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

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, in this, the Federation Chamber, as it is officially now. What an appropriate place the Federation Chamber is to speak on this year being designated the Australian Year of the Farmer since, long before Federation, farmers across this nation were feeding our population and also contributing to many other countries who needed food from Australia, clean and green as it is. This is going to be a year-long celebration of the vital role farmers play in feeding, clothing and housing all Australians. It will really give us an opportunity to celebrate these achievements. At the same time, it is important that we strengthen the connection between rural and city folk across this nation. Getting those connections is also an important element of celebrating the Australian Year of the Farmer.

This motion, and the Australian Year of the Farmer, recognises the important role that farmers play in our food and fibre production. Our city cousins—and people in our regional towns, for that matter—go down to the supermarket or the local store and buy their food, and we want them to connect to the role that farmers play in providing that produce and to get the connection between the paddock and the plate. Not only is it important for our city cousins and those in larger regional areas, but it is also important that children at school during this celebration year of the farmer gain an understanding of where our food comes from. Food does not just come off the supermarket shelf; it has an origin. As we work through this year celebrating the farmer it is important that we are able to get that connection across not only to our city cousins but also to schools across this country.

Australian agricultural products and related industries inject more than $405 billion into our national economy. Australian farmers provide food for some 60 million people both in Australia and around the world each and every day. They provide food for 22 million people in Australia, and 98 per cent of our food in Australia is provided by Australian farmers. The rest of it is of course exported. The sector provides direct employment for more than 300,000 people in our nation who live and work in regional and rural Australia. But the complete agricultural supply chain, including the affiliated food and fibre industries, provides jobs for some 1.6 million Australians. That is a vital part of our national economy. In fact, one in six working people work in the agricultural, food or fibre industry in Australia.

The former Prime Minister and members of the government might say that they saved us from going into recession during the global financial crisis. But whilst there were initiatives taken by the government, which I acknowledged at the time, the agricultural sector continued to grow during that very tight economic circumstance of the global financial crisis. We had one quarter of deficit growth. In the quarter after that we were saved from going into a technical recession because the agricultural sector continued to grow. That is another reason to celebrate the importance of our farmers and our food producers across this nation. Both within and beyond our borders, Australian farmers are making a significant contribution to addressing the global food security and supply issues. When we sit down at the dinner table tonight, and around the world as families sit down around their dinner tables tonight, there will be another 240,000 mouths to feed. There will be another 240,000 mouths to feed tomorrow night. What that means is that this calendar year there will be another 40 million people—net population growth—globally. We have got to start to focus on this issue of global food security. There will be another 240,000 mouths to be fed in the world today, and another 40 million this year—that is the net number—and these are figures that have come from the OECD and the United Nations. The population is expected, globally, to grow from the current 6.5 billion to some nine billion by 2050. Of course, the other interesting thing is that the United Nations is predicting there will be a 40 per cent rise in food prices by 2020 because, as the squeeze starts to come on, supply-demand factors will come in. So not only are we celebrating this year, the year of the farmer, but there are great challenges ahead for us and our farming communities as well as for government.

I think it was the CSIRO who stated, and the UN has also stated, that in the next 40 years we have got to produce 50 per cent more food than we produce today if we are to meet this challenge. And that is against the backdrop of those countries where there are huge population bubbles, where the soil types have been farmed since before the birth of Christ. They are old—ancient—soils. They have lost lots of their organic matter. Many are in semi-arid or desert areas. And do they have a capacity to increase food production? The challenge is before us all.

I want, as a Nuffield scholar myself, to acknowledge the great role that the Australian Nuffield farming scholarships have played in the Australian agricultural industries. This year there will be some 21 Australian Nuffield scholars travelling overseas and looking at agriculture and the focus on agriculture globally, not just in our own backyard. I have two from my own constituency going this year: James Walker from Longreach and Natalie Williams from Jericho. Andrew Dewar is from Clifton in the east of my electorate; a vegetable producer, he is completing his scholarship which he was awarded last year. Nuffield is making a significant contribution to giving farmers an opportunity to study overseas, to look at the trends overseas, to gain an understanding of the great challenges ahead, and I know that all of those Nuffield scholars who come back will be able to take up the challenge that is before us. I commend Lord Nuffield for the foundation he established so long ago, and I am very privileged to have been one of the recipients of a Nuffield scholarship prior to coming into this place. I wish them all well and I know they will make a difference.

One of the things that we have got to do in this country is to increase R&D funding. What we have seen under this government is a reduction in R&D funding, and that is not what we should be doing, because R&D will indeed give us an opportunity to progress our agricultural production. It is also about developing new varieties, making sure that we can produce food in the era of potential changes to our climate. So R&D is indeed essential as we go into the next 40 to 50 years with this huge global challenge in front of us.

