Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take a few minutes of the Senate’s time to highlight the excellent work that the research and development corporations do for Australia. They really are a very good idea. I think they originated in the time of the Labor government; if that is correct, it is one of the few ongoing good ideas that the Labor government have had. It is certainly something that our government has continued to support very enthusiastically.

Over a large number of years I have had a close association with three particular R&D corporations. The Sugar Research and Development Corporation is a very important part of the progress of the sugar industry in North Queensland—and everywhere else Australia where sugar grows, but the interaction I have had with the SRDC has been in North Queensland. In its way, it has encouraged research into better ways of growing and producing sugar cane and of organising oneself to get the very best out of one’s investment in sugar cane growing. In the times when the industry was very much on its feet—and that was before the time that our government provided that $440 million boost to keep the industry going—the SRDC certainly did a lot of work in helping sugar growers to organise themselves in a better way. In particular, I will mention a friend of mine from Ayr, Ian Haigh, who was a recipient of an SRDC grant or award for the innovative work he did in getting his group together to look at better ways of producing sugar cane and of doing it more efficiently. That was at a time, as I have said, when returns from the sugar industry were very limited.

I have also had a long association with the Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation and its director, Glen Kile. Again, it is an organisation that has done tremendous work in the forestry industry supporting science and research into better ways of growing trees, better ways of dealing with trees and better ways of doing things anywhere in the timber and wood products industry. The Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation has certainly encouraged a lot of research. I hope its research budget continues to sponsor a look at a new arrangement that might take over from the organisation and be more significantly funded by private industry. That is ongoing work.

I think the industry needs to be in a position where not only can it promote development and research but also—and I think it is time—do something to counter a lot of the lies that are peddled about the forest and wood products industry by people like the Greens political party; you hear them going on all the time. It is a fabulous industry. It is very good for rural and regional Australia and it is an industry that I strongly support. Certainly, the Forest and Wood Products R&D Corporation has also strongly supported the forest and wood products industry over the years.

The other R&D corporation I want to mention is the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation under the organisational control at the moment of Patrick Hone, the executive director. The fishing industry has had problems over many years but the Fisheries R&D Corporation has put a lot of investment into not just the research and the science but also the development of the seafood industry. Again, they have been an instrumental part in looking at a project—which the Howard government also put a lot of money into—for getting a brand for Australian seafood to help market the product overseas. We have a great story to tell. We have a great product. Unfortunately in the past, for any number of reasons which are too complex and detailed to go into in the short time I have available, the industry has not been able to take advantage of Australia’s reputation as a producer of fine seafood. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation has done that. It has contributed to a lot of the work, and I know it will continue to do that into the future.

Question agreed to.