Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

and walked it down to the Murray-Darling to rip that out of agricultural production in the southern part of the country. Just to be clear, that will be over a hundred thousand hectares of intensive agricultural land. If you don't think that's going to mean less fruit and veggies on your table then you are mistaken. It means, Senator Sterle, that there will be fewer trucks driving around with produce that comes from our food bowl in the south and ends up on people's tables right across the country.

Those opposite have planned to ban live sheep exports out of Western Australia, smashing that market. It was devastating to listen to ABARES make excuse after excuse about how they'd examined the impact of the live export decision on prices but not be able to demonstrate one bit of data they'd extracted that was relevant to the Western Australian situation.

They have failed to support the dedicated visa pathway for agricultural workers that the Liberal-National coalition announced before the last election. If there is one thing that farmers across the country talk to me about, it's the workforce shortage—how they can't get suitably qualified people. The agricultural visa would have provided them.

The renewable energy transmission line projects across highly productive agricultural farming country are a disgrace. They have been poorly planned, and the Labor government will not allow us to have a Senate inquiry into them. What are they trying to hide?

We're going to see more changes to the EPBC Act, and you can guarantee they won't be about protecting farmers and maintaining productive land use. In the north, where bushfires are raging, nobody is able to clear a firebreak. What is happening to farmers and graziers in the northern part of the country is absolutely appalling.

What about the industrial relations impacts? Last week we saw rolling stoppages at abattoirs. Chains stopped because the CPSU in Canberra feel they need a pay rise, but what does that mean for graziers who can't get their stock in to be slaughtered? It means lower prices for them again.

We've seen the banning of gillnet fishing. This is a personal favourite. In North Queensland, we have gillnet fishermen who will lose their livelihoods, starting this December. Merry Christmas, fishermen in North Queensland! When you can't buy wild-caught barramundi or wild-caught grey mackerel, Mr Acting Deputy President, say thanks very much to this Labor government for the secret, sneaky deal that Tanya Plibersek, the minister for environment, has done with UNESCO. It is somehow going to save the Great Barrier Reef. I must send the environment minister a map, because the Gulf of Carpentaria is nowhere near the Great Barrier Reef. That doesn't seem to matter. It does mean that it will cost more to buy wild-caught fish—if you can get it.

There's the cost of electricity. I see graziers with electricity bills that would make your eyes water. An 82 per cent renewables target—what rubbish!

They have not signed a trade deal since they've been in government. It was the coalition that, during its last period in office, took agricultural products from 25 per cent to 85 per cent under a trade deal. That allowed farmers to get better prices, more scale. This government, the Labor government, hates farmers. They hate the regions and they certainly don't support lower food prices for Australians. It's shocking.