I want to touch just quickly on the families of my electorate of Maranoa. In fact, 22 per cent of the workforce in Maranoa, based on the 2006 Census figures—it would have changed recently with the resource sector—had worked in the agricultural sector. A quarter of the state's beef and cattle enterprises are located in the electorate of Maranoa. My own home town of Roma boasts the largest store cattle selling centre in Australia—sometimes they tell me it is 'in the southern hemisphere' but I will say 'in Australia' here. Much of the Australian sheep industry and the wool industry is based in my electorate. Meat goats are taking a much bigger place in the Charleville abattoir in western Queensland, which is processing up to 15,000 goats per week, and goat meat has the largest percentage of meat consumed of any of the meats in the world. Goat meat is the most popular in the world, and 15,000 of goats are processed in the electorate of Maranoa each and every year. There is cotton production across the Darling Downs and Dirranbandi and border regions. We have barley, of course essential in beer production, which I noticed would interest many of my colleagues. Around Dalby in my electorate we have sorghum, which is also being converted into ethanol. All the feedstock from that goes into an intensive animal-livestock feeding industry. We have fruit and small crops in the east of the electorate. Something like 10 per cent of Queensland's avocados are produced in the electorate. The story goes on. In fact, 95 per cent of Queensland's apples are produced in the electorate of Maranoa. I commend all members of this House to talk about this throughout the year. This is the Australian Year of the Farmer. I commend the directors, Chairman Philip Bruem and the Managing Director Geoff Bell. I also acknowledge Glen McGrath who is the ambassador and Her Excellency the Governor-General Quentin Bryce. This is a year to join together to celebrate the Australian Year of the Farmer. (Time expired)

Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to support the motion of the member for Maranoa, Bruce Scott, in recognising the vital contribution that farmers around Australia make to our society, to our economy and to our way of life. To celebrate Australian farmers for the 2012 calendar year is testament to the valuable contribution that farmers make. Without farmers, Australia would not experience the wonderful standard of living with quality, fresh locally-grown produce that we enjoy. Farmers provide us with so many quality items: fresh vegetables, meat, dairy, grain, wool, eggs, fish, cotton and timber items. I feel that all too often people consume their meals without a thought for those tireless workers—the farmers—who work the land to grow and harvest the wonderful produce that we find on supermarket shelves, in fruit and vegetable shops and in the butcher shops.

I recently had the pleasure of welcoming the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig, the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and member for Braddon, Sid Sidebottom, and the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture, Resources, Fisheries and Forestry and member for Lyons, the Hon. Dick Adams, to my electorate for a tour of the north-east region of the state. This area is prime farmland, home to numerous dairies and cropping farms. The group toured the north-east, visiting the Headquarters Road Dam, the Razz Rhubarb farm and Bridestowe lavender farm.

The fantastic potential of the north-east of Tasmania is largely due to, and certainly to be improved on, the four irrigation projects that we discussed—one being the finished Headquarters Road dam and another that is near completion. Another topic of discussion was the Scottsdale DSTO joining the CSIRO and the University of Tasmania to value-add to the products being produced in the north-east. I was particularly impressed to see the joint venture between Razz Rhubarb and Bridestowe Lavender Estate to produce lavender and rhubarb jam—an example of the innovation and creativity of the farming region. Razz Rhubarb is run by Jerrod Nichols, the son of Maureen, former manager of North East Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Scottsdale. He is an impressive, innovative representative of farming in my electorate of Bass. Jerrod farms rhubarb along with other products, including squash, poppies, potatoes and pyrethrum. He has wonderful fresh products and by working with the Bridestowe lavender farm is creating other avenues for using rhubarb, including lavender and rhubarb jam.

Another product produced in the north-east is Rhu Bru, the most refreshing of drinks. If you have not had Rhu Bru you are really missing out. It is a great drink—fantastic. You should go to Scottsdale and buy some Rhu Bru. Jerrod is keen to promote quality Tasmanian products not only to the nation but also to export markets. He has a great vision and one that needs to be further encouraged to promote the great Tasmanian produce. He places great emphasis on the importance of fresh produce, not cheaply imported canned or frozen products. I was pleased to bring the minister, the parliamentary secretary and the chair of the committee to this electorate for them to witness firsthand the high level of innovation and potential that the region has. With good soils, reliable rainfall and available water, there is great potential for further development in this region. Farmers have always been innovators and adaptors of new technology and have had to, and are willing to continue to, endure the harsh and unpredictable elements that Mother Nature throws at them. Farmers endure all of the elements—droughts, floods and fires—and more of these elements can result in bumper crops or massive heartbreaking devastation. But farming life goes on, and it is at times like these, when you see the farming communities rally together to beat adversity, that you note the terrific community spirit in these communities that pulls them together. It is a terrific example of the mateship that is so often referred to as being an important element of Australian society. It is a pity that manufacturing and processing of produce is now almost exclusively controlled internationally, resulting in farmers becoming price takers with little bargaining power in the selling of their produce. This does not lead to efficiency, nor does it allow for improved quality of products. The trouble is that the international processors tend to go for price rather than quality, which can affect farmers and put them in a difficult economic position.

