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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Australia's rural industries are among the most innovative and productive in the world. The Australian government is committed to ensuring their profitability and competitiveness, now and into the future.

The Australian government supports rural industries in a variety of ways. To help primary producers increase their output and improve their profit margins, we support rural research and development. Much of this support is channeled through the 15 rural research and development corporations. In addition, to keep our rural industries engaged and influential on the world stage, the government is a member of international commodity organisations and regional fisheries management organisations.

This bill implements a 2014 budget measure to change the way that the government pays for its membership to these organisations. The bill also reduces the red-tape burden currently imposed on some of the rural research and development corporations.

Australia is a member of the international wine, grains, sugar and cotton commodity organisations. These organisations work to improve the trading environment for agricultural products. They fund research and development on global issues affecting these industries and provide useful information and statistics for our producers, scientists and research and development organisations.

Australia's membership to these organisations provides benefits to our primary producers. For example, the International Cotton Advisory Committee sponsors research on the cost of cotton production and production methods to inform the cotton research community and primary producers. It has direct links with our Cotton Research and Development Corporation as part of its research associate program.

Other roles of the international commodity organisations include setting international standards to improve production and product marketing, improving food safety and security. Just as our rural research and development corporations foster partnerships at home, the international commodity organisations promote global partnerships. If we do not engage with these organisations, they could develop standards that are not appropriate for Australian conditions and practices.

Australia is a member of six regional fisheries management organisations. Our commercial fishing and aquaculture industry is worth over $2 billion annually and employs around 12,000 people. These organisations manage migratory fish species to ensure the optimal use of fish stocks to the benefit of our fishing industries. Through our membership of these organisations, we ensure that regional management measures are compatible with domestic arrangements and secure access for the Australian fishing industry.

Australian research and development operates within a global system and must take into account international issues. The change to the legislation reflects this and also acknowledges that the ultimate beneficiaries of the activities of these international organisations are farmers, fishing industries and rural communities.

The bill amends three acts to allow the government to recover the cost of the memberships from the Commonwealth funding provided to relevant rural research and development corporations. This will provide a funding mechanism for memberships to these organisations that is sustainable in a time of increasing budget pressures.

The amendments will result in a saving to government of about $7 million over the next four years. This saving will be redirected by the government to help repair the budget.

The bill also reduces red tape for some of the research and development corporations. For consistency across all rural research and development corporations and to reduce regulatory burden, the bill drops the requirements to table certain documents in the parliament.

The funding contract and variations to the funding contract will no longer need to be tabled for Dairy Australia, Forest and Wood Products Australia, the Australian Livestock Export Corporation and Sugar Research Australia. In addition, Dairy Australia and the Australian Livestock Export Corporation will no longer table the annual report and other compliance reports. In the interests of good governance, the corporations will still produce these reports and make them available to the public or to members as required.

An annual coordination meeting for the chairs of the statutory research and development corporations will be dropped. Today, only five of the 15 research and development corporations remain as statutory bodies. There are more effective ways that the corporations can—and do—coordinate their activities and the government decided that a legislated coordination meeting is no longer required.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the second reading be made an order of the day for the next sitting day.