Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

'Hear, hear!' the member for Paterson says as she leaves the chamber. I know she's busy and has a meeting with the member for Nicholls. I admire her passion, because it is difficult when you are on the Labor side, let's face it, to always be spouting what Labor is doing to help and protect our farmers.

One of the most difficult roles in a Labor government is to be the agriculture minister. I know Senator Murray Watt is doing the best he can do under sometimes difficult circumstances. I appreciated the fact that he called me very early the other morning to let me know about additional assistance, $50 million of Commonwealth money, for flood affected shires—Cabonne, Parkes, Forbes and, particularly, Eugowra. That is so important. Lachlan, of course, is also in those local government areas mentioned. That is alongside his role as agriculture minister—he's also the emergency services minister—but it does tie in because when areas such as those regions I mentioned get flood affected it affects farm production.

The Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Bill 2023 and the customs and services bills that we're debating in cognate are important. I listened very closely to the member for Paterson, and she talked about deep and wide consultation. Credit to her that she did mention—or concede, perhaps—that that doesn't always take place. We've seen so many areas that Labor now oversees where the consultation hasn't been deep and hasn't been wide. More is the pity. Last night I went to the Pharmacy Guild annual dinner, and they were complaining about the fact that consultation about 60-day dispensing was not there. I know I digress, but we have to have, as the member for Paterson quite correctly pointed out, increased production for our farms.

Whilst Labor will take the credit for streamlining and modernising the primary industries excises and levies, the streamlining and modernisation of these levies in this legislative framework began, started, under the former coalition government back in 2017-18. It's not a new thing. Labor can't come to the table and say: 'This is all due to us. This is all our work. All credit goes to the now government.' This began under the coalition government in 2017-18. The legislation was reviewed. It included targeted consultation with 70 stakeholder groups. That's important because consultation is imperative. If this is going to ultimately help our farmers, I applaud it. If this is going to mean that they have to do less paperwork, I'm all for it—and so are the opposition.

We need to ensure that we do take the onerous burden of more volumes of paperwork off and from our farmers. They're great at what they do, they're the best in the world at what they do—and that's growing food and fibre—but they shouldn't have to get off their scarifiers, off their seeders, off their sowers, off their harvesters, off their tractors or out of their truck cabins and go home at night, get volumes of paperwork and read, sift, through them. That is not how it should be.

I know that consultation has continued, with the release of the draft bills for public consultation. The government hasn't made all the submissions public at this time. I know the coalition committed $7.2 million in 2020-21 over four years to modernise the framework into a business-friendly, fit-for-purpose and easy-to-use legislative framework as part of the deregulation agenda. I also thank our accountants, who worked so closely with farmers to make sure that they do all the paperwork and to make sure that they get all the necessary bureaucracy correct. The member for Paterson mentioned that it is a user pay system of sorts, and again she is correct. She is absolutely right in that. There are six bills related to modernising the levy system. They include three imposition bills, a collection bill, a disbursement bill and a consequential amendments bill. They are important. They don't bring into existence the biosecurity protection levy announced in the 2023-24 budget. There are no substantial changes as to how the levy system will operate. However, a number of current functions will be devolved to subordinate legislation, such as setting the levy rates.

Our farmers are under pressure like never before. I know how important it is to take the burden of paperwork from them. But put yourself in one of these farmers' boots. They've got perhaps another drought on the way. Our long-range weather forecasters are predicting just that. Farmers have had to endure an infrastructure pause of 90 days, which has now stretched out to nearly 200 days. Some might say, 'What has that got to do with this bill?' It's another burden on our farmers because the money that the Commonwealth spends through states and certainly through LGAs filters down to those ungraded roads that farmers use to get their grain to silos, to get their grain to rail bulkheads and to get their grain to port. Those first miles—and last miles—count a lot. When roads go ungraded because the funding isn't there for the councils to spend, it has an effect on our farmers. Then, of course, you've got seasonal changes. Let's face it, our farmers have endured much in recent times: floods, fires and droughts. Of course the last drought wasn't so long ago that it's gone from our memories. These are tough times for farmers. It is difficult enough for our farmers without them having to do more paperwork.

If these bills, brought together, absolutely take the burden of paperwork from our wonderful landowners who produce the food and fibre, then that has got to be seen as a good thing. I know the Australian government matches the industry investment in research and development up to legislated limits by providing payments to the levy recipient bodies; they're known as the research and development corporations, RDCs. I know what an impact they can have and what a good role they can play with farm production, with farm bodies and with agriculture. Let's face it, when the Treasurer talks about the things we sell overseas, he doesn't narrow it down to exactly what those things are. One of the most important things is agriculture, whether it's in Asia-Pacific or it's in Europe. Whatever the case might be, we know that our produce that is sold overseas—one of the things that we sell overseas—is the best, freshest and greenest it can be.

When the former coalition government came to office, about 24 to 25 per cent of trade arrangements were covered by free trade agreements. When we left office, it was up to 80 per cent. Trade is important. We are a trading nation. One in four Australian jobs relies on trade. Let's ensure that these bills are what they need to be. Let's ensure that those bodies which are engaged and are key stakeholders in this bill, whether it's Plant Health Australia or Animal Health Australia, can be the best that they can be. Let's make sure that our biosecurity is what it needs to be because our farmers rely on it and our farmers are looking to the government to ensure that every pathway to their success is met.

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