Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Ciccone. I'm very pleased to say that the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund—it even has the word national in it—a key election commitment from the Albanese government, has a $500 million portion sectioned out for investment in local manufacturing to support agriculture. Once established, that money will be available to co-invest in more food processing, in bringing down energy costs and more value-adding.

A great example of something that could potentially fit in that category, that we should be making here, is fertiliser. We have the raw materials here in Australia that we export to other countries, so why shouldn't we be making more fertiliser here in Australia and why shouldn't the government support industry to get it started? That's exactly what our National Reconstruction Fund would be available to do: co-invest with industry to boost value-adding.

I've been speaking about this with farmers and industry in recent weeks, grain growers, meat processors and many more. It's vital the NRF passes the House and the Senate, and we encourage everyone to get behind it. (Time expired)