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

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the minister update the House on how the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will help to secure farm gate returns and to create jobs for farmers, my electorate of Capricornia and elsewhere?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Might I say the honourable member would understand more than most about the benefits of greater trade, especially coming from the great beef city of Rockhampton, a city in which at one stage her family had the Lucky Daniels casket agency for 21 years and a city in which she ran a business herself.

But, not only for the city of Rockhampton but for all those areas around it, this has been a tremendous agreement. It is a tremendous agreement that backs up the work that is done in the three free trade agreements; it is a tremendous agreement that includes the countries of Canada, the United States, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Peru, New Zealand, Chile, Brunei and Japan. It is a tremendous agreement because, no matter where you go through the member's electorate and elsewhere in Australia, you have tremendous benefits.

It goes without saying that there are over 200,000 people employed in the beef industry throughout its chain. It is a tremendous driver, a driver of jobs. People in Rockhampton will be happy to know that, through this agreement, we are going to see those tariffs to some of our major markets, such as Japan, reduced to nine per cent. This is a great further investment in the beef industry.

But if you went out to Clermont and looked at the people growing grains out there, they would also be happy to know that the mark-up that we used to have to Japan on wheat and barley is going to be reduced over 10 years. That will be up to a $200-a-tonne benefit of for milling wheat into that country. If you went to Emerald, where they grow cotton, you would be happy to see that the TPP will see all tariffs on Australian cotton eliminated, most of them on entry into force. This is a tremendous agreement. If you go into the rice industry, at Central Queensland University they are developing a new strain of rice—a paddy-free rice. We will be seeing, for the first time since 1995, new quota access for Australian rice and flour into Japan. This has been achieved through a 6,000-tonne quota on entry into force, going up to 8,400 tonnes over 13 years. So it does not matter where you go. It has been a great deal for the dairy industry, with a reduction in tariffs in so many areas there.

It works on the back of the plan that this government has, a plan that is seen in the white paper. Not only do we get a better return but we invest it in a better way to build up the farms, to build up the strength of our soft commodity exports and to make ourselves a stronger nation.

I want to commend the work that has been done by the trade minister in surrounding our nation now with trade agreements—with China, Japan and Korea, and now with the United States of America, Mexico and Chile. All this work has been done by this government because this government has a vision for our future. This government is actually delivering; this government is actually making a difference.