Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Palmer United Party in the Senate is quite right to draw attention to the difficulties being faced in the rural sector, and today he has particularly referred to the dairy sector. Whenever the primary sector is faced with drought, there are, of course, very real problems, because they are often price takers; and no matter how hard they work or how efficient they are, they are subject to the vagaries of the weather. That, of course, does put them in some extreme difficulties and that is why, as a government, we do have drought relief policies and other assistance to try to assist the rural community generally.

In relation to the dairy farmers per se, I would draw the Leader of the Palmer United Party's attention to the good work of my colleague, the Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb. The two free trade agreements that he has been able to negotiate with Japan and South Korea will see a huge surge in export potential for our dairy sector. That helps to create new competitive markets, and it is one of the pillars, if I may say, of our agricultural policy. It is one of our strengths and we are playing to one of those strengths in the dairy sector. In my home state of Tasmania, we are assisting the dairy sector, in a roundabout way, by offering support to Cadburys. An extra 6000 dairy cows will be required for its expansion, which will see an extra 20,000 tonnes of chocolate being exported from Tasmania to South-East Asia.