Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. I remind the minister that I recently attended the opening of a major new export abattoir, Hilltop Meats, in my electorate. Will the minister outline to the House the benefits of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, particularly for those in our red meat industries like Hilltop Meats?

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

I thank the member for Hume. Not only is he a great member for his local electorate; he is a person from a family in the cattle and sheep game, so he knows a lot about this industry. He is a person who comes from an area where just recently he was at the opening of Hilltop abattoir, which will have about 380 employees. That is great; those are new jobs. That is what we do on this side of the chamber, that is what we do in government—get people into work. I also note that the GM Scott abattoir is also expanding; that is more jobs. The member for Hume is a very talented man—a university medallist, a Rhodes scholar. It is good to have a few of those on our side. It is always good to have some talent, and that is how you get a good government.

It is good also to be able to go through some of the details of why this advantage, this expansion in beef, is going to get even better—a market for fresh, chilled and frozen. We sold $787 million worth of beef there last year. It currently has a 12 to 25 per cent tariff on it. But after the excellent work of the Minister for Trade and Investment, that tariff, in nine years, is going down to zero. In sheep meat, for which we had $446 million worth of sales last year under a coalition government, that tariff—it has currently got a 12 to 23 per cent tariff—after eight years is going down to zero. For goat meat the tariff is currently at 20 per cent, and it is going down after eight years to zero. For bovine offal, it is going from 12 per cent down to zero. Sheep and goat meat offal is also going down to zero. We are actually reducing these tariffs. This is going to bring an explosion in further exports into one of our major markets. An explosion such that Meat and Livestock Australia has said that out to 2030 this is going to be worth $3.3 billion in the beef industry alone. It is going to be worth $1.8 billion in the sheep meat industry. The National Farmers' Federation said this agreement is an 'outstanding achievement that will build on Australia's important trading future'. But what does the shadow minister for agriculture say? This is what the shadow minister for agriculture, the alternative government, said: 'There can be no doubt that the benefits are overstated.'

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Hunter!

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

They never concentrated on this, because whilst Chile and New Zealand had a free trade agreement, whilst Uruguay and Brazil were catching up with us, what was the Labor Party are worried about? Well, you can go through their bunch of tricks. They had their citizens assembly of 150 people—remember that?—because they did not believe in their own government. They had a population policy without a population target.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Member for Bendigo! The member for Bendigo will leave the chamber under standing order 94(a).

The member for Bendigo then left the chamber.

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

And their piece de resistance: they could not organise a free trade agreement but they could organise Peter Slipper to be the Speaker of the House. That was another brilliant piece of work. It is quite obvious that— (Time expired)