David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Amendment Bill 2016, which I commend to the House, makes it possible for research and development corporations to connect with the primary producers whom they serve and who pay the levies.

Australia is home to some of the most productive rural industries in the world. In my electorate of Lyne, we have many examples of that. We have very productive producers of dairy, beef, tomatoes, strawberries, avocados, macadamias, honey, fish, oysters and grapes, to name just a few, and a very productive and expanding horticulture industry. But there is always room for improvement. Innovation is fundamental for the continued success of any industry, particularly our rural industries. This is why Australia has 15 rural research and development corporations, or RDCs, that invest in R&D to ensure continued improvement in Australia's agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food sectors. These RDCs are mainly funded by government and, most importantly, by industry levies. For the government to collect those is one thing, but, if it is just money that goes into a black hole where there is no connection between the primary producers and the rural research and development corporations, a lot of things can go missing.

The coalition government believes that it will be greatly beneficial if the levy payers and the RDCs can collaborate more than they do now. That is why this bill will ensure continued innovation and the ongoing improvement and profitability of our rural industries. One way to achieve this is via the establishment of levy payer registers. That will allow the RDCs to see who their levy payers really are, as well as giving levy payers much more say in how their levied funds are spent. If this legislation is passed, RDCs will be given the ability to consult more effectively with the primary producers who fund them. As it stands now, the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Act 1991 only allows the dairy RDC and one other to collect that payer information.

The other important thing is that the levy payer information that we collect and give to the RDCs will also be available to the Australia Bureau of Statistics. Payer information disclosed to the ABS and the RDCs can only be used for the purposes of R&D, biosecurity or residue surveys, which are all defined in the amendments to the act. This is a common-sense bill. It passes no liability to the Treasury or to our current budgetary position. In effect, it makes amendments to sections 27 and 29 of the 1991 act, introduces 27A and 29A and triggers consequential amendments to the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997 and the Dairy Produce Act 1986. Also, there are consequential amendments to the National Residue Survey Administration Act 1992.

All of us who live in rural and regional Australia really appreciate how vital to the nature of our local and regional economies these rural industries are. A lot of the limelight in research and development goes to our oldest and most prestigious research organisation, the CSIRO. But I come into the House to put on the record that a lot of research and development goes on in non-CSIRO institutions, like these RDCs. There are many other research bodies across the nation that do research.

The production and the economic benefit to this country of the agriculture, horticulture and marine food production industries are not insignificant. In my time up on the north coast, in the Nelson Bay region there have been aquaculture developments. A lot of the things done in aquaculture industrial production of fish and oysters depend on accumulated knowledge. This accumulated knowledge comes not just from the handing down of information from one generation to the next. Where we get ahead in Australia is that we have great biological research facilities and agricultural research facilities that give us better yields and better quality of product. It all translates into an economic benefit for whatever the industry and local region are.

In the local food production of the immediate area of my own home, we have two brilliant wine producers—grape growers—that deliver a great product into their winemaking operations. They export around the country and around the world. Just down the road we have one of the biggest employers in the electorate, Nippon beef exports. Also, we have Hukobee beef 10 kilometres away in Wauchope. These industries rely on great product that comes from very skilful primary producers. But, then again, they rely on all of the genetics, all of the animal husbandry and all of the research and development into pasture development and pest control. There is such an assembled bank of knowledge in Australia that many people take for granted. You only have to travel to other countries to see how well developed our research and development capability is in rural and biological sciences.

This bill will facilitate better interplay between the levy payers—the people who actually fund these research and development corporations—and on-the-ground feedback. The ability to speak further with people in a practical sense, as well as funding academic research, is very important. This bill, in effect, is a pretty straightforward issue, and I commend it wholeheartedly to the House. It is so important that we continue to have high levels of efficient, high-quality primary production in our country to keep our local economy, our regional economies and our national economy strong. I commend this bill to the House.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 2 March I marked 20 years as a member of this place. Twenty years seems a good time to rule the line under a career. In the Roman Army, if you survived 20 years you got a plot of land, a bag of salt and Roman citizenship. But, in terms of what you go through, the experience of being a member of parliament is a reward in itself. While we all enter this place with an ethos of service, at the same time it is personally a very rich experience in terms of the quality of the interactions, the people you meet, the tests and challenges you face and taking part in the great national events in our country's history. When I see my friend and mentor Ian Sinclair down at Aussie's cafe, I realise that, once you have been a part of the federal parliament, you never really leave it; you always remain a part of it.