To help rectify this and to support Aussie farmers, I encourage all Australians to buy locally, to buy Australian products, because if we do not there will not be Australian farmers of our fresh local produce that we all enjoy so very much. We are beginning to see too many cheap vegetable imports. Australians need to ensure that when they are purchasing items from their supermarket they are purchasing Australian-grown products, not those from our overseas counterparts. Even though they may be cheaper in price, we do need to buy locally and we do need to encourage others to buy locally.

We need to educate our children about farmers and their vital role in society. With 2012 being the Australian Year of the Farmer, there is no better time for this to happen. I have heard stories about children not understanding where milk actually comes from. It is important that they do know and they understand what farmers do and contribute to society. Let us start educating our children and educating our communities to support farmers and recognise exactly what they do for our nation. They provide fresh produce and products for everyone to enjoy. There is no better way to enjoy vegetables than to eat them fresh, straight from the farm to your plate.

Farming is a special way of life for so many around Australia. Some farms are handed down over generations. Other people have bought into farming. As a nation we need to encourage new people into farming. The exciting career options for young people in the agricultural sector need to be constantly highlighted to ensure that our farming communities remain strong and resilient into the future. We need to support our farmers into the future, to support local projects, to buy Australian produce, thus supporting our Aussie farmers. Our farmers are the providers and without them we would not have the fantastic fresh produce that we have today. I encourage members of this House, all electorates and all Australians to recognise, as the member for Maranoa has said, the 'vital role that Australian farming families and their industries play in keeping our nation fed, clothed and sheltered' and the wonderful contribution of all farmers in our great country, to make our economy great in this, the Year of the Farmer.

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Australian Year of the Farmer and I take great pleasure and honour from commending my colleague Bruce Scott for introducing this motion, which I support. Bruce, like me, comes from a region which has a long history and is a very agricultural area. Calare is actually far older than Maranoa. The electorate of Calare is the first place that Wentworth, Lawson and Blaxland found when they headed over the hills from Sydney. It is probably the oldest place where mining and agriculture began in a serious way in Australia.

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tasmania!

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tasmania got other things that we will not talk about right now. This is not only some of the most magnificent country in Australia but also one of the earliest places of European settlement in Australia—the oldest place outside the Sydney basin. It has some of the most magnificent farming land in Australia, be it broadacre, horticulture, fruit and vegetables, cropping or, particularly, sheep and cattle. It is the most magnificent grazing country I think I have ever seen in our fair land.

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Have you been to Tasmania?

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love Tasmania—after Calare. It is high time that farming had its year. While I know Australia loves its farmers and understands that without them there would be nothing to eat and far less to wear, few appreciate what is involved in creating those products. Farmers often deal with mother nature—we deal with her wrath. We think of that in terms of drought but, as we have seen in the last couple of years, mother nature can be pretty savage at the end of a great season and bring frost, hail or too much of a good thing at a time when we are about to strip.

Farmers deal with these issues, whether drought or the absolute devastation of seeing something that you have waited years to grow come to grief. They understand and face the challenges that their industry offers. The last thing agriculture needs is a myriad of totally impractical regulations from local, state and federal governments—particularly from governments which are mistakenly of the belief that they are going to solve the environmental problems of the world. Often these things are going to do little to improve the environment. Having had to travel to Brazil and the US at the time of the BSE crisis, I can tell you that farmers in Australia, Brazil and the USA—and I suspect in most parts of the world—are far more worried about a government's reaction to environmental issues, whether climate change or anything else, than they are about the issues themselves.

Emissions are an example. Climate change scientists and politicians love pointing at agriculture. They see it as the scapegoat and also as the solution, while ignoring the fact that the worst pollution is produced in the world's major cities. A classic example of this is Labor's carbon tax. In their wisdom, the government imposed a threshold. The inclusion of business-size triggers in the carbon tax essentially penalise the largest emitters. However, agriculture's largest emitters such as dairy factories and abattoirs have already scaled up production and made efficiencies in their use of energy, whether gas or electricity, which means that they have already lowered their emissions per tonne of beef processed or whatever probably as much as they reasonably can. The government's legislation means that businesses will now have a disincentive to increase efficiencies. They will simply move to smaller operations and greater emissions per unit of production, with the net result actually being higher. This government is creating a cliff face. Once businesses hit 25,000 tonnes of emissions they are suddenly hit with a kind of tax none of us ever dreamt of. Anyone around that figure, or maybe even up to 30 per cent, is going to say, 'I think maybe we will take a day off a fortnight or a day off a week. It won't be in the interests of lowering carbon emissions but it will certainly save us a heck of a lot of money'.

