Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and you had 10 years. I want to put a few facts on the table about this issue, given some of the hyperventilating that we've seen from the senators opposite. Between 2020 and 2022, the former government commissioned a number of reports into a potential domestic standard for organics. These reports were not released publicly by the minister at the time, and no changes to domestic regulation were ever made by those opposite. Are we surprised? No. However, on 6 March, Minister Watt released the two cost-benefit analysis reports that the organics industry had been seeking access to. These reports examined the costs and benefits of a regulatory scheme and are now posted on the department's website for all to see. The most recent cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the former coalition government found there is no option for regulating the domestic organics industry that is supported by industry and that shows a net positive impact over 10 years. It also indicated that the costs of extra regulation, as requested by the industry, may be too big a burden for smaller players in the industry to withstand and may end up being passed on to consumers at the check-out. An additional report commissioned by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has found that 53 per cent of consumers do not search for the phrase 'organic' when purchasing a product and 48 per cent of participants stated that the government certification would not change their buying habits.

We acknowledge that the organics industry has done a lot of work on this issue and that those involved are keen to see progress, but we must be methodical in our approach, as the introduction of an economy-wide domestic regulatory scheme would be a significant change to our regulatory landscape. This would no doubt come with a range of potential benefits and opportunities for the sector, but it would also come with costs to business, which would then be passed on to consumers. At a time when consumers and businesses are facing cost-of-living pressures, we're conscious of our responsibility to not add to that burden. I really am surprised that the Nationals are so keen to add to household budget pressures. I note that, given the opportunity to release this information under the previous minister, they chose not to.

The Albanese government has been in constant contact with the industry throughout the whole process. The minister was pleased to attend the industry's inaugural conference last year and has met with producers and industry bodies. We will continue to engage meaningfully with the organics industry going forward. In the meantime, the Albanese government is working hard to increase export opportunities for the organics industry and non-organic agricultural products. The Australian government is committed to expanding and diversifying access to export markets in support of industry's ambition to grow the agriculture sector to $100 billion in farmgate value by 2030. Australia exports around 72 per cent of agricultural production each year. This is expected to be worth $74.8 billion in 2022-23.

We are committed to supporting our exporters to pursue opportunities in new markets through our Trade Diversification Plan. This plan has four main pillars: (1) delivering an export market and product diversification strategy; (2) building economic ties with India, as demonstrated by the Prime Minister's recent trip to India, where we agreed on two-way agriculture trade to provide new market access for Australian Hass avocados to India and access for Indian okra to Australia; (3) revitalising our trade with Indonesia; and (4) supporting greater regional trade cooperation. This is a good plan that acknowledges our place in the world and brings amazing agricultural products and industry to the world stage, where they belong.

This is something Minister Watt has consulted on and brought the industry along with us on, because that is how Minister Watt runs his portfolio. He's consultative, he listens and he is extremely hardworking. I think it was Senator Sterle who was in this place yesterday talking about the feedback he had been getting from the agricultural industry in Western Australia about how Minister Watt has conducted himself in this role, and that feedback is entirely positive. I can say the same from a Victorian point of view.

Not so long ago, as I mentioned in question time last week, I was up at Tatura in northern Victoria, near Shepparton, at the International Dairy Week conference. The overwhelming message I got from that industry conference was how glad the dairy industry is that there is someone in the agricultural portfolio who listens to them and asks them what they think. They recognise how hard Minister Watt has worked from the minute he was sworn in, particularly when, most recently, Australia's biosecurity was threatened, particularly for industries who deal with livestock, where there were many concerns about incursions of foot-and-mouth disease in Australia. This happened literally as soon as we got elected, and Minister Watt immediately got to work. Now we have a biosecurity strategy that is going to set up Australia for the long term.

I might say that this occurred despite a decade of multiple National Party agricultural ministers dropping the ball on biosecurity. I was shocked to learn in the last round of Senate estimates how the Nationals had cut the detector dogs program at Australian airports, with fewer and fewer dogs picking up fewer and fewer threats. I was even more shocked to learn that, under the National Party's watch, the detector dog program wasn't training dogs to detect queen bees, and that has been the case since 2015. As the minister mentioned in question time, and as was recorded on Landline this week, queen bees that are brought into the country are not detected by dogs, and they're at serious risk of carrying varroa mite, a nasty parasite which devastates honey bee populations and destroys hives. And guess what: after the Nationals cut the detector dog program and the detection of honey bees at Australian ports of entry, we've had an incursion of varroa mite—cause and effect, one might say.

At the end of 2022, after Senator Watt became minister, the detection of queen bees was added back to the list of things that dogs smell for. But of course, because of how irresponsible the coalition was, it was too late. We now have varroa mite incursions that we are still dealing with in New South Wales. As we have talked about in many question times, often this is a case of cleaning up the coalition's mess after the last decade, and this varroa mite incursion is a huge mess. It costs money, it costs livelihoods and it costs industry productivity. Minister Watt is cleaning this up and fixing it, and for that he needs to be congratulated.

We have also heard revelations about the coalition basically bankrupting the entire department of agriculture. The department's been forced to cut staff, limit programs and cut travel because the former National ministers refused to do anything about the fact that the costs of delivering the department's essential services and policy responsibilities outstripped the revenue coming into the department. Imagine that, letting the very department that symbolises your reason to be in politics go bankrupt because you haven't got the time—or can't be bothered—to do anything about it for a decade. It's completely shameful coming from the party that claims to be there for rural and regional Australia, as we've heard yet again today.

But someone who is not lazy, who does the job, who works hard, who addresses the issues when they come to him is Minister Watt. I back Senator Watt's explanation here today and, for all the reasons I have mentioned, I believe him to be entirely responsible and effective as a minister. And he will continue to be more effective than the sum total of the coalition ministers who preceded him. The motion moved today is nothing more than a silly attack on Senator Watt for the very reason he's doing so well in his job and the Nationals can't handle it.

Finally, on the matter of organic standards, we acknowledge the organics industry has done a lot of work on this issue, and those involved are keen to see progress. We are being methodical in our approach, and I have full confidence in Senator Watt as the minister who will make sure there's a good outcome and it is achieved.