When I gave my first speech, in May 1996, it was in the immediate aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre. The response from John Howard was gutsy and was one of the great achievements of the Howard government. Twenty years on, a great democracy like the United States is unable to grapple with gun control. But we did it in Australia, and it has made our society safer.

The two great interests in my working life have been medicine and politics. Balancing them was hard as a university student. During my hospital years, I trained in medicine until the call of politics was stronger. After 20 years in parliament, it is time to return to my original calling. In fact, being a member of parliament has allowed me to reconcile these two competing interests, with a strong focus on health policy being a theme throughout my seven terms. While I plan to return to medical practice, my hope is that I can also continue to contribute to public policy in health.

It was more than 20 years ago, working as a hospital doctor in Adelaide's major hospitals, that the idea of running for federal parliament took hold. Coming from a business family, I identified as a Liberal and, as a Liberal, I was motivated by our four election defeats in a row. I felt that Australia needed to do more for us to achieve our potential as a nation. Much of my political outlook was really formed in the seventies and eighties. As a country, we were very conscious that we had gone from being a rich country at the time of Federation to one which was lagging on many OECD measures. This was a very strong influence on my thinking, and I pay tribute to those reformers in the Hawke and Keating governments who commenced a lot of the necessary economic reforms, which were continued by the Howard government. Taxation reform, industrial relations reform, privatisation, competition reform and budget repair were important and necessary reforms. As a new member, I naturally gravitated towards the Society of Modest Members, as their vision of small government, lower taxation and an efficient economy fit well with my view of the world.

Now that I am leaving parliament, I feel I am able to talk about one of the roles that I did for four years—party room briefing. I had the job of providing the off-the-record party room briefing—the 'official' off-the-record briefing—to more than 50 journalists of the press gallery, every sitting week. It was a challenging role. One experience I particularly remember was at the start of the 2007 parliamentary year. I had given the briefing, and John Howard had provided a description of all of the circumstances that had seen a change of government since 1949. I paraphrased it and summarised it and said, 'Well, it only occurs if they've stopped listening to you or if you're hopeless.' Michelle Grattan got very interested in this and said, 'Well, which of the two is it?' I distinctly remember that. I had given the briefing, I thought it had gone okay and then, subsequently, I got a call from Tony O'Leary. I raced back to the Prime Minister's office. I was absolutely crestfallen. I was apologising, saying, 'I'm so sorry.' I will never forget their response. Their response was not to carpet me, not to abuse me, not to yell at me. John Howard said, 'No, no, no; don't worry about that; just fix it.' I just think that that group around John—Arthur Sinodinos, Tony Nutt and Tony O'Leary—was really the best operation that I have seen in my 20 years.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And they are back!

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And they are back, as the Leader of the House has said. But it was just a very good experience to see how they dealt with it. Instead of yelling at me, it was, 'No; just fix it. Don't worry about that.'

Turning to committee work, I have had the honour of chairing two of the big joint committees of the parliament, serving as Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties from 2003 to 2007 and Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit from 2013 to 2015. The Treaties Committee was enormously varied work. One of the highlights was the ratification of the US free trade agreement, which was our largest free trade agreement at the time. We examined the modelling and we considered quarantine and intellectual property issues, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and tariffs for beef, sugar, even peanuts. It was a high-profile inquiry. I am proud of the work that the committee did. In three months, we produced a 300-page report outlining all the issues. You might remember that, in 2004, it became something of an issue with the approach that Mr Latham's opposition took at that time.