Another example of ludicrous government policy—and I mention this because agriculture has enough to deal with without bureaucracies and governments making it harder—is that, while heavy road vehicles have an exemption from the carbon tax, rail freight does not. This will be a $20 million impost on the rail industry, forcing more freight such as grain onto country roads and decimating them. The fallout from this ridiculous government policy is enormous but Labor does not seem to get it.

Farming, like most businesses, is increasingly based on large production with small and variable margins. For the last 50 years, broadacre farming in particular has kept its head above water by increased productivity, but this has flattened out. The coalition is continuing to push the government to increase its contribution to agricultural research and development to revitalise the industry, to give it every advantage and improve productivity. However, Labor most definitely has not given up but has simply never faced up to it, with the agriculture minister recently telling Japan that Australia has little chance of increasing agricultural productivity. I cannot believe an agriculture minister in Australia would say that. For my whole life I have heard that the world's increasing population will make farmers more prosperous. Recently, the emergence of Asia has heightened this expectation—by recently, we mean in the last 30 years or so. The truth is that the emerging middle class in Asia is certainly having an incremental effect. But despite the hype, farmers recognise there is no overnight transformation.

There will always be challenges for the sector, particularly from global trends. However, poor government policy seen throughout 2011—the carbon tax, the way live exports were dealt with, the basin plan, inadequate biosecurity, foreign ownership and food labelling arrangements—continued to put agriculture on the back foot. The shortage of graduates and skilled workers in the agriculture sector is a function of this Labor government's failure to stand up for this sector. Productivity and innovation are central to profitability. Unless we continually get renewal in the sector and keen, fresh new minds applying new ideas, we will not keep up that productivity which has kept Australian agriculture where it is. This needs to be supported by a government willing to stand up for it. The malaise is so bad in the current government that the agriculture department has removed agriculture from its primary mission statement, and is now:

We work to sustain the way of life and prosperity for all Australians.

That should be a government mission statement, not a specific department within it. Labor's indifference to agriculture is trashing the agricultural brand, undermining the industry, and is our nation's biggest threat to food security.

The 2012 Year of the Farmer is a chance for the agricultural sector to explain the need for government to help with research and development, to educate researchers, agronomists and rural scientists towards increasing efficiency and productivity, and to have people with the ability to look after Australia's biosecurity and quarantine. We absolutely must have those people.

In 2012, we the coalition will continue to support policies that give better outcomes, such as reviewing the competition and consumer laws. We also plan to finalise the development of our policies on coal seam gas, food labelling and foreign ownership to make sure our farming communities indeed get a fair go. Let us hope that all Australians urge every level of government to realise the need for practical solutions in agriculture. However, at this point in time only the Gillard government can remove its blind spot on agriculture and take the lead by using 2012—the Year of the Farmer—to be proactive and adopt policies that support rather than hinder our farmers. During the global financial crisis, it was not mining but our farming economy that at the end of the day stopped us going into an official recession.

Agricultural production in this country drives $155 billion a year in economic production. That is still, in this day and age, over 12 per cent of GDP. There are over 1.6 million jobs involved, and exports in agricultural are $32 billion plus a year. I believe the Australian Year of the Farmer can be a rallying point to explain to mainstream Australia the realities confronting their— (Time expired)

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Doom and gloom is not what we should be doing in the Year of the Farmer. We should be positive. We should not be talking about being ruined. We should be talking about positive things that farming is doing in Australia and the future of farming, and not talking it down like we just got from the last speech. I welcome this discussion on the Australian Year of the Farmer, for 2012, which was brought to this place by the member for Maranoa. I thank him for giving me the opportunity to tell some of the good news stories, especially in my state of Tasmania. I believe this is a very important time to recognise the role that farmers play in our economy.

There are quite a few changes taking place in the agriculture industry, as there always has been, but they are getting faster. It is an area where jobs are growing and we need to encourage more young people to see that there is a future in the farming industry working on farms, working in growing and in owning farms.

Recently I had the opportunity with some of my Tasmanian colleagues to show the federal minister, Joe Ludwig, around our electorates to show what was happening there. We visited three electorates and covered some of the major areas of enterprise in agriculture and forestry, starting with Kelly's Sawmill, down at Dunalley—he is also a farmer—where we inspected new processes of timber engineering using smaller and thinner pieces of wood to make structural timber, which of course is one of the futures for the timber industry.

We also met the Dalys, a farming family who grow potatoes. They are now growing and marketing new species of potatoes and undertaking research into the best products and species for niche markets and also for the major supermarkets in Sydney and Melbourne—the best high-product potatoes anywhere in the world, I would think.

