Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister for Agriculture, discussions resulting in Indonesia reopening the live cattle market centred around reductions in Australia's handling costs. These charges nearly double the cost of purchase and shipping. Thirty small 1,200 hectare irrigation blocks overcome such costs. These are self-financing and need only one per cent of Gulf land and water. Could the minister advise the state authorities of the speedy necessity for such action?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I thank the honourable member for a history of around 20 years that we have been working together. The honourable member knows better than most how important the live cattle trade is. To Indonesia it is about 618,000 head a year. It is about $461 million a year. Last year we increased that by 112 per cent. That is what comes about when you have an effective government with the delivery of these sorts of outcomes that bring the money in, that pay the bills, that keep our economy in shape.

Yes, we do believe that we have to start dealing with those transport cost issues. That is why, recently, we put $100 million on the table for beef roads. It is $100 million to make sure that we can start moving these products to port in a more efficient way and in a more affordable way. We are also looking at the possibilities of B-triples and getting bulk numbers of cattle to port so that we can get the money back to the Julia Creeks, back to the Richmonds, back to the Cloncurrys, which is where that money belongs.

In relation to water infrastructure, I was very happy, yesterday, to be part of a government that brought about 100 per cent instantaneous write-off on water reticulation deduction expenditure. This is the sort of investment that is needed to give you irrigation blocks. Whilst we are at it, they are claiming the water reticulation write-offs, and they can put new fencing in and there is 100 per cent write-off for that. If they want to bring in a bit of silage or some grain and they need to put it into silos, guess what? They write it off over three years. We did that all yesterday. This is part of the process of an effective government that is delivering back to the people who are putting money on the table for our nation.

I know there is more we can do, and I hear the issue in regard to having a close working relationship with the government of Queensland because there is so much more potential.

At one place alone, Warren Vale, up near Normanton, they currently put out about 150,000 kilograms of beef a year. With the right water infrastructure, which they are prepared to pay for themselves, that can go up to 4.1 million kilograms a year—from one place, from 150,000 to 4.1 million kilograms a year. They are the sorts of productivity increases, the productivity returns, that our nation can deliver with proper investment in the agricultural portfolio. I thank the honourable member for his question. I look forward to negotiating with the people of Queensland, the Queensland government and yourself.