Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to acknowledge the presence of Minister King here today, obviously representing Minister Watt who, as a senator, doesn't get to sit here. But I assume that Minister Watt has staff here to listen and take note of some of the questions that I'm about to put to the government.

Firstly, farmers and people in the agriculture sector don't expect a lot from Labor governments, I've got to say, but the 2023 budget was a shocker by the standards that we've come to expect. At the national level, the $153 million import levy is a major hit to farming and agricultural communities across the board. The member for Mallee has already addressed and discussed that; hopefully, we'll get a response from the government to her comments. My focus today is on my state of Western Australia and the agriculture sector which contributes, across Western Australia, some $15 billion of the $83 billion agricultural output across the country, which is significant. We're punching well above our weight. With 10 per cent of the population, we have close to 25 per cent of the agricultural output of this nation. But it's in serious trouble, and that trouble is about to get significantly worse for the agricultural producers across my electorate.

One of the headline figures that I picked up in the budget on budget night was $5.6 million committed over two years for the government's independent panel to undertake an assessment and consultation process for the phase-out of live sheep exports. Call it a phase-out if you like, but this is the destruction of a very significant industry across my electorate and across Western Australia more broadly. My question is: with the government committing millions of dollars in the budget to push ahead with the destruction of live sheep export through our entire agriculture sector, is the government aware of the impact that this is going to have on our producers, and what modelling has the government done to assess that impact? I would appreciate the minister writing down that question. Hopefully, she'll come back to me with an answer at the end of this presentation. If the decision proceeds, the exodus of sheep producers from farming businesses in WA will lead to lower employment, lower economic growth in rural communities and a collapse of confidence. An article from the National Tribune said:

Data released today from Rabobank shows that while confidence edged higher nationally—

In the agriculture sector—

WA bucked the trend recording a further dip into negative territory.

The same survey showed overall confidence in the sheep industry is down from last quarter, and there was an 8% jump in the number of producers nervous about government policies and intervention.

Just last week, data from Australian Wool Innovation and Meat & Livestock Australia showed a staggering 90 point drop in sentiment among WA sheep producers—making that the only state to have a negative outlook for the coming 12 months.

NFF President Fiona Simson said the results should be a wake-up call to the Government and prompt a rethink of its activist-led live sheep export ban.

"Confidence among WA sheep producers is through the floor. It's no surprise given the cloud of uncertainty Canberra has blown their way."

What is the government going to implement and put in place to support Western Australian producers?

This consultation panel has been travelling around Australia. They were met with outrage when they tried to sneak into WA and hold meetings with hand picked groups that I think they felt would give them support. The independent panel chairman, Phillip Glyde, has publicly admitted that they got it wrong. He conceded that the phaseout consultation meetings in regional WA had been rushed. On top of that, he also confirmed that shutting down the live sheep trade export industry will hurt farmers. Does the government agree with Mr Glyde's assessment and, if not, why not?

Finally, given the magnitude of this decision, will the government confirm if the minister for agriculture, Senator Watt, will attend, or commit to attend, at least one consultation meeting to speak directly with impacted farmers, community members and stakeholders? I make the offer here today to facilitate that meeting for Mr Watt to come to Western Australia— (Time expired)

See this speech in context