The last enterprise I visited in Lyons with the minister was Tasmanian Alkaloids, in Westbury, who process poppies. This is a highly successful industry that is still working on the edge of their markets exploring new directions for their industry. That, of course, goes out to the world. This industry employs more scientists than any other rural industry. It is in the forefront of our economy. There are many fantastic enterprises that now exist and will be part of the future of Tasmania.

They certainly value our farmers in my state of Tasmania. Part of the success story is in fact because Tasmania has taken up the challenge of drought-proofing Tasmania, probably starting with David Llewellyn, a past state member for Lyons, who was the minister for primary industry. He saw that we needed to get irrigation schemes up and running if we were going to compete in the food market. In fact, Tasmania has 10 per cent of the rainfall that falls on Australia, and we have around 1.5 per cent of the land mass. This gives us a natural advantage over the rest of Australia. We must take up that challenge and that advantage.

Tasmania is now building irrigation schemes in public-private partnerships. The public contribution to the construction cost of the schemes comes from a pool of $220 million allocated for this purpose by the Tasmanian government and the Australian government. The private contribution comes from primary producers through the purchase of tradeable water entitlements and, of course, from putting the infrastructure in on their own farms—buying the pivots et cetera. The public contribution recognises that these water developments are beyond the resources of farmers alone and that in addition to benefiting individual farming enterprises it will benefit regional communities wherever possible. The public support relates not only to the capital construction but also considerable commitment to ensure that Tasmania has a good future in agriculture, as do our farmers.

We now have to deal with the fact that, while we have good, rich soils, a good climate and a sustainable water supply, we lack and must have skilled workers. This is something that has been addressed recently with the announcement of $4.5 million to build the Agritas Trade College in Smithton in Tasmania. This will allow many young people to train in Tasmania and to study in an environment in which they can get work in the future. (Time expired)

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Agriculture in Australia is a $155 billion a year industry that underpins over 12 per cent of our nation's GDP, with the majority of that being exported. Of this about $640 million worth is produced in my electorate of Forrest. The industry directly employs 318,000 and also underpins the jobs of millions of Australians in food delivery and service. There are 136,000 farms throughout Australia that produce 93 per cent of the food we eat.

I take this opportunity to thank the farmers for their hard work in keeping our plates full of quality food whilst helping our economy. We know that it was the ag exports that kept Australia out of recession. It is important for this parliament to recognise the value of Australian farmers and food producers—something that the Labor government has repeatedly failed to do. Australian farmers have not been supported; in fact, they have been assaulted. I ask this government and this parliament: do we want to keep agriculture, food production and manufacturing strong in Australia or will we continue to allow it to be undermined and undersupported?

I understand the need to provide Australian families with high-quality, safe food and I understand the economic pressures on family budgets that mean families need that high-quality, safe food to be as affordable as possible. Australian farmers have a worldwide reputation for producing safe and high-quality food products. In the report on food safety entitled Food safety performance world ranking 2008, Australia was one of the top-five-performing OECD countries for food safety standards, all of which were rated as superior. Australian farmers are also amongst the most efficient in the world, quick to embrace new technology and improved farming practices.

As a farmer, I understand that Australian farmers can only continue in their business if they can achieve commercial returns that allow them to maintain their own families and businesses. Australian farmers have been subjected to a cycle of diminishing returns. According to the Western Australian department of agriculture, the broadacre region of WA averaged a rate of return to capital of around two per cent over the period 1989 to 2002-03. In comparison, the non-ag business world usually works on a minimum acceptable rate of return or hurdle rate of 12 per cent.

The number of Australian farming families on the equivalent of welfare incomes, despite working long and hard hours, is of significant and pressing concern for this parliament. And the number of Australian farming families with a negative income is a national disgrace. The reasons range from vertical integration, market concentration and market power to issues to do with the supply and value chains, all leading to poor returns on investment driving the current generation of farmers out of considering food production and keeping the next generation away.

We constantly get the government and the ACCC seeming to suggest that farmers have no right to make a profit. Farmers are the cannon fodder who become collateral damage in the supermarket war for profits and market share, with no support from either the ACCC or the government in this place. On top of this, Australian farmers have had to deal with the Labor Party's dreadful mismanagement of the live export trade. The bungling of this government on the question of live exports to Indonesia has done great damage to our international reputation and great damage to the farm sector, particularly in Western Australia.

I commend the member for Maranoa for his motion and I really do want to congratulate and thank Australian farmers for the job they do. There are some people in this place who understand how hard you work, how well you do your job and what a great job you do in feeding our nation. I simply hope that in the Year of the Farmer this government might actually stop being a part of the problem faced by farmers and start acting to assist them.