I was also pleased to chair the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit. I want to speak a little bit about the way I have approached chairing these committees. When I started chairing the committee, the deputy chair was the member for Charlton, who I know is not a favourite on this side. When he turned up for the first day he was ready to fight, and a lot of our up-and-comers were ready to fight as well. Instead, as chair I thought the better approach was, 'Sure, let's have our partisan fights, but for the credibility of the committee we need to actually work together.' I knew that he had worked for Greg Combet and I was very keen to harness his expertise in the defence industry area. That has come through with some major changes to major defence projects.

More recently, since October, I have been chairing the Procedure Committee. Although it has been only a short time, we have already produced an inquiry for nursing mothers in parliament. We have done an inquiry into the consideration-in-detail debate, which sounds very dry, but it does allow for more of an estimates-style questioning after the budget. We are also conducting an inquiry into electronic voting.

I was part of the shadow ministry for six years in opposition. I am proud of the way that I constructively approached my various roles. I served as a shadow minister under the leaderships of Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull and as a shadow parliamentary secretary under Tony Abbott—firstly, in employment services, vocational education and sport and then in various areas of the health portfolio. I thank Christopher Pyne for handing responsibility for international education to me at an important time for this industry, when Indian students were experiencing violence in Melbourne. It is a great success story that in the last 30 years our universities have built education services to be our third-largest export.

Later, covering health, I had responsibility for primary health care, e-health and preventative health. All of these portfolios were highly technical portfolios with lots of detail to get across. I worked closely with Victoria Matterson, David Colmer and Ryan Post in my portfolio roles and I thank them for their detailed work. They all went on to work as ministerial advisers.

Often as a shadow minister you are focusing on small victories. I remember one with the Productivity Places Program. This was one of the signature Rudd government programs. We had the job of just trying to pick it apart. What we found was that they had online training courses for hairdressing—entirely online, no practical! At one time there were 94,000 places and only 6,000 of them got jobs. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard would say, 'This is all about addressing shortages in mining and construction,' which sounded great as a sound bite, but the only problem was that there were no courses for mining or construction, which was a slight problem!

I really appreciated the opportunity to work with Malcolm Turnbull on his 2009 budget reply. Malcolm gathered a group of us together and told us what his priorities were. Using what we had learnt, we came up with a proposal to keep apprentices in training during the GFC. This proposal was well received and was later adopted by the government in almost exactly the same form.

In reflecting on some of my time then, there are some things that are now cause for embarrassment. We jumped all over a $1 million retreat at Geelong Grammar, which was a happiness seminar being run by Martin Seligman. Brett Mason did the work in Senate estimates, Victoria Matterson drew out the detail from AusTender and we got some great stories up in the paper. But, now that I am leaving parliament, my son's school has, I think, Martin Seligman in residence. He is one of the gurus of positive psychology. I should emphasise that we do very much admire the work of Martin Seligman. We just thought that perhaps $1 million for public servants was a little bit much. Anyway, you can sort of still take a laugh at yourself.

My job from 2010 to 2013 was to really get stuck into the GP superclinics. I was a prominent critic of the GP superclinics. When I was a student I worked for Dr Peter Heysen in the Morphettville Medical Centre, which had everything a GP superclinic provided but was opened in the 1980s with private sector funding. Every major suburb and town already has a large family medical centre that has been provided by the private sector. The GP superclinic program was something that sounded good, but it is not really the government's role to provide what the private sector is already providing. I also had carriage of the opposition response for the tobacco plain-packaging laws. In coalition parties—and I see the member for Mitchell in the chamber—which have a broad interest, it is very difficult to balance the preventative health side versus the legitimate business side.

Having worked for six years in the shadow ministry and for four years on health policy, I had hoped to be working in a health role in the Abbott government. It was not to be. But I continue to be interested in chronic disease management, the Primary Health Networks, preventable hospital admissions, and quality and safety. In this term of parliament, I have worked with the Stroke Foundation, the Heart Foundation, Diabetes Australia and the Kidney Foundation on getting integrated health checks put into Medicare, making them part of primary care. Also, working with the member for Swan, I have pushed for an inquiry into chronic disease management and prevention, which the health committee has been undertaking.

