Mr PASIN (Barker) (15:53): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It's a bit rich for the member for Moreton—that great agriculture advocate from that great agricultural electorate—to seek to attack the National Party. Mate, I come from a farm. I grew up on a family farm; I know what farming is like. I hope very much to retire to the farm and get into farming in the second phase or maybe the third phase of my career. It's true: dairy farmers are facing very difficult times at present, and it's important that this place acknowledges that. These are challenging times. Input costs in some places are at record highs. The effects of drought, the cost of temporary water in the basin, the cost of electricity: these are all making times quite difficult for dairy farmers. Those of us on this side think that we should listen to industry when it comes to what industry wants for its sector, and industry doesn't want re-regulation. Industry came to government in 1999 and asked, collectively, that we deregulate the industry. The industry came to government in 1999 and we did exactly that. Mr Katter: Oh you've got to be joking! That is an absolute lie and you know it to be a lie! Come with me to my dairy farms! Mr PASIN: In fact, the member for Kennedy can bluff and bluster all he likes; the industry today is not asking for us to re-regulate the industry. The industry knows that is not the solution. And why is that not the solution? Why would, for example, a floor price on milk be a bad idea? Firstly, it's bad economics; secondly, it's bad for the future of the industry; and, thirdly, as I said, dairy farmers don't want it. The member for Kennedy lived through this much more than I did, given that I was born in 1977. We only have to turn to the wool industry in the 1970s. In 1974 we established a floor price for wool. Anyone who knows anything about the history of agriculture in this country knows that it was an unmitigated disaster. We got to a point in 1991 where there were 4.7 million bales— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The member for Kennedy, on a point of order? Mr Katter: I really don't think people should be allowed to lie in this place. I really don't think— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Kennedy will withdraw. Mr Katter: I withdraw. Mr PASIN: We got to a point in 1991 where there were 4.7 million bales of wool in storage in this country. It failed catastrophically. The difference between wool and milk, if I have to point it out to the member for Kennedy and those opposite, is that you can effectively store wool in bales. What you can't do is store fresh milk. The future of this industry is outward looking. It's about the free trade agreements we've set with the rest of the world, let alone the fact that if we go down the road of a fixed-price model then we'll lose all the export markets we have. Mr Katter interjecting— Mr PASIN: And to the member for Kennedy, who thinks I might not have spoken to a dairy farmer, I can say that in my electorate 90 per cent of the milk produced is processed into products that go overseas. Are you asking them, member for Kennedy, to get that milk and flush it down the drain? No you're not. The secret here is to be more competitive, not less. More competitive, not less! Mr Katter interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Kennedy is warned! Mr PASIN: If we move to re-regulate this industry, the industry will become less competitive and not more. It will be less competitive internationally, not more. Member for Kennedy, the future, just like we've seen with livestock, is in export and being internationally competitive. The future is not in creating some sort of protected market, as we saw with wool in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and which ultimately led to ruin. We need to support our dairy farmers, who, as I've said, because of drought and because of historically high input prices, are experiencing particularly difficult times. But to give them false hope and to say to them that the future here lies in a fixed price is, quite frankly, a catastrophic misrepresentation of the situation. The future here lies with being more competitive, not less. And don't take my word for it; take the industry's word for it. The industry has said: 'We don't want re-regulation. We want to continue on the path we're on.'