In that time is left to me I want to mention that I am seriously concerned about the Public Health Association of Australia's report suggesting it might be environmentally less wasteful of energy and water for some products such as dairy to be imported from New Zealand rather than produced locally. I am glad that Jock Laurie said that showed a lack of understanding and that Australian farmers are much more environmentally responsible, with a focus on water use, reduced carbon footprints and long-term sustainability. The PHAA fail to recognise this and, in my view, clearly have no respect at all for the job that our farmers do. I would say: shame on them.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While not a farmer myself, I have lived my whole life in a region that is renowned for its rich agricultural diversity. Blair is a regional and rural seat located in South-East Queensland. It is full of areas that are familiar to people these days, some notorious like the Wivenhoe Dam, the Somerset Dam, the Lockyer Creek, the Bremer River and the Brisbane River. It is a beautiful but often dangerous place in South-East Queensland.

Towns such as Toogoolawah are known for producing the nation's best beef. The saleyards are legendary in the Brisbane Valley in South-East Queensland. The meatworks in my electorate at Kilcoy, Dinmore, Churchill and Coominya employ thousands of people and are integral to the success of farming regions west of Ipswich. Around Esk, there is dairy and beef farming. In the lower Brisbane Valley, around Minden, Patrick Estate and Coominya, horticulture is keen. Jimna was built around the forest industry. Coolana and Kilcoy produce gourmet-quality cheeses and olives, while the regions around Marburg and southern rural Ipswich produce wines. This is an area proud of its history of farming, with strong agricultural values.

Our farmers continue to contribute to the economic lifeblood of our region. We have generational farmers in the Ipswich and Somerset regions—families who have helped to build the area and make it what it is today. You can see that from historical documents. You can find located at state schools like Haigslea the names of families that continue down through the generations. Doing mobile offices at agricultural shows in my electorate at Ipswich, Marburg, Rosewood, Lowood, Esk, Kilcoy and Toogoolawah, I can see the pride on farmers' faces when they display their beef cattle or honey and other produce that they have grown on the land. It is a great testimony to their courage and commitment. Many of these farmers have been to hell and back in the last 12 months, with 279 agribusinesses flood affected in the Somerset region.

The export from Australia's farming community, particularly in South-East Queensland in my electorate, is considerable. It contributes to the national wealth of our country and employs literally thousands of people. I was instrumental in securing a $100,000 grant to the Somerset Region Business Alliance to provide advisory services to primary producers and small businesses impacted by the flood. A business expo was successfully run by the SRBA to assist local farmers and small business operators. Thousands of people attended it over a number of days. This was a very successful enterprise and it goes to show the initiative of a federal Labor government committed to the farming and rural sectors. The funding was made possible under the Small Business Advisory Services-National Disaster Assistance program.

The Somerset Region Business Alliance has worked hard to promote local businesspeople, particularly those who work on the land. This is a very challenging time. The high dollar makes it even more difficult. I want to acknowledge the great work of people like Paul Heymans and Deb Ribinskas and others who worked tirelessly to help local businesses in these farming communities remain connected, informed and skilled. The Ipswich Business Enterprise Centre also received $100,000 to help small businesses throughout the Ipswich and West Moreton region. The centre has been providing assistance to businesses from Goodna to Grandchester through to Grantham. Our farmers require training, innovation and skills so that they can deal with the challenges they face—challenges of climate change, food security and global food shortage. I used to represent the Lockyer Valley, so I met with many farmers who were flood affected during my time as their member. I know the challenges they face from the floods that impacted on the Lockyer Valley.

I am proud to see this federal Labor government investing in quality education. One of the great initiatives in my electorate was that undertaken by the Kilcoy State High School, which ensured that science and technology had real relevance to the agricultural industries around it. Last year, I proudly opened the Kilcoy State High School's $1.6 million science centre. You might ask: 'A science centre? Kilcoy is a rural community.' I picked up Kilcoy in the redistribution, and the funding to the school was made possible by a federal Labor government under Building the Education Revolution—opposed by those opposite, sadly. The science centre takes technology out of the classroom and onto the farm. I have been there to see what they grow and produce.

The school's new facility connects the rural areas to the science and technology areas. This school is directly training tomorrow's farmers, offering them Certificate II in Rural Operations, and year 10 students went on an agribusiness excursion last year to the Mackay-Whitsunday region. This is a school blessed by the BER, which was opposed by those opposite, and it is tailoring its needs in a rural setting, equipping students for agricultural careers in the future. For too long the famers and landholders of Ipswich and Somerset were neglected by the coalition, who took their votes and their money and their support for granted. I am proud to be part of a federal Labor government that is investing in regional education and training. People who study in the regions tend to stay in the regions. While developing farmers for the future it is important to make sure that they stay in those regions and contribute to those regions.

