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

McDONALD () (): Australian agriculture needs champions, and I'm very proud to acknowledge two such champions here today: Dr Theresa Craig and Dalene Wray. Both were named members in the general division of the Order of Australia this year, a fitting tribute to two women I greatly admire for their work promoting a product we should all get behind: Australian beef.

Dr Craig was recognised for significant services to politics and the agricultural industry. She has a PhD in nutrition across all species and specialises in cattle and sheep. She was a member and vice chair of the Queensland Schools Animal Ethics Committee for seven years as well as an author of several publications. Dr Craig is also an adjunct professor with the University of the Sunshine Coast and has filled with distinction multiple executive roles in the Liberal National Party of Queensland. She has also been a key lecturer for the University of New England CRC feedlot course and is a past president of the Agribusiness Association of Australia. For the past 14 years she has owned and operated her own animal nutrition consulting firm.

Dalene Wray is a leader in the Australian organic food production movement and has been recognised for her significant service to the organic beef industry as managing director of OBE Organic and chair of Organic Industries of Australia. She is a fierce advocate for food safety and for food security. Dalene grew up on the family's properties in the heart of Queensland's Channel Country and uses a lifetime of experience to promote and sell Australian organic beef to the world. She has managed the company's quickly expanding businesses in South-East Asia and the Middle East, and she's done all of this while also learning to speak Mandarin, French and Spanish and understand Afrikaans. I congratulate both of these outstanding women and encourage them in their efforts to protect and promote our highly valuable meat industry.