Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. With urea prices hitting record highs over the weekend and the drought continuing to wreak havoc across Australia, does the Prime Minister agree with Australian of the Year Lee Kernaghan that he has abandoned the bush and farming families?

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

On the question of fertiliser prices, this is something that the government has been presented with by farming groups right across Australia. Fertiliser prices have gone through the roof, and it is a huge impost in terms of your ability to earn a quid out of the family farm. It is a challenge which both the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and I have been presented with in meeting after meeting. I would also say to the honourable member for Maranoa that these representations did not begin in December last year. If he were honest about it, he would know that the problem with the cost of fertiliser has been around for a long, long, long time. My understanding is—and I would look for guidance here from the minister for agriculture—that there is a committee involving Senator Heffernan and others who are looking at this matter and they will be very mindful of recommendations which come forward in terms of future action.

Recently at the Pacific Islands Forum I actually raised these matters with the President of Nauru—Nauru, as you know, being a continued source of significant superphosphate in terms of international and regional fertiliser supplies—and what could be done on the supply side out of that small country vis-a-vis some of the problems that exist in global fertiliser markets. I will not for a minute pretend that the prospects coming out of that meeting had any immediate solution to the problem but I have to say that this is a dialogue that we intend to now pursue with—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member—That’s the important thing for you, isn’t it—you are talking about it?

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

I would say to the honourable gentleman interjecting that the problem of fertiliser prices did not begin on 24 November last year. For those opposite who are seeking to say that for 12 years they were out there at the forefront of rearrangements of the global fertiliser market to ensure a better deal for Australian farmers, I do not think that he is being fair dinkum about it. I do not think the honourable member for Maranoa—who I have got a bit of a soft spot for—believes in his heart of hearts that it is a fair dinkum question. He knows as well as I do that the fertiliser price has been a problem for a long, long time.

This government will do what it can within its powers to assist farmers who are dealing with this challenge. It is a real problem in terms of on-farm costs. It is something that the minister has been engaged in dialogue with the NFF and others on. Let me assure the House that any practical measures that can be undertaken by government to draw these pressures off working farmers who are dealing not only with the ravages of—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It is true. Are those opposite assuming that farmers do not work? We assume they do work—and they work very hard. They are among the best and most effective farmers in the world, and when it comes to standing up for their interests and their rights, including making the economic policy settings of Australia more conducive to interest rates heading down than going up, we will stand up for the farmers of Australia any day.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I appreciate the Prime Minister’s answer, but he failed to respond to my question in relation to Lee Kernaghan, the Australian of the Year.

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

Order! The member for Maranoa knows that that is not a point of order. The member for Maranoa will desist from those sorts of things.