Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Will the minister update the House on Australia's live animal export trade? How will recent agreements with China help boost returns to the Australian farmer and the national economy?

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

I thank the honourable member from the seat of Flynn for his question. He is a person who has been a fettler, a farmer and a fuel distributor and who is now the federal member. I congratulate him on all the work that he has done. He is a person who understands small business. He would know, too, that his area boasts the largest horticultural mandarin production in the Southern Hemisphere—at 2PH. Also, in the Fitzroy Basin is the largest area of cattle production in Australia. So he is very interested in the work that we are doing in making sure that we get the best return for his area and for our nation.

Since 2013, we have exported 2.4 million head of cattle. In fact, in live animal exports, we have exported over 3.6 million head, and this is made up of 2.2 million feeder and slaughter sheep, 1.1 million feeder and slaughter cattle, over 147,000 breeder livestock and over 86,000 goats. Over 593,000 feeder cattle were exported to Indonesia alone. It is a pleasure of mine, on behalf of this parliament, to say that in the recent days we have negotiated a further quota with Indonesia—we had some issues there—a further 50,000 head into Indonesia. It shows that our department is hard at work all the time to make sure we get a better return.

On other issues, we have also managed to secure live cattle trade into China, and this is our seventh market. On the back of Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Thailand, Lebanon and Iran after four decades of being closed, we now have the potential of a market that can take up to a million head a year. Of course, that will not happen overnight.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Perth will cease interjecting.

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

It has to be built up to. We turn off about eight million head a year. All of this means that, under our government, we have record cattle prices. We have also had record sheep prices. We have the biggest turnaround in soft commodity prices in the history of our nation.

There are some threats to this, and one of the big threats to this, of course, is the quibbling by the opposition on the free trade agreement with China. This free trade agreement with China would bring about a 10 per cent reduction in live animal tariffs, a 12 to 25 per cent reduction in meat and offal tariffs and a 10 to 20 per cent reduction in dairy tariffs. These are the threats to Central Queensland; these are the threats to Australia. If we do not get on with the business and deliver this outcome, there is a real threat to the income stream of all Australians—and especially the people of Central Queensland. On top of that, I have to say that the idea of bringing back the carbon tax is just an anathema. (Time expired)