Locally, I am proud of the roles I have played in delivering a cancer centre at Flinders Medical Centre and the State Aquatic Centre at Marion and in breaking the roadblock on the South Road upgrade at Darlington. I see the member for Mayo and I thank him for his work on that too.

I thank the residents of Adelaide's southern suburbs for their support in seven federal elections and all their feedback, both good and constructive! The seven election campaigns were incredible experiences. When you are in the middle of it, there is so much happening that a day seems like a week. Until you are back in the middle of one you forget the intensity of the experience. I am happy to leave that to all of you.

My first campaign office was on Goodwood Road, just opposite Big W, at Cumberland Park. It was opened by John Howard, in January 1996. I actually met my wife, Kate, there when I convinced her to work on my campaign and much later persuaded her to go out with me. My first campaign manager was Charles Hurl, 81 years old and a former Lancaster bomber pilot. He would arrive early in the morning, leave late at night and answer the phones all day. His work ethic was remarkable. He had retired early from a successful career in property, and the Liberal Party was very lucky to have full-time volunteers like Charles.

When I was preselected, Boothby was a seven per cent seat and it is now a seven per cent seat, so I am happy to be leaving it as I found it. I feel very proud of our results in 2007 and 2010, when we held on in the face of a very strong swing to Labor. I have had elections where I had to gather my family together and ask them to prepare for all eventualities—particularly in 2007 and 2010. To their credit they had already worked that out, and it was unnecessary.

It makes it even more pleasing to be leaving on my own terms. I remember 2010, when the result in Boothby was much closer than any of us would have liked. It was particularly heart-warming that friends of mine, like Patrick Secker and South Australian MP John Dawkins, as well as Senator Simon Birmingham, who is here today, as soon as they heard I was in strife hopped in their cars and drove to my electorate to help with the scrutineering. I also remember the calls from colleagues like Alby Schultz and Bruce Billson at that time when things were really on the line. I think the old adage 'a friend in need is a friend indeed' was never truer!

I was preselected in November 1994, when the Boothby Electoral College met at Enterprise House on Greenhill Road and I was lucky enough to emerge as the winner from a field of eight candidates.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Yes, the member for Sturt was not quite as excited as I was that night! I would like to thank the Liberal Party for the opportunity you gave me to serve our local community. Without the Liberal Party I would never have been a federal MP. To serve in federal parliament is, as I have said, a very rich experience. I have so many fond memories of Christmas parties at Mitcham Reserve or at our home, election night parties at my office or at the Marion RSL, and having the media follow me around during campaigns. In fact, in my first campaign, in 1996, the day after the election, I was waiting for the call from the Adelaide Advertiser. When no call came, I rang up and they said, 'No, you're a safe seat; there's just no interest in this.' I was able to change that in subsequent elections. There was subsequently a lot more interest. In 2001, when the Democrats said they were going to win the seat, the ABC got very excited and had the van down outside my office, all ready, and they left pretty soon after that. But certainly for most of those elections there was a lot of interest. I would like to thank all who served on my FEC. Geoff Arnold was my first FEC president, and Marion Themeliotis was my last. All my presidents and executives have kept the wheels of the political machine whirring.

During that 1994 preselection I met with Neville Newton in Bellevue Heights. He was a great local figure. He was our auctioneer at quiz nights and a great source of political advice. His advice on the best strategy to tackle Kevin Rudd, Nicole Cornes and the 2007 election was exactly the same as our advice from Crosby-Textor—and it was much cheaper, I might add. His daughter was having twins and was staying with him to be close to Flinders Medical Centre. Those twins are about to turn 21, and another grandchild of Neville's, Jack Newton, is one of our committed Young Liberals. That illustration of the passage of 21 years really confirms my decision that this is the right time to step down. The Liberal Party has preselected Nicolle Flint, who—as a lawyer, adviser, Flinders graduate, Menzies Research Centre author and columnist—has the necessary skills to make a great federal MP.

