Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The ban on live cattle exports early last decade is the same old, same old, same old Labor Party attacking the agricultural industry in this country. Agriculture is the oldest industry in modern Australia. The sheep and the cattle industries have sustained modern Australia since its inception. But it isn't just the live export ban where the other side of the chamber, the Labor Party, attacks the agricultural industry. This isn't a one-off. It is the same old Labor attacking the true patriots of this country, small business, because they want to destroy the means of production. Whether it be the tree-clearing laws, the reef regulations, the fact that the agricultural department has to recoup costs—does the ABC have to recoup costs? No, of course not—inner-city industry. But if you're from the regions you've got to pay for everything in this country, don't you?

Let's talk about the tree-clearing laws. I want to talk about the tree-clearing laws in particular because in south-west Queensland there are some magnificent regional towns: Charleville, Quilpie and Cunnamulla—that's halfway between south-east and south-west Queensland. Those shires are dying. Those shires are dying because farms are being locked up because of carbon farming. Big organisations are coming in and buying these farms. The farmers are selling out and leaving town. The poor old mayors don't know what to do—Shaun Radnedge from Charleville, Stuart from Quilpie. Interestingly enough about 76 per cent of the carbon credits that have been generated to meet the Paris target emissions come from south-west Queensland. Do those farmers get any credit from the Left? They're the farmers who are doing the heavy lifting in saving the environment—that's of course if you believe the story these guys tell. What I want to know is why these guys constantly ridicule or reject the notion that this side of the chamber and this government are doing enough to meet its Paris commitments, because we are. We've actually reduced C02 emission from 2005 by 411 million tonnes. To reach Paris we only had to reduce by 395 million tonnes. Do you know where that reduction in carbon dioxide has come from? The agricultural industry. The true greenies, the real environmentalists, are of course our farmers.

How does state Labor repay that? They shut down the agricultural colleges. The Queensland state Labor government has shut down the regional pastoral colleges. If you really cared about the environment, wouldn't you want to teach our young and upcoming farmers best vegetation management practices? Wouldn't you be encouraging this stuff? No, no, no. They're just going to shut it down. Why is that? Because they don't want to see farmers succeed in agriculture.

It's not only tree-clearing laws. It's not only the closure of pastoral colleges. It's not only the closure of maternity wards; Queensland state Labor has shut over 30 regional maternity wards since they’ve come to power. They brought in poker machines. I will give one Labor politician a bit of credit here. Wayne Goss actually came out and said that was the biggest mistake he ever made. He actually said he regretted that. So I give him credit for admitting that was a big mistake. He has passed away now.

It goes on. As I mentioned earlier today, the reef regulations are designed to hit the cattle and cane industries. As I said earlier on, if you wanted to play a word association game: 'Cattle and cane. Name the state. It's Queensland.' What do Labor do? They're bringing in regulations that are going to force farmers who could be as far away as 500 kilometres upstream, and might have a few head of cattle, to do a vegetation management plan. If a farmer doesn't do that, they could be fined up to $200,000. Where is the farmer going to find the money to do a vegetation management plan and be able to sleep at night knowing that they're not going to be fined $200,000?

We have vegetation management laws in Queensland as well. They stop the farmers from pulling down mulga and all this sort of stuff. If they knew anything about mulga—you've got to pull the stuff down so that you open up the soil, so that when it rains the water falls into the ground and not over the top of it. Anyone who is from mulga country knows that if you actually pull down some mulga after it rains—where does the grass grow? Under the fallen mulga tree. What we've got now is fully grown mulga—because mulga is a quite fast-growing tree; it grows out after 25 years, so it's not actually sucking up any carbon at all. All it's doing is becoming one big fire hazard.

And let's not start on clearing national parks and forests. That's something I can speak about with a great deal of authority, because our family's property is right next door to a national park. Of course, what comes through from the national park all the time? Feral goats, feral pigs, feral dogs. Is the state government looking after our national parks? Of course not. But you don’t need to go to Western Queensland to see that. You've only got to go up to Mount Glorious in Brisbane, up the road from Samford, and you will see all of this lantana everywhere. You won't see lantana on private property, but you will see lantana all over the national parks. Why is that? Because Labor always talk the talk but never walk the walk.

When it comes to live animal exports, what do live exports do? Where do they go to? A lot of the time, this meat, these animals, will go to Third World countries to feed the people, because some of these Third World countries don't yet have refrigeration. If we could provide cheap power, they would get refrigeration, and I'm sure, over time, it will come. But do we think about Third World countries needing a source of protein? Who has the best source of protein in the world? Australia—the Australian agricultural industry.

As I think about the agricultural industry I can't help but think of Banjo Paterson. It's a part of our culture. It's a part of our heritage. Henry Lawson and 'The Loaded Dog'—I grew up on that sort of stuff. You ought to talk to the Queensland member for Callide, Colin Boyce; he's a great poet. He can go on and on talking bush poetry, and it's always about the cattle and sheep and our agricultural sector. You may scoff there, Senator Bilyk, but we know—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

I'll take that interjection:

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And that's the difference between today's inner-city people and the city people of a hundred years ago. They spoke about the bush in admiring terms. They didn't criticise our farmers; they held our farmers up as something to be admired. But not today, oh no! The elite attack the very hand that feeds them. Where do they think the meat on their plate comes from? Where do they think their vegetables come from? Where do the clothes on our backs come from? The agriculture sector.

Of course, it doesn't just stop there. They attack dams. They don't like dams. We haven't had any dams built in 30 years—bar one, Paradise, and we couldn't stop the Labor Party from pulling it down fast enough. They couldn't find any money to build Rookwood Weir but they could find $100 million to pull down Paradise Dam just like that, because, when it comes to tearing down the means of production, that's what the Labor Party is all about.

Debate adjourned.