Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, Rockhampton, the true beef capital of Australia, in Capricornia, hosted our nation's biggest cattle industry expo, Beef Australia 2015. This event was the most successful ever held in showcasing our beef industry to the world. Beef Australia's chairman Blair Angus and his committee, together with CEO Denis Cox, the Beef Australia staff and all of the volunteers that acted as beef week ambassadors have made Australia very proud on the world stage. Up to 90,000 people attended Beef Australia, including visitors from 25 countries. I am proud that our coalition government contributed $2.5 million to help stage this event.

Beef Week provided a $40 million direct boost to the local retail, food and hospitality, transport and accommodation sectors. However, the final spin-off to our nation could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Our beef sector employs 200,000 people. Its importance is reflected by the number of senior federal government members who visited Beef Australia. I thank the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, federal agriculture minister and Deputy Speaker, amongst others, for their attendance at this very important event.