Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia. Will the minister update the house on how the Morrison government's significant investment in the agricultural sector and infrastructure projects, has helped regional Australia lead the way in securing our economic recovery from COVID-19?

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. He represents a very proud regional area, so he's seen firsthand how regional Australia has faced up to the challenges of COVID-19. Sadly, some industries have had to go into lockdown and shutdown, but agriculture and resources have kept on going. They've kept not just regional economies going but our nation's economy going. On the back of some half-decent seasons we're now seeing that, particularly in the agricultural sector, there is a renaissance right across regional Australia.

Can I say, when you look at ABARES statistics just for the last financial year, that $1,272 per head was received for beef per farmer. This is an astounding result—the fourth-highest on record—and, where the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator is today, you would suggest that that will be broken this year. But it hasn't just been beef; it's been industries where we've also had challenges with trade. When you look at malting barley, it's gone from $200 a tonne to $248 a tonne; canola from $624 a tonne to $688 a tonne; mutton from 581c a kilo to 723c a kilo; and cotton from US69c a pound to US98c per pound. What this translates to is dollars in farmers' pockets. As an old agri manager, let me tell you: when farmers get money in their pockets, they spend it, and they spend it locally in local businesses.

We are seeing a tractor-led recovery right across this country, because they are using the instant asset write-off to upgrade their machinery, creating jobs in regional Australia. But they're not just leaving it at the machinery dealers; they're also going into the local merchants—they're spending it at the local cafes, the butchers and the bakers. The money is flowing not just through regional economies but through our national economy, off the back of the hard work of the men and women in regional Australia and in agriculture and resources. This is the work that we've done around our Ag2030 plan, in making sure that, where we have had market challenges, we've been able to maintain new ones and open up new opportunities, trade opportunities, by modernising our export systems, but also putting boots on ground—agricultural counsellors that have found new markets at premium prices to continue to put money back in farmers' pockets.

We've also made sure that we've looked at the here and now, with over $780 million worth of freight support to maintain our market advantage of not just having the cleanest and greenest but also being one of the most reliable trading partners in the world. We also want to leave a legacy, and we are leaving a legacy with the key infrastructure that will build the roads—billions of dollars in the Roads of Strategic Importance, that will pave the roads to get it from the paddock to the port, to make sure that agriculture and regional Australia are given the environment and infrastructure to thrive, to not just look after regional Australia but to look after the entire country.