Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Can the minister inform the House—

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Truss interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Capricornia will get the call. I advise the House that only one person jumped for the call.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member for North Sydney will sit down. I will just deal with an interjection. Nobody jumped when ‘Prospect jumped’, as you put it, Leader of the National Party. In the past, an alert side of the House may have had somebody jump. I am not offering advice and consultancy to the opposition but I just make that observation.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I clearly saw the member for Wentworth jump to his feet as you were looking over there. It has been the practice of Speakers of this House to grant some leniency—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. I will tell you what happened: the member for Wentworth got two inches off the seat, stared across the chamber and dropped, making it very difficult for the Speaker to give him the call.

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Can the minister inform the House what steps he has taken to deliver on Labor’s election commitments for rural and regional Australia and comment on any other initiatives that he has taken to ensure that Australia’s primary industry sector has a vibrant and sustainable future?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. She has significant primary industries within her electorate and is also, I understand, an ambassador for Beef Week in Queensland. I would like to kick off by referring to some malicious rumours that have been put out by the National Party, which claim that I do not have a background in primary industries. I would like to put on the record that they are absolutely true—I do not. That is why I have decided that it is essential not only to be taking advice from my own department and from the official stakeholder groups but also to be spending every moment that I can actually meeting with people who work the land, on their land. To that end, I am pleased to report to the House that since receiving the portfolio in December, I have met with primary producers in Roma and Kyogle—with the Prime Minister—and in Emerald, Tamworth, Inverell, Glen Innes, Guyra, Armidale, the outskirts of Hobart, Launceston, Innisfail, Griffith, Hay, Broken Hill, Mildura, throughout the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. If the honourable member wants to give us a guided tour of Australia, surely he can do it in a ministerial statement. This is an answer to a question, and previous Speakers have made a point of bringing the member’s attention back to the question that has been asked, rather than allowing him to go on with gasbagging.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry knows that he has to get back to the basis of the question. The minister will answer the question.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the course of those visits I have had the opportunity, with regard to the different election promises which we have undertaken, to gain a view of the different views of people working the land—for instance, on the reforms which we have undertaken and are now implementing with respect to wheat marketing arrangements for the $3.5 billion wheat industry in Australia. Both Kelly Shields and Mark Hyde, and the pastoralists and graziers when I visited them in Western Australia, are very supportive of the changes of the government. At the same time, the WA Farmers Federation are taking a different view and are urging me to depart from the promises that the Labor Party took to the election.

I inform the House that we will be keeping to the promise to have a regulated but competitive wheat export market in Australia. The process for drafting legislation to establish Wheat Exports Australia has begun. I have also established the Independent Expert Group to advise me on the ‘industry good’ functions previously undertaken by the AWB. The IEG met for the first time last week. It is chaired by South Australian wheat grower John Crosby. Under the existing law, we have also issued three wheat export permits allowing further wheat exports to Iraq and the UK.

Our promise on the Torres Strait fisheries buyback has been implemented. The new member for Leichhardt has been a strong advocate on this issue, and the outcomes acknowledge and protect the traditional way of life and the livelihood of Torres Strait traditional inhabitants while providing long-term economic and employment opportunities.

We have also extended assistance in the wake of equine influenza. That assistance was due to end on 8 February but has now been extended to 14 March. Particularly given the comments today from the New South Wales Minister for Primary Industries, we are very hopeful that there will no longer be red and purple zones by 14 March. I have had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of the peak bodies of the Australian horse industry from Queensland and New South Wales and also those involved in the racing industry at Warwick Farm. It is no exaggeration to say that in the wake of EI the horse industry has been devastated in recent months, and I am sure that we will have more to say on that when the Callinan inquiry reports.

The damage caused by the floods in New South Wales and Queensland has been particularly shocking. When I visited Emerald with the Minister for Human Services and Kyogle with the Prime Minister, we had the opportunity to meet with affected families. It was made clear to us that the full extent of damage by floods is not always clear at the high-water mark. We were able to lend a helping hand under the National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements and hear about the good work being done on the ground by the members for Flynn and Page to help working families affected.

The savings measures on drought have been referred to and were announced by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. The two concepts of drought and climate change, while different, are intrinsically linked. The member for New England, as well as presenting me with an Akubra, for which I thank him, took me out to Brian and Marion Reid’s sheep and cattle farm at Bendemeer, near Tamworth. Compounding the problem of drought that those families were able to tell us about is, of course, the serious inflation problem. It is not simply people in suburbia who are affected by mortgages and who are concerned about Australia having the highest inflation rate in 16 years. To that end, we identified where savings could be made within the drought assistance programs that would not affect farmers who are receiving much-needed help.

Unfortunately, in the wake of those savings, which were done in a way that would not affect farmers who were receiving much-needed help, a fear campaign was waged by the Leader of the National Party which, if successful, will only have the impact of causing farmers who are entitled to assistance not to apply. It is the first time there has been a departure from bipartisan support on drought assistance.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am reluctant to do this on his maiden ministerial question, but I draw the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry back to the question he was asked. It was about beef and a range of other issues. He is totally out of order in relation to his own question. It should be a ministerial statement.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My recollection is that it was a wider question than the member for North Sydney—

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a long time ago.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I accept that from the Leader of the Opposition. I believe the minister’s answer is in order. On the other comments about ministerial statements, I am in the hands of the chamber down the track about those things. It is early days.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Listening to primary producers on their own properties is the way that we intend to do business. That is how primary industries will be part of building a modern Australia to meet the challenges of the future for working families and the country.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.