Joyce, Barnaby, MP

Mr JOYCE (New England—Minister for Agriculture) (12:42): I thank all the members for their contribution. In my concluding remarks, I would like to draw attention to some of the issues that have been brought up and will try, as best I can, to summarise. Of course, the issue is that we live in an area where we need cost recovery. In other nations, this is a cost of government. Obviously, with the financial issues that are around at the moment, it now becomes our responsibility, as best we can, to cover the costs of our own department. Agriculture is doing its job. It is a vital part of the Australian economy. We are a net exporter of agricultural produce that was worth over $41 billion in 2013-14. I have been going through some of the prices we have been getting recently. We have been receiving record prices in cattle; we have been getting close to record prices in sheep. I put barley in just the other day. I am looking at the forward price of barley and it is looking very strong. It is part and parcel of what we do. What we do in government is make sure that free trade agreements are in place, that the live animal destinations are open and that our department works diligently, and it does. I commend the work of the department in making sure that our protocols are in place so that we can get free flow of product. Last night I spoke to ambassadors from the Gulf countries to make sure that we keep those channels of produce moving. This in itself is bringing money back into our nation. We have had a substantial increase in exports. In 2008, it was about $32 billion and now it is up to $42 billion. That is more than a 30 per cent increase in the value of our exports. This is a section of the economy that can alleviate some of the problems that occurred because of the downturn in the coal price and the downturn in the iron ore price. It will never be the panacea but in agriculture we are doing our bit and all the time we are finding more people who are willing to make the journey to Australia to be part of the access to further soft commodity exports. I might just clarify: I think we have actually opened up mango exports to the United States. In fact, I remember doing a presser on mango exports to the United States. The member for Kennedy was talking about 35 or 36 years where this has not been the case; it is now for mangoes and lychees. I did that announcement approximately half a year ago. We now have product, our tropical fruits, moving from our nation into the United States market. Last year alone the department issued around 300,000 export certificates covering meat, grain, horticulture and fibre products. It also provided inspection and certification for the export of over 3.1 million live animals. Maintaining a robust export system comes at a cost and the Australian government has a long-standing policy of recovering these costs from exporters. However, the Department of Agriculture must recover its costs efficiently. Existing export charging legislation is complex and does not cover all exports such as live animals and reproductive material. The Export Charges (Imposition-General) Bill 2015, the Export Charges (Imposition-Customs) Bill 2015, the Export Charges (Imposition-Excise) Bill 2015 and the Export Charges (Collection) Bill 2015 provide a flexible and common-sense structure than enables the appropriate recovery of the costs of administering the export system. This supports the important work undertaken by the Department of Agriculture in progressing the interests of farmers and exporters across the country. The export charges bills will enable us to address the high fees paid by some live animal and horticultural exporters. The costs of export services must not affect our competitiveness in international markets. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics Sciences has recently reviewed the impact of cost recovery on agricultural exports. This work has shown that most of Australia's key competitors also have cost recovery arrangements in place for these types of services. The impact of full cost recovery on the value of Australian exports is less than 0.8 of one per cent. The government export certification costs are a small price to pay when you consider the returns to farmers and exporters from their ability to sell products overseas. Might I say that one of our greatest exporting advantages is our clean green image. We will never be the food basket of Asia or, as some people have suggested, the food basket of the world but we will be able to sell a premium product at a premium price into niche markets. It is important to get this across because we do not want to be seen as a threat to rural producers in other countries who probably do not have nearly the standard of living as us. These things will work side by side. You see this as self evident when you go to places such as China where the premium product at the best restaurants and at the top end of the supermarket is an Australian product. The things that people like about it is that they know that it is underwritten by strong phytosanitary requirements, by strong occupational health and safety requirements and that there is real stringency in making sure the product that you consume is as clean as it can possibly be. Australia is seen as an identifier for that. The export charges bills also include safeguards so that the amount recovered does not exceed the department's likely costs. The amount of export charges and who is liable to pay will be established in regulations under the impositions bill. The collection bill provides authority to collect charges and determine when a charge is due and payable. This bill also provides the Commonwealth with mechanisms to deal with non-payment and late payment. It also sets out provisions for remitting or refunding charges. The export charges bill will sit alongside existing legislation that allows cost recovery on a fee-for-service basis for activities provided directly to exporters. The export cost recovery arrangements will provide essential support for the department's work in opening and expanding access to export markets. This is critical for Australia's agricultural sector and brings greater returns to the farm gate. I grew up on the land. I still have a farm now. My family is still on the land and I have