Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Bill 2023 forms part of a package of bills to streamline and modernise the agricultural levies legislative framework.

This bill will continue to enable investment in strategic activities for the benefit of levied industries.

Levies and charges raised for research and development (R&D) and marketing will continue to be paid to research and development corporations for investment in R&D projects and marketing activities.

Levies and charges raised for biosecurity activities will continue to be paid to Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia for investment in animal and plant health and responding to disease and pest outbreaks.

Levies and charges raised for residue testing will continue to be credited to the National Residue Survey Special Account for the monitoring, testing and reporting of pesticides and chemical residues.

The Commonwealth will also continue to match industry investment in R&D through the research and development corporations, to an upper limit of 0.5 per cent of an industry's gross value of production.

The bill consolidates provisions from 13 funding acts.

The bill will make small changes to matching funding to reduce complexity and increase funding certainty for research and development corporations.

This will include the removal of one of the limits on matching funding that relates to the amounts of certain levies and charges disbursed, which is largely redundant and inconsistently applied across industries.

It will also include an earlier determination of the GVP limit, which will provide funding certainty to research and development corporations at the beginning of the financial year.

The Primary Industries Research and Development Act 1989 and Wine Australia Act 2013 will be retained under the new framework and all governance-related provisions will continue to apply to statutory research and development corporations.

Funding agreements between research and development corporations and the Commonwealth will also continue to operate to complement legislative requirements. These set clear expectations for performance, administration of expenses and claims for matching funding.

Alongside the collection bill and the three imposition bills, this bill will ensure that the agricultural levy system remains fit for purpose and continues to support collective investment in activities to benefit agricultural, fisheries and forestry industries for generations to come.

Debate adjourned.