In terms of some experiences that really stick out over 20 years, as the Australian parliamentary representative at the United Nations I had a range of experiences during that three-month posting. Some of the highlights were attending meetings with Alexander Downer, meeting Kofi Annan, and observing ministerial-level Security Council meetings with Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice. One of the most memorable was to follow John Howard for the day and sit in on his meetings—with the Danish Prime Minister, the editorial board of TheWall StreetJournal, the investment banks and Ariel Sharon. To see John Howard at that level was to receive a master class in politics.

I have also experienced the opportunity to visit the Australian Defence Force on deployment, from the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville in 1999—hanging on the outside of Vietnam War era Iroquois helicopters—to the HMAS Ballarat and the Orion crews in 2006 during the Iraq conflict and to Afghanistan and coalition headquarters in 2014, with the member for Rankin. I remain enormously proud of those young Australians who serve our country so far from home.

I have been lucky to have some great friendships during my time in politics. I have had so many great friends, but my two greatest friends and confidants have been Andrew Thomson and the late Don Randall. They have both been lifelong friends since we met 20 years ago. I still miss Don so much, and every week I think of things I would like to share with him.

I would also like to thank all my staff over the last 20 years. Their job was to make me look much better than I was, and I think mostly they succeeded. Two staff members were with me for most of my time. Ann De Cure has been there since day one and Nita Freer-Cooling for 14 years. We have known each other so long that they are more like family to me. More recently it has been a joy to work with gen Y staffers. The next generation work hard but like to have fun and work as part of a team. I feel I have learnt more from them than they have learnt from me. Other long-term staff include Suzanne Kazprzak, Steve Ronson, Simon Milnes, John Deller, Sean Elder, Victoria Matterson, Sue Meaney, David Little, David Colmer, Sanjay Kumar, Lauren Kelly, Zoe Darling, Ryan Post, Matt Hee, Marion Themeliotis, Nate Keily, Rebecca Puddy and Matt Shilling.

Mr Buchholz interjecting—

It's been 20 years, Scotty! Lastly I would like to thank my family for all their support. Spending half your year living out of a suitcase can be hard on families, and I have been lucky to have the unswerving support of Kate, Henry and Georgina. In fact, at the last election Henry and Georgina were my secret weapon, handing out how-to-vote cards at the ages of 11 and nine in Flagstaff Hill and Aberfoyle Park with me. That is the life of a child of an MP. I like to think they were volunteers. My wife, Kate, has witnessed the highs and lows of politics with me, and we have fought all seven election campaigns together. She has been my confidante and my sounding board and has shared it all. She has had her own career and has raised a family. I could not have done it without her.

Looking to the future: Paul Kelly has written of how he believes the Australian political system is fractured and economic reform has become too hard. He says, in Triumph and Demise:

Australia's political system is failing to deliver the results needed for the nation, its growth in living standards and its self-esteem. The process of debate, competition and elections leading to national progress has broken down.

Unless the trend is reversed, Australia will undergo a steady economic and social deterioration until a circuit-breaker or nasty economic crunch arrives.

I agree with the Kelly thesis. The important economic reforms of the eighties and nineties were often bipartisan and were in the national interest.

For Australia to continue to reach its potential it is important that we continue to promote efficiency in our economy. Australian economic history shows that we cannot grow too fast without running into an inflationary crunch or a current account crisis. John Howard used to speak of the metaphor of the ever-receding finishing line, and I think it is a good one. In terms of economic reform, the work is never done. You have to continue to look forward and ask, how can we make our economy more efficient?

