. On top of that, we have had the biosecurity threat of things like lumpy skin disease and foot and mouth disease hanging over our heads, so the challenges are well and truly there for our ag sector. Tonight I can only say, through the minister representing Minister Murray Watt: what an incredible job the minister has done in his first six months of being the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, having stared down imminent and deadly biosecurity threats, floods and the varroa mite. If these things were to happen once in any ag minister's time, it would be quite incredible. I know the member for Grey has been around the ag sector a long time, and he's nodding in agreement. I think anyone would agree that the minister has done a fine job.

We know that we have to stare down these challenges, and we know that they include not only changing seasons but also a changing climate, the cost of transport, the cost of trying to get labour—the cost of fertiliser alone! But we know that our ag sector is such an innovative group of people, and they know that there needs to be absolute focus on the future. My main question tonight is: can the minister explain why it is important for the government to work with industry to manage these challenges and imminent threats by delivering more sustainable and climate-smart agriculture and why it is important for the government to support the transition to net zero emissions? Also, can the minister provide an update on the commitment in the budget to provide $302.1 million over the next five years through the Natural Heritage Trust to deliver for a sustainable agricultural sector?

See this speech in context