Andrew Broad (Mallee, 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 coalition government's commitment to research and development is supporting growth and innovation in Australian agriculture?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I know that he has a strong interest in innovation in agriculture because as a former president of the Victorian Farmers Federation he wants to make sure that our nation is at the forefront—and we are at the forefront in so many of the things we are doing. There are so many issues right now that are taking the innovation in agriculture and pushing it further still so that we can continue to benefit from the incredible growth we have had and the incredible turnaround in the soft commodities market: in the most recent quarter, we had a 12 per cent increase on the corresponding quarter last year.

We have things such as adaptive area-wide management of Qfly, using sterilised male fruit flies. What is important about this is that it helps us move Queensland fruit fly, and later will help us move Medfly, out of areas. That is vitally important so that we can move these products into new markets, which we are also developing—new markets which we have developed through our three free trade agreements and also through the protocol settings that the department of agriculture and corresponding departments of agriculture around the world work with. At Mataranka, up in the Northern Territory, we have the use of a laser called a refractometer to determine the solids in mangoes so that we know exactly the right time to pick the mangoes. This is also allowing a huge reduction in labour costs and making sure that that product is absolutely suited to the market that we are delivering to. In my own seat of New England we now have BASF, one of the biggest research companies in the world, doing projects to make sure that we are at the forefront of disease resistance and chemical development for farms so that we can get better yields.

Lately, and I know that the member for Mallee will be interested in this, with dairy in his area, Dairy Australia have put some of their levy money—which, of course, we support through a quarter of a billion dollars a year from the department of agriculture alone and $700 million a year across all departments—to develop robotics in dairying. That is absolutely fascinating to see. We have the capacity now for robots to basically go through the sterilisation and the application of the milking cups, and this allows farmers in these areas to go out and do more work on the farm. Who would have thought that we would live in a time when robotics were part of dairying in this nation? People who have to milk those two times a day have that alleviated by the assistance of this innovation. This is assisted by a government with a vision, with a plan, that is delivering.