David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Will the minister please inform the House how putting spending in agriculture on a sustainable footing will help reduce Labor's debt and deficit?

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who'd you go for last night, Barnaby?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fortunately I do still support Queensland, and it was a bad night.

I thank the honourable member for his question. As a gastroenterologist, he is probably in the right place to deal with any blockages that we might have over there in the Senate. It is very important that we understand that, just with the money that it is costing us in interest a month, I know they are expanding the Bruce Highway in your electorate, and that is about a billion dollars—we could do that every month with the interest. I know you have got Bucketts Way over in your area as well. We could do that 57 times a month with the money we are spending on interest.

If we had $10 notes, on the interest, we could lie those $10 notes end to end. We could start in Melbourne, go through your electorate in Lyne and all the way to Cairns. You know what would happen when we got to Cairns? We could turn around and keep lying the $10 notes down and go all the way back to Melbourne. Do you know what would happen when we got to Melbourne? We could turn around and go back up to Cairns. And do you know what happens when we get to Cairns? We turn around and go back to Lyne. But they say there is not a problem!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Commiserations on last night. Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The member for Lyne asked a question about a contribution to his electorate. The minister is talking about the Bruce Highway. I know he is confused about Queensland and New South Wales—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is not a place for argument. The member will resume his seat. The Minister for Agriculture will address the question asked of him.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The issue is, of course, that they believe it is not a problem. Even though we could go from Melbourne, through to your electorate, up the Pacific Highway, up the Bruce Highway, back and forth, they say it is not a problem. So I do not know what is a problem. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse turning up for dinner—maybe that is a problem. Who would know? Vikings on your pond—maybe that is a problem.

What we do know is that Pascal Lamy, who is a socialist, said quite clearly the other day that what we have to do, because we are a commodity based economy, is move commodities. If we do not move commodities we have got a real problem. That is why Pascal Lamy says our debt problem is vastly different to the debt problem of Japan or Germany—because we are basically relying on commodities. So, in relying on commodities, it is agriculture that is really putting its shoulder to the wheel, and I am happy to inform the House that we have moved over 585,000 head of cattle in the last week and in excess of 1.3 million sheep in the live trade. About three weeks ago, we loaded 4,000 litres of milk—

Opposition members interjecting—

you should be interested in this—and we sent it to Shanghai. We are getting paid between $7 and $9 a litre, and it was only costing us about $1.26 to move it there. That is a good way to make a dollar. That is agriculture. We have also moved in excess of four million tonnes of barley. We have moved more than 671 tonnes of veal and beef. All of these things—

Opposition members: More! More! We want more!

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Madam Speaker: I am sure they have not been published yet, but we would love to have those notes, if they could be tabled, please. I have no idea what he just said!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Was the minister reading from—I call the Chief Government Whip.