Mark Coulton (Parkes, 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 what the coalition government is doing to support irrigated agriculture in my electorate of Parkes and around the country? How important are the government's measures for rural jobs and growth?

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. The honourable member has one of the largest electorates in Australia—certainly the largest electorate in New South Wales—going from Broken Hill to Boggabilla and beyond. He, with his wife, Robin, understands agriculture, and especially irrigated agriculture, probably better than anybody else in this building. What we can see, and it is very prevalent in the honourable member's electorate, is that not only does Australia have the highest yielding cotton in the world, from the work that so many farmers have done in that area but also his electorate has the highest yield in cotton in Australia. Irrigators in the electorate of Parkes have made significant contributions to this water reform, and the rollout of the Basin Plan, and we should always acknowledge the work that the farmers do, because they have carried so much of the burden of making sure that we get the plan right.

With the research and development dollars that we have spent, we have managed to get a return from the genetics of a cotton plant that is itself an inbuilt water efficiency mechanism. To think that years ago, when I started banking, we used to plan on about 2.7 bales to the acre; now we are getting yields in excess of five bales to the acre. This in itself is water efficiency par excellence. We also see that farmers are taking an adaptive approach to irrigation in what is a very variable climate, especially using supplementary water to irrigate other winter crops. The Commonwealth has supported the effort that this has gone towards with $13 billion. It is part of the Murray-Darling Basin process. Even now, we continue our rollout of further infrastructure.

Through the ag white paper, the honourable member would be happy to know that we have put half a billion dollars on the table—$50 million into feasibility studies. The response from the states has been overwhelming—well beyond the $50 million that is available. This $50 million includes $15 million to water resource assessments in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland; $5 million towards feasibility studies for Nullinga Dam in Queensland; and another $5 million to finalise the business case for the Ord stage 3. That is a great visionary program for our nation. We have also brought about a 100 per cent write-off for water reticulation. We have a $5 billion concessional loan scheme for Northern Australia. All the time we are looking at ways to roll out further water infrastructure to make sure that the boom that we currently have in soft commodities, in the world's demand for our fibre and our foods, is properly supported by government as we work hand in glove with the best farmers in the world—and the best farmers in the world are most definitely in the seat of Parkes.

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

Before I call the member for Isaacs—and I just picked up on the minister's provocative statement at the end of his answer—in the event this question is on the same topic as the last question he asked, I have explained myself extensively. The member for Isaacs should not expect endless opportunities to rephrase.