It is encouraging to see our universities embedding localism by offering educational opportunities that connect the skills of the local communities in regional and rural areas. Universities in and around my region have developed strong partnerships with local rural communities. This federal Labor government has increased the total regional loading for universities to $249.4 million to help these campuses continue operating. We have committed $265 million to provide 20,500 students in regional areas greater access to the youth allowance to make it easier for them to go to university. I have seen the benefit of that in my area. In the Somerset region, we have dozens and dozens of kids getting youth allowance for the first time. We have invested $176 million in building trade training centres, which help rural as well as urban people. This investment makes a difference to the students in Blair, many of whom travel into Ipswich to get training at wonderful trade training centres, like the trade training centre at St Edmunds in conjunction with Ipswich Grammar School and Ipswich Girls Grammar School, and Woodcrest State College in conjunction with Redbank Plains State High School. The Ipswich Region Trade Training Centre, which will be established in Ipswich itself at Ipswich State High, will have people coming from regional and rural areas. It will have students from Lowood State High, Rosewood State High, Bremer State High and Bundamba State Secondary College. Kids from urban backgrounds and kids from rural backgrounds will be getting training in mechanics, in plumbing and in other skills, and there will be training in rural industries as well.

The Riverview Springfield Trade Training Centre will provide opportunities for students of St Peter Claver College and St Augustine's College at Augustine Heights. It is important to note that kids from rural areas come into Ipswich because that is where they get their secondary education. We are determined to make sure the kids who come from rural backgrounds get quality education. That is why we are investing such an amount of money in universities like the University of Queensland Ipswich campus and the University of Southern Queensland. I note my good friend the member for Oxley and I secured about $49 million for a campus right on the border. The member for Oxley and I lobbied very hard to make sure that that funding came to the University of Southern Queensland. We provided it because we know that kids from rural backgrounds go to that university. We are providing the funding for their tertiary study and we are providing the funding for their secondary study. I want to ensure that kids from farming backgrounds get access to the biggest marketplace in human history, and education is the key.

Our Australian farmers in rural and regional areas will benefit from the kind of assistance we are providing. The NBN is warmly welcomed. I know it has been trialled in parts of my electorate, in the Brisbane Valley. I have seen it being trialled in places, for example at the computer business of Paul Heymans. Our investment in the Ipswich Motorway and the Blacksoil Interchange are critical for farmers in the western corridor as well. I cannot wait for the carbon farming initiative that will benefit people in my electorate. I have spoken to many farmers who are looking forward to having another source of income, and sadly those opposite should hang their heads in shame because once again they are opposing help for farmers.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are told it is the Australian Year of the Farmer. Many people in rural Australia really wonder if this is a sick joke, as they stare at their overdrafts and listen to the banks hammering on their door saying, 'Won't you sell your water? You owe us $1 million, your farm cannot be sold. But the government has just put out another tender in the Murray-Darling Basin and if you sell your water, sure, that means the end of your dairying but you can pay down some of your debt to us.' Those same farmers go to the supermarket. If people from the government had gone to the Coles supermarket in Kialla, which is in my area, they would have seen magnificent Australian plums selling for 50c a kilo. No-one can grow plums for 50c a kilo. You cannot grow them, pick them, pack them, prune them, store them, refrigerate them and put the sticky labels on them—that is, they simply cannot be produced—for 50c a kilo. Yet Coles is skiting about its 'down, down, down' 50 per cent cheaper prices for fruit and vegetables. You might ask, 'Why are the farmers selling their product at a loss?' The answer is that Coles and Woolworths between them own 80 per cent of the supermarkets in Australia, so the farmers have no choice. They cannot sneak off to a grocery ombudsman—or, as some have asked for, a supermarket ombudsman—and talk about the unconscionable use of market power by Coles and Woolworths. Where else would they go to sell their product? Fifty cents a kilo is below the cost of production, but at least the fruit does not fall on the ground. Also, they have a conscience: they know that a lot of pensioners can probably buy fruit for the first time at that price. The farmers are going broke, but someone is going to get a beautiful plum to take home.

The carbon tax, which was mentioned by the previous speaker, is a joke. How many business enterprises in Australia other than the farmers would be made to comply with an act which required a covenant on their business for 100 years? But that is what Labor's carbon sequestration initiatives are all about. In addition, farms are going to be hit by the increased cost of utilities and the extra cost of wages with the new industrial laws about after-hours work. All that is a real problem. It makes farming less viable every day, yet here we are talking about the Australian Year of the Farmer and the need to celebrate it!

