Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator McMahon, for your question, as a proud Territorian. All of us on this side want to see a profitable and sustainable agricultural sector, and the best Christmas present our farmers could hope for is a very long and sustained rain. But, in the absence of that, it's a coalition government holding the Treasury benches and delivering real and practical support for our farmers as they're doing it tough.

It's been fascinating to watch the Labor Party this week try and know how to say the word 'farmer', spell 'dairy' and understand food processing, because, you know what, at the last election, those opposite didn't even take an agriculture policy to the federal election. You didn't even bother! That's the actual real regard that they hold for this sector, which delivers $60 billion to the economy and employs over 700,000 Australians on farms, in regional communities, and out in the food-manufacturing sector. It's disappointing that your solution to your policy vacuum is to buddy up with a certain political party who does not have the best interests of farmers at heart.

Just in the past week I've been asked what we're doing for agriculture and I will let you know—it's only Wednesday—that this is what we have done this week. Today we announced nearly $2 million for Farmsafe to make sure our farms are safe places to work. We're streamlining our export legislation to make sure farmers can access overseas markets. Our Australian wine industry will be able to protect their valuable IP. We've got trade and market access, assisting through increasing the value of agriculture. We've supported cooperatives to ensure that they can assist primary producers to butt up against the big end of town. We're delivering, week in week out, for the agriculture sector.