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

Thank you again, Senator White, and I think that does bring it to 10 questions about agriculture—10-nil, as you say—and I can only hope the Socceroos have a similar result when they play in Beijing tonight. Again I thank you for your interest. The Australian government is committed to expanding and diversifying access to export markets in support of the industry's ambition to grow to $100 billion in farmgate value by 2030. We are ably assisted in the cast by hardworking officials of the department of agriculture and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who work quietly behind the scenes to satisfy the technical requirements set by each free-trade agreement that we enter. In the first half of this financial year alone, the department of agriculture recorded 51 technical market access achievements, worth nearly $5 billion, potentially, to Australia's food and fibre industries. So it is a whole-of-government effort that we're putting into this. We're not being particularly well supported by the National Party. In fact, the Leader of the Nationals and shadow minister for agriculture, Mr Littleproud, didn't even show up for the debate on the agriculture budget this week, just as he didn't last year.