Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this week my Nationals colleague the Minister for Agriculture paid tribute to Australian family farms and their contribution to our country and economy.

2014 is the International Year of Family Farming. Tonight I would like to contribute to this important topic, taking the opportunity to promote the National Centre for Farmer Health. The International Year of Family Farming aims to raise the profile of family farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment and achieving sustainable development in rural areas.

Here in Australia there are an estimated 135,692 farm businesses and 99 per cent of those are family owned and operated. Our farmers are impressive. Each Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people per year, 150 here at home and 450 overseas. They produce almost 93 per cent of Australia's daily domestic food supply and they export around 60 per cent of what they grow and produce. Those exports earned our nation $38 billion in 2012-13, while wider agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors generated $41 billion in exports. The gross value of Australian farm production in 2012-13 was $47 billion, about 12 per cent of our GDP.

About 278 people are employed in Australian agriculture and there are over 1.6 million jobs in the agricultural supply chain and affiliated industries. This is why the health and wellbeing of both our farmers and the National Centre for Farmer Health are so important.

The award-winning National Centre for Farmer Health has, since 2008, provided national leadership in improving the health, safety and wellbeing of farm men, farm women, farm workers and their families and communities right across Australia. It is a partnership between Deakin University and the Western District Health Service, based in Hamilton in my home state of Victoria. It works closely with farmers, rural professionals, academics and students in achieving its objectives. As the centre's director Dr Susan Brumby points out, there are a range of factors impacting on the health and wellbeing of our farmers. They include a reluctance to seek our health services; multiple and dangerous hazards in the workplace—workplace is the home and so for many people the 40-hour working week is over by Wednesday and that is before we include partners and children—and poor skills and understanding of what happens on farms by health and rural professionals.

The impact of these factors are indeed very concerning, such as higher rates of noise-induced hearing loss that occur disproportionately earlier in our farming population; higher rates of cardiovascular disease and premature death in men; lower survival rates of most cancers in rural populations; higher incidence of musculoskeletal conditions and pain; higher rates of suicide; and the highest rate of accidental workplace deaths in 2010-11. Given that most farms are family owned, the impacts of poor health affect not just the farmer but their whole family and the community.

The National Centre for Farmer Health is committed to addressing these challenges. For example, it helps health services to engage better with farm men and farm women, with many health professionals not fully understanding or appreciating the many personal challenges of a farming business. To make this happen, the centre provides the only university-level agricultural health and medicine course in Australia. Over 85 per cent of former students work rurally and remotely, so it is happening.

The centre's Sustainable Farm Families program is another such initiative. The health promotion program addresses farmer health, wellbeing and safety issues and has been delivered to over 2,500 farm men and farm women. In fact, the Sustainable Farm Families program is now being piloted in Alberta, Canada, working closely with the National Centre for Farmer Health team. The Alberta government's project manager, Jordan Jensen, told ABC Rural:

Every province, every country, could benefit from having this knowledge …

And further:

Whether you're in Italy or you're in Canada I think this is very valuable information that really has the potential to change farmers' perceptions about their value and what they need to do to have a sustainable farm.

He said that Alberta's farming regions, like Australia's, have higher rates of suicide, mental health issues, accidental death, cardiovascular disease and diabetes than their metropolitan communities.

Dr Brumby advises that Dairy Australia has also funded a pilot program to assist farmers struggling through the drought in Queensland. The centre also provides farmers and health professionals with access to quality and evidence-based information and services, professional training and education for not just health professionals but also vets, agronomists and primary industry personnel, and runs AgriSafe clinics.

It is time to return the favour and help raise funds for the centre's continued and vital work by participating next Sunday, 12 October, in Run 4 Farmer Health, held as part of the Melbourne Marathon. Mr President, entries are still open; it is not too late to register for the event! There are five-kilometre, 10-kilometre, half-marathon and marathon lengths. So get out in the beautiful capital of Melbourne and run with thousands of participants and not only get healthy but also support a great cause. We are trying to raise $20,000 as part of this program to contribute to the National Centre for Farmer Health's ongoing financial issues. The coalition federal and Victorian governments have supported the centre, most recently with $625,000 in joint funding. And it is great to see the Assistant Minister for Health, Senator Nash, who is also a farmer, here in the chamber. She was crucial to that funding being delivered. But more help is needed.

I would also like to commend the local member for Wannon, Dan Tehan, for his hard work in lobbying for the centre and the work that it does. Similarly, I commend the state member for Lowan, Hugh Delahunty, and indeed the National Party candidate for Lowan, Emma Kealy, and for Ripon, Scott Turner, both being strong supporters of the National Centre for Farmer Health.

More than 130 people have already signed up for Run 4 Farmer Health as part of the Melbourne Marathon, including me. I will bravely take on the half marathon challenge. I hope I can walk the following Monday. Politicians from all sides—Labor, Liberal and the National Party—have signed up to take on the challenge. I know that Farmer Ollie is coming all the way to Melbourne from New South Wales to participate—and I am looking forward to her doing a personal best on the day. Tonight I encourage my parliamentary colleagues to join us. It is not too late to register. It does not matter whether you are fit or not. As I said, there are runs to suit every ability—and we can celebrate afterwards. By taking part, we are ultimately supporting our hardworking farmers who produce the food and fibre Australians rely on.

If you cannot be there on the day, I would like to remind everybody that you can still support Run 4 Farmer Health by going to the website www.farmerhealth.org.au, Run 4 Farmer Health, and click on the fundraising section and support a great cause.