Agriculture

10 February 2025

I am absolutely delighted to second this motion on agriculture today. I just want to start out by saying thank you to members of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Agriculture—the government, the opposition and some Independents—who have worked very well together to produce two really great reports in relation to agriculture.

The first one is Australian food story: feeding the nation and beyond, with apologies to Buzz Lightyear. It was an inquiry into food security. It took us over 12 months to complete this report, and it made 35 recommendations. Whilst we have an incredible agriculture sector here in Australia, food security is something that we need to turn our attention to. Despite being one of the most food-secure countries in the world, recent developments, both here and overseas, have shown us that food security presents real and growing challenges for our nation. We need to be focusing on that food security, and I again want to thank everyone who made a contribution to that report.

A couple of the recommendations in that report which I think are worth speaking about are that we need a food plan in Australia and we need to pay close attention to biosecurity, which our government is doing. We've in fact turned it around and protected our nation from things like lumpy skin disease, foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu. I know that biosecurity is at the top of the government's list when we think about agriculture because we have to protect our sector at all costs.

Some of the other recommendations that we made were having a food plan for Australia and also having a minister for food. We've also made a recommendation that we need to enforce the grocery code of conduct and make it mandatory. That is one of the recommendations that the government has put in place, and I am very pleased about that. So this report is a seminal text according to the industry, who backed it, and I again want to say that I do hope that we get to take more action on this report.

The other report that we managed to do in the ag committee this year was Trading north, and it came off the back of Sir Nicholas Moore's report, which said that we really needed to lean into our South-East Asian markets. Again, I am so delighted to be part of a government that has been able to open up trade again for our ag sector, getting us back into China and opening up the South-East Asian market. We are working incredibly hard on doing that—on ensuring that there are places for our agricultural products to be sold and that our farmers have access to them. It is just incredibly important in a world where trade is vital that we continue to forge ahead with getting our products to market, particularly in South-East Asia. I again commend Senator Farrell, the Minister for Trade and Tourism, who has done such a remarkable job.

I also want to thank the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins, who is working so tirelessly to develop the first Agriculture and Land Sectoral Plan to chart the path for the industry to actively contribute to net zero, investing $1.1 billion in the current round of the National Heritage Trust and also investing $68.3 million to support the sector to act on climate and reduce emissions. I know a lot of young farmers want to do this. They're leading the way. They're into regenerative agriculture. That is such an important part of not only building our ag sector but also making it sustainable for the future.

The other thing that I would really love to mention here is that Labor has been delivering for Australian farmers and producers by helping our nearly $100 billion agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector grow, and that is key. We need our ag sector to be growing. We recorded 169 market access achievements, and that is such a vital thing.

The other point that I want to make is that ag is an incredibly dynamic sector. We are attracting young people to it. It's very high tech these days. The level of skill that's needed in agriculture these days is second to none and constantly evolving.

I couldn't be prouder of being part of a government that is delivering for the ag sector and knows that we need to keep moving into the future to ensure that we do all have enough food and that we continue to feed the world as well.