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

As the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, I know the work that goes on in Australian agriculture. It is a great honour to be chair of such a valuable committee in this place. It not only gives us great insight into agriculture, but we get the opportunity to meet with many farmers and many peak agricultural groups and talk through issues that are really important to them.

Not only am I proud to chair the agriculture committee, but also I married the son of a farmer, and we have maintained the friendships from his farming upbringing, over years and years. So it's not only as a politician that I get to talk to farmers. I have a lot of farming friends and they are a fantastic source of information about, really, what's going on in Australian agriculture.

The other aspect of my exposure to farmers is my electorate. I have this incredible electorate, where we have a broad base of people who still farm—not only land based farming but also fishing, and oysters, too; there's dairy and beef cattle farming. We even grow turf in my neck of the woods. I know how passionate Australian farmers are and how hard they work, not just in my fantastic electorate of Paterson but right across this broad and incredible country.

Some of the country is indeed difficult. It's been a terrific season, but we all know that we're often only a couple of months away from a dry summer that can change things. In the viticulture industry, you can be one frost away from losing everything, and that's happened too.

In Australia, the gross value of agricultural production is forecast to rise by $3.7 billion to $86.2 billion in 2024-25. It's $92.1 billion if you include fisheries and forestry production. It's the third-highest result on record. So, whilst those across the aisle want to spread fear, we know that our agricultural industry is growing. The facts just don't lie. It puts us well on track to meet the industry target of $100 billion by 2030. We want to support our farmers. We want to support our entire ag sector to get to that $100 billion target by 2030, and we're on track to do it. According to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 72 per cent of our agricultural production is exported, and that's a magnificent thing.

Again, speaking from experience, we spent nearly 12 months last year doing a report on food security in Australia, and we also looked at how we help secure food for our neighbours—and this is a great thing—with our major products being sugar, beef, lamb, rice and canola, going to nations like China, Japan, Indonesia and the United States of America. We are doing a fantastic job in this country of not only feeding our own people but also helping to feed the rest of the world.

The Australian bureau of agricultural and resource economics prepared a report that detailed what governments should examine to resolve the tensions that have been emerging in the industry as our economy modernises and as it decarbonises. And we know that we've got very progressive farmers in Australia. They're at the cutting edge. They embrace technology like those in no other nation. They know what's going on in their industry, and they know that, in our government, they have people who want to listen and want to help them produce more food and fibre—not only, as I said, for our country but for the rest of the world.

We're working to ensure that this industry remains contemporary and vibrant and can continue to access skills. There's been a lot of commentary around labour. We opened the first jobs and skills council of agribusiness, which will work through the challenges facing the industry now and into the future. We've also invested in fee-free TAFE, which has supported over 20,000 students to gain agricultural industry skills. So we are putting the money where it needs to go in terms of agriculture. We know we need more people working in the field, and we're doing that, and that extends beyond the farm and ag sector.

We know that our grocery stores are often a place of great consternation for farmers. That's why we're putting policies in place, through the ACCC, that are looking at the mandatory code of conduct to ensure that our farmers do get a fair price—and so do consumers at Australian stores. I couldn't be prouder of the work we're doing in ag.

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