Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senators may have heard recently the news by the Bureau of Meteorology highlighting that an early break of a possible La Nina, or drought-breaking event, has not occurred. This again brings to the forefront the stark realities and impacts of our ever-changing climate and weather variability, and it means that there will continue to be a drought across most of Australia.

In their announcement, the bureau has again emphasised the importance of Northern Australia, where there is an abundance of water. I have been a long-term advocate of the north being the new frontier for Australia. Having lived in and been associated with the north of Western Australia for over three decades, I am very much aware of the opportunities and, may I say, the limitations the north presents. During the eighties and nineties, I attended several North Australian development conferences held under the auspices of the Northern Australia Development Council, which was set up jointly by the WA, Queensland and Northern Territory governments. When attending the NADC conferences, I was struck by the fact that the issues and challenges faced were much the same across the whole of the north of Australia and that the north was, and remains, a very different place to the south.

Accordingly, unlocking the potential of the north requires that solutions be appropriate to the local conditions and an understanding that what may have worked in the south may well not be suitable for the north. A good example of this is cotton farming. Cotton in the south is a summer crop, whereas the Ord River agricultural research station has shown that, in the north, cotton is a winter crop, when the temperatures are cooler and the amount of water in the fields can be controlled. In my opinion, there is no doubt that the north is going to be critical for the future of agriculture in dealing with the challenges of climate change and reduced rainfall in southern areas of Australia.

While today mining, gas and oil dominate the economic landscape in the north of Western Australia, we must prepare a secondary economy. Tourism was always regarded as the second string in the bow of economic development in the north. However, according to Mark Lewis of the WA Department of Agriculture, who is the manager of NRM and industry development for rangelands in the Western Australian department, agriculture is the obvious alternative industry, given that it has the highest multipliers of most sectors in terms of jobs and value-added and export income. In Lewis’s view, agriculture can build on the back of, and enhance and create, additional tourism related experiences. Over the years, he says he has been personally aware that there have been numerous high-profile concepts, studies and feasibilities espoused for the north, most of which have failed due to lack of local research and capacity. To this end, we must build on our local knowledge and local skills and ensure that there is the wherewithal in local areas to carry these projects through.

With this in mind, Mark Lewis is of the view that we need to undertake a number of very obvious, simple and pragmatic steps. These steps will create the foundation planks for growth in the region. Firstly and clearly, as a fundamental plank, Ord stage 2 is a priority. Mark Lewis believes that we must continue our dialogue with the government of Western Australia and the government of the Northern Territory, which, rather sadly, has shown a rather disappointing lack of real interest in Ord stage 2. The dialogue must be outcomes based and achieve benefits for all Australians.

Secondly, while the Ord tends to dominate discussion, Mr Lewis strongly believes we must focus on opportunities to the west of the Ord. Lewis’s view is that we must define strategies for the sustainable development of the west Kimberley and eastern Pilbara. There are many opportunities and obvious synergies between agriculture and mining to create sustainable communities in this area in the future. One of the benefits includes considering the opportunities the north presents in reducing greenhouse gases. Mark Lewis believes that this is a sleeper and that agriculture and the mining industry can provide some solutions, both in terms of carbon sequestration and offsets through the use of biofuels, particularly biodiesels.

Thirdly, we must do whatever is humanly possible to ensure Indigenous Northern Australia assimilates and engages in the real economy that is Australia in 2007. Reliance on land rights and cultural autonomy in the past has clearly not worked for the Indigenous people. Any literature on rural development, regional development or Indigenous development has at its core the need for education, both conventional education in terms of literacy and numeracy and, most importantly, job skill education.

While long-term plans are being developed for issues like Ord stage 2 and broader Indigenous engagement, I believe we need to act in the short term and get some other projects underway. As I said earlier, we must not just focus on the Ord but look beyond it to the other great river basins in the North. Significant potential also exists in the wider constituency of the Kimberley and eastern Pilbara, and these areas deserve just as much attention as the Ord catchment area. Mr Lewis advised me that he saw four key activities that the government should immediately address while the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce develops a long-term plan for the area. Mr Lewis gleaned these key strategic issues from local people currently working in the area and said he could see no point in reinventing the wheel when these issues have already been identified through a rigorous consultation and technical review.

Key opinion leaders in the north must understand the value of irrigated agriculture and the concomitant multipliers that it offers. This will be a key for understanding how irrigated agriculture will underpin regional economies and allow Indigenous Australia to be a part of the real economy. It is also critical for these key opinion stakeholders to understand contemporary sustainable irrigated agriculture and how technologically advanced the fertigation systems are. Having been to Carnarvon and seen irrigated agriculture at world’s best practice standards, a key action would be to ensure that all key opinion leaders from the north do likewise.

One of the big issues in northern development is headworks. There is a need to create incentives to ameliorate the initial high up-front capital cost with bore fields, power and roads through regionally based headwork schemes. Paying off the cost of headworks over a long period, as already is the case in the Northern Territory, is also another way of substantially ameliorating their cost.

Thirdly and most obviously, market drivers need to be identified and connected to specific development opportunities. Mr Lewis says market pull must be the driver of any new development and Austrade and our overseas offices will play a key role in identifying gaps in supply. Working with the large importers and distributors in our major trading blocs and matching these up with our production windows and niche climate advantage will, he says, be instrumental in dictating what we grow.

Fourthly and finally, governments should be urged not to stop development while longer term plans are being put in place. Work is being done to identify eight to 12 small-scale sustainable precincts. These precincts should be the subject of further investigation that could potentially open up to 10,000 to 20,000 hectares across the north outside the Ord. I am confident the above works have been identified with sufficient rigor to warrant short-term investment and should be supported as soon as possible. To this end, I would encourage the responsible ministers and agencies to work with the local stakeholders on these activities. We have an opportunity to be truly pioneering again. It is time for positive action and commitment. It is time for northern Australia to achieve its potential as the new food bowl of Australia.