made it my role whilst having this ministry to make sure that our target is to get a better return through the farm gate. I do not believe in sticking mission statements to the wall but if one was to be placed there it would say: concentrate every day on how you get a better return to those farming families in Australia because they are the people who will increase our capacity further. In the recent budget, a part of the agricultural white paper was seen in the accelerated depreciation rates for water. Mr Fitzgibbon: When is the white paper? Mr JOYCE: I know when and I know where and I should invite you along. There is accelerated depreciation for water and this allows for refurbishment on the farm of the irrigation precinct to make sure whether it is laser levelled, whether it is going from laterals to trickle tape— Mr Fitzgibbon: What about on July 4? Mr JOYCE: That is American Independence Day. That would be a big celebration. Mr Fitzgibbon: That is my sister's birthday. Mr JOYCE: I will take the interjection. It is the member for Hunter's sister's birthday on 4 July. We want to make sure that we get the refurbishment on the farm. We are also encouraging people to make sure they have got storage for grain and have purchased silos and hay sheds. These are all parts of the crucial infrastructure. There is 100 per cent write-off for fencing if your turnover is under $2 million. If you are selling $1.9 million worth of cattle a year, you are probably doing all right. But for that person, they have the capacity for 100 per cent write-off for welders, compressors, chainsaws, post hole borers. These are all areas where we are trying to make sure that we can refurbishment on the farm. Off the farm, we have a dams policy. We will be rolling that out to create vital infrastructure because we know that water is wealth and dams are the bank. Without water, nothing else exists in the agricultural sector. There will be a distinct policy also to progress that issue as well. In our genetics we are making sure that our investment in research and development keeps up to speed with the requirements of the global environment. For all the people who are in this chamber or listening to this at the moment: you are already part of genetic modification. All cotton produced in Australia is genetically modified. It is genetically modified so we do not have to spray it 17 times a year. Right now we are in the process of going through the genetic mapping of wheat. We are doing this in our nation. Wheat is hexaploid; it has three diploid genomes. Just one is more complicated than the human genome. This is because man has been affecting the genetics of wheat for as long as wheat has been about. We want to make sure that our nation is at the forefront of this technology, that we are at the cutting edge. We have to be. In this nation also we have research into paddy-free rice. It was great to see the PhD students of Central Queensland University and the work that they are doing to see if we can remove the reason for a rice paddy—that is, the water that the rice grows in. That water is predominantly there to mitigate diurnal temperature ranges, as rice requires. It is also a very cheap form of weed control. All these things are part and parcel of why agriculture under this government is having real successes. I refer to the work we have done on the development of markets; the work we have done on free trade agreements; the resilience we have shown to weather the storms that are often put up against us by our detractors such as Animals Australia; and the work we have done to make sure that we are working with the farmer on everything from on-farm water infrastructure, with the money that we put aside so that people get bores onto their places, to the extension of the Great Artesian Basin capping and piping scheme, the 100 per cent write-off of fences, the 100 per cent write-off of on-farm water reticulation, the write-offs over three years for silos and the 100 per cent write-off for those with a turnover under $2 million for any item of plant and as many items of plant as they wish as long as no single item of plant costs more than $20,000. Then there is the $300 million that has been put into the development of the inland rail; the $100 million that we have put into beef roads; the Northern Australia white paper, which will be imminently released—and is it imminent, believe you me—and the agricultural white paper, for which we received over a thousand responses. This is something that we have had to work on ardently over a long period of time. The reason we had to do that was that the alternative government, the previous government, put only $30 million into their food plan. It was pathetic. We believe that agriculture is one of the premier portfolios. We want to take it to the centre of government and we have done that. I get the sense that the opposition sometimes believe that agriculture is some sort of booby prize, that it is a stepping stone to somewhere else. We do not want it to be that. It has to remain front and centre. It is so vitally important for where this nation goes. Even last night at the local government dinner in the Great Hall, it was great to go around the hall and to get the responses from people representing those regional areas. It is an extremely powerful thing when people say to you: 'We absolutely back what you're doing. We thank you for the hard work you have put in. You are delivering results. A better return is coming back through the farm gate. You have been part of a government that has brought us record prices in cattle, that has brought about one of the most substantial turnarounds in soft commodity prices in the history of our nation.' We are heading towards the best prices in wool since the removal of the wool floor price scheme. They have eased off a bit now, but we have had record prices in sheep, mutton and lamb. This government has the vision to build dams and has already started that process in Tasmania with a $120 million process. It is this government that is actually making a difference. When you think, 'What difference does a government make?' my retort is: go to the saleyards in any regional centre and see the difference that the coalition government has made for this nation. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time.