Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great opportunity to stand on the floor the House, which I have served for 13 years, and share with the great Australian public that the largest contributor to GDP in my electorate is agriculture. Lockyer Valley is one of the seventh most fertile valleys in the world. We produce product that is not only ending up on the plates of Australian families in the way of vegetables but we have a reputation of clean and green product that goes all around the world.

My growers are sophisticated in their farming practices, to say the least. My growers have an efficiency rating with their water utilisation to the point where we have invested telematics at their pumping station, so, on any given day, we can go in remotely and understand with absolute clarity what the groundwater levels are. So we work extremely hard to ensure that our growers are given a platform to be able to compete globally on the stage.

It was disappointing in the budget the other day to see my growers slugged with an unreasonable $153 million tax, not for their product that will end up going overseas but on the biosecurity measures will be for imports coming into the country. It's absolutely outrageous. When in government, we'll reverse this poor decision.