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.

Agriculture is a vital part of the Australian economy. As a nation, we are a net exporter of agricultural produce, forecast to be worth $40 billion this financial year.

Australia's produce is of the highest standard in the world. Our enviable pest and disease status gives our farmers a unique advantage over many of their competitors.

The Department of Agriculture plays a significant role in supporting our exporting farmers and agricultural industries.

The department's important work can be seen in opening and expanding access to export markets. In the past year we have secured access for kangaroo meat into Peru and lychee and mango exports to the United States. This has opened the door for Australian growers to export some of our finest quality produce.

This behind the scenes work is critical for Australia's agricultural sector. It contributes to progressing new and expanded trade agreements, opening more markets for farmers, and bringing greater returns to the farm gate.

Access for Australian agricultural exports relies on the department's certification, inspection and auditing activities that provide assurance to other countries that their conditions of import are met. Last year alone, the department issued around 300,000 export certificates covering meat, grain, horticulture and fibre products. It also provided inspection and certification for the export of over 3.1 million live animals.

Maintaining a robust export system comes at a cost. The Australian government has had a longstanding policy of recovering these costs from those individuals and businesses that receive export certification activities.

In 2014, the Australian government reaffirmed this policy. Agencies should set charges to recover the efficient costs of activities that they provide.

Cost recovery encourages the efficient use of government services. It also allows public scrutiny of the costs of government activities. Cost recovery also provides the Department of Agriculture with a sustainable source of funding. It enables the department to meet increased demand for export services as Australia grows its agricultural exports, especially in the ever-increasing South-East Asian market.

The cost of export services must not affect our competitiveness in international markets. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences has recently reviewed the impact of cost recovery on agricultural exports.

This work has shown that most of Australia's key competitors also have cost recovery arrangements in place for these types of services. The impact of full cost recovery on the value of Australian exports is less than 0.8 per cent.

Government export certification costs are a small price to pay when you consider the returns to farmers and exporters from their ability to sell products overseas.

New charging legislation is needed to recover costs under both the Export Control Act 1982 and the Australian Meat and Livestock Industry Act 1997. Existing export charging legislation is complex and allows for the recovery of costs under the Export Control Act only.

This legislation will ensure that the costs of administering the export system can be recovered appropriately and equitably across the supply chain of all exporters of live animals and reproductive material.

Changes to improve equity are supported by exporters but are not possible under the current charging legislation.

The Export Charges (Imposition—General) Bill 2015 is the first of four bills that provide the appropriate cost recovery mechanism for export related services and activities.

Specifically, the bill will enable cost recovery of activities that provide general benefits to agricultural exporters. Particularly, the recovery of costs associated with program management and administration, verification, risk and incident management activities.

This bill will sit alongside legislation that allows the Department of Agriculture to apply fees that recover the department's costs of those activities provided directly to people such as inspection and audit services.

The bill does not itself set the amount of the charges and will not impose any financial impacts. The charges and who is liable and exempt from paying the charges will be set in regulations.

This bill ensures the Minister for Agriculture is satisfied that the amount charged will not be more than the likely cost of delivering the activity. This will provide clients with confidence that the government will not charge more than is necessary to recover the costs of its export services.

Three companion bills are being introduced alongside this bill, the Export Charges (Imposition-Customs) Bill 2015, the Export Charges (Imposition-Excise) Bill 2015 and the Export Charges (Collection) Bill 2015.

This package of bills will ensure that appropriate cost recovery mechanisms are in place for all export certification related activities. It provides a flexible and common-sense structure for applying cost recovery charges. This supports the important work undertaken by the Department of Agriculture in progressing the interests of farmers and exporters across the country

I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.