The Productivity Commission has produced a range of excellent reports on labour market regulation, taxation and competition reform. These reports should not be allowed to gather dust. The Australian economy has now been growing continuously for a quarter of a century. Only one other country has managed this in modern history. But this rests on our natural resources and the reforms of the past. For Australia to reach its potential we need to continue the job. I thank the House.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for his years of service and the great wisdom that he has brought to this chamber, which is mostly full of lawyers but of course is rendered far more civilised by the addition of a medical practitioner. I note that he was sitting in the row there in the chamber next to the members for Lyne and Bowman, who, like him, are doctors. The Liberal Party hopes that he has a very outstanding successor in Nicolle Flint, whom he has described. She is a lawyer, and a very good one too, I might add. We will miss Dr Southcott. His understanding of economic matters, which is so evident in this speech, indicates the breadth of his intellect and his interests that go well beyond his profession. The parliament's loss will be the people of Adelaide's gain, because he is returning to his medical profession. I know that he will be serving the people of his electorate and of the South Australian community in that regard for many years to come. We thank him for his friendship and his service to the parliament and the nation. We wish him and the conscripts—the family—all the very best. We salute them and thank them for the support they have given Andrew over so many years.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It also gives me great pleasure to join with the Prime Minister in congratulating the member for Boothby on an excellent speech. The member for Boothby started with a reference to ancient Rome. There was a great ancient Roman called Cincinnatus, who really models what the member for Boothby said. He was a citizen soldier who had served as consul for a long time, retired and gave up his position of power voluntarily, saying, 'I'm not a soldier; I am a farmer.'

The member for Boothby, thousands of years later, reflects that great spirit by giving up power voluntarily, relinquishing his role in this place and saying to his electorate, to this parliament and to the Australian population that he is not a politician; he is a doctor. That is a fine profession, and it is a fine contribution that he has made here over his two decades. I want to pay tribute to him and all the work that he has done for his electorate and, indeed, to the great friendship that he has brought to this place and to the contribution that he has made as a great economic liberal and a great social conservative.

In summing up the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Amendment Bill 2016, I would just say that this bill makes changes to the ability of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to distribute levy payer information. I want to thank the entire parliament for their contribution and for the many great points that were made on both sides. The bill is an important step in strengthening the ability of rural research and development corporations to connect directly with those who fund their work. The amendment allows the department to provide levy payer information to the RDCs for the purpose of developing levy pay registers. The information that will be provided is the name, address, contact details and ABN of any person who has paid or is liable to pay a levy or charge. The information may also include details of the amount of levy or charge that the person has paid or is liable to pay, or the leviable commodity.

Levy payer registers will allow RDCs to identify and consult directly with the levy payers who fund the research and development R&D system and ensure accuracy in the allocation of the voting entitlements. As it stands, the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Act 1991 only permits the distribution of levy payer information to the wool and dairy RDCs. This bill remedies this by allowing the government to provide levy payer information for the purposes of a levy payer register to 13 other RDCs. Recognising that each agricultural industry is different in its structures, the distribution of levy payer information to an RDC for a levy payer register will only occur where an RDC, in consultation with industry, requests its distribution and the request is approved by the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources.

The bill sets out the purpose for which the levy payer information can be used. This includes matters relating to the development and maintenance of levy payer registers, the ability to make public any statistical, de-identified information and for any functions required of the recipient under Commonwealth laws or under a funding agreement between the RDC and the Commonwealth. RDCs will also be able to levy—

(Quorum formed) I want to thank the member for Fowler for his strong interest in primary industry levies and the charges that apply in this amendment bill. He has a great agricultural background and a big rural seat! I know he has brought in people to listen to this. The farmers of Fowler will be very interested in this presentation!

The bill sets out the purposes for which levy payer information can be used. This includes matters relating to the development and maintenance of the levy payer registers, the ability to make public any statistical de-identified information—as I was saying—and for any functions required of the recipient under Commonwealth laws or under a funding agreement between the RDC and the Commonwealth. This bill provides for levy payer information to be distributed to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is consistent with the government's public data policy statement, which commits to secure sharing of data between the Australian government entities to improve efficiencies and to inform policy development and decision making for Australia's agricultural industries.

The bill also allows the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to provide for any other information relating to the production and processing of the commodity to be given to an eligible recipient. The bill does not permit secondary disclosure of information included in the levy payer register, except where expressly permitted by the secretary in writing.

The government will continue to work with industry and RDCs to ensure that Australia's R&D system remains transparent and consultative and delivers tangible benefits to Australia's agricultural industries into the future.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.