We should celebrate the fact that the farmers of Australia on the 136,000 farms in this country are producing $405 billion worth of enterprise each year. They are not only producing that value at the farm gate but also generating jobs in transport, in food manufacturing, in retailing and in marketing. They generate export earnings which come back into the country. They do a magnificent job. In the course of their day-to-day activity of growing food and fibre in this country, the farmers also perform environmental services—that is, they produce the fresh air, the decent soils and the water quality, and they kill the feral animals and destroy the weeds. No-one else in the Australian economy does that. There are not enough public servants to go around, and no-one is paying public servants in the states or the Commonwealth to perform those environmental protection services anymore. The farmers do that work, but they cannot do it when they are near to being broke, and so many of our farmers—particularly those in the eastern arc of Australia—are doubly in debt as a result of 10 years of drought and then floods.

We have to celebrate the extraordinary resilience of farm families, who battle on in the face of blow after blow, many of which are delivered through bad government policy. Think about the current exchange rate—the $1.06 and $1.07 exchange rate of the Australian dollar against the US dollar. Why isn't this government managing the dollar down when it is rendering not just farming export activity but also the activity of all our manufacturers less competitive in global markets? By the time the dollar comes down, if and when it does come down, we will already have lost so much of our manufacturing in Australia—and, quite frankly, you do not get it back. The country will be deskilled, and we will not make anything anymore.

On the subject of deskilling, I point out that—contrary to what the previous speaker, the member for Blair, tried to claim—there has been an enormous decrease in the number of agricultural science and agribusiness graduates. This means that there is an enormous shortage each year of skilled people entering agribusiness. They ask themselves: 'Why would I? My father was a farmer, and his father was a farmer. Why would I suffer too? The risks are too great, and the returns are too small.' I am a sixth generation farmer myself, besides many other things. My brother and sister are farmers, and my only son is a farmer. I see what they do every day to try to produce good food and fibre for this country. Enough is enough—they deserve a decent set of policies in this country and a decent break. What they do should be respected. Let us celebrate the farmers. (Time expired)

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

I am very pleased to join members in the debate on this motion to recognise the Australian Year of the Farmer. I note it was put on the Notice Paper by the member for Maranoa, Bruce Scott. The member for Maranoa and I have shared the duty of representing many farmers in the central western parts of Queensland in this place. So I am happy to support him in this motion. He states in the first point of his motion:

… the Australian Year of the Farmer 2012 provides an opportunity to celebrate such achievements and to further strengthen the connections between rural and urban Australia …

I am very proud to inform the House that coming up in Rockhampton in just a few months time is the Beef Australia Expo, a proud supporter of the 2012 Year of the Farmer initiative and a feature event of the Year of the Farmer Queensland Road Show. This will be the ninth Beef Expo—so the ninth time that Rockhampton has welcomed beef producers from around the world to our triennial Beef Expo. There are some new members here, so in case you have not heard me say this before, Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia, a tag that we wear very proudly and never so proudly as when we do host that world's beef producers and researchers to our Beef Expo. This year we are expecting more than 70,000 people to go through the gates at Beef Australia in that week 7 May to 12 May. The theme of Beef Australia 2012 is innovation, collaboration, inspiration and celebration. When you look at the program for the week you can see just what a high-quality event this is, and what a truly international event it is. It really does celebrate and recognise and promote the full breadth of what the beef industry is all about. This is a very high-tech industry, it is a very innovative industry, and I am pleased to say that in Central Queensland it is a very strong and growing industry.

To highlight the very international nature of the event, the proceedings will kick off with the Bayer and Bioniche International Beef Cattle Genetics Conference. That is a very important focus of the event, and it has grown as the beef expos have evolved over the years to focus on the full spectrum of the industry. I am pleased to say that the federal government is supporting the expo this year—once again supporting it very strongly—to the tune of over $2 million. I am hoping that the agriculture minister is able to make it along to the Brisbane launch of the expo next Thursday evening because he will get to hear first hand from the chairman, Geoff Murphy, and the CEO, Roger Desailly, just how progress is being made and how the $2 million is being spent to ensure that this year's expo is one to remember and continues the tradition of beef expos in the past, which are getting bigger and better every single time.

I would like to tell the House that the good news for the agricultural sector in my electorate does not start and end with the beef industry. I was in Mackay last week and had the opportunity to meet, as I do regularly, with the chair and CEO of Mackay Sugar, which is the company that runs three of the sugar mills in Mackay. They told me that they are making terrific progress on the very exciting cogeneration project that they embarked upon a couple of years ago. They are putting in a $100 million investment to the Racecourse Mill, which will use the waste product from sugar cane milling, the gas, to produce the equivalent of one-third of Mackay's electricity. They are able to do that thanks to the renewable energy target which this government increased by way of legislation a couple of years ago. They will be ready to generate and sell electricity—they have already got the offtake agreement signed—very shortly. So, well done to Mackay Sugar. I look forward to seeing you grow and prosper. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.