MICHELLE LANDRY:
It’s fantastic to have the Prime Minister in Central Queensland again today. We are out at the Clews’ dairy farm at Rossmoya and it’s a fantastic place. We are out here with a group of farmers discussing the White Paper for Agriculture. This is very important for this area and it is something that our farmers are very, very excited about. While I have the Prime Minister here, I will certainly be discussing with him about the White Paper, where we had Eden Bann and Rookwood weirs and that is something that I really want to see go ahead. So, I will hand over to the Prime Minister. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Michelle, it is great to be here. I want to thank the Clews for making Michelle Landry and myself so welcome. I want to thank all of the local farmers for their interest in what this Government is doing to ensure that agriculture has an even bigger place in our economic future than it has had in our past. I am really excited about the Agriculture White Paper. I am very excited about the Northern Australia White Paper and, together, these two white papers are very good news for the electorate of Capricornia and indeed for Queensland – particularly Northern Queensland. Under the Agriculture White Paper, your on-farm water infrastructure can be written off immediately, your fodder infrastructure can be written off over three years, your farm fencing can be written off immediately. In the Agriculture White Paper, there is $100 million more for research so that our farmers can remain the best in the world. There is $200 million for biosecurity so that our farms can be as safe as any in the world and, of course, in both of the white papers there is $500 million for new water storages and one of the things that we really do need to overcome in this country is the damphobia that has inflicted us for the last couple of decades because of the alliance between the Labor Party and the Greens.
So, look, this is an exciting time for Australian agriculture.
It is particularly good to be here on a dairy farm because Australian dairy has enormous potential particularly as a result of the free trade agreements which will reduce dairy tariffs ultimately to zero in most of our major Asian markets. Australian dairy is about seven per cent of the world’s dairy exports, about 38 per cent of our dairy products are exported, our milk is exported, and there are about 40,000 people in dairy.
So, this is an exciting time for Australian agriculture made all the more exciting because this is a government which is serious about doing the right thing by the farmers of our country.
QUESTION:
Just speaking to the Clews family before and they say since the $1 milk price wars came in they have lost up to $200,000 in the first couple of months. Do you see the government looking to regulate Coles and Woolworths and that kind of action with farmers?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly don’t want to see more regulation but I do want to see fair competition and that is why an important part of the Agriculture White Paper will be the appointment of an additional commissioner to the ACCC – specialising in agriculture. There will be some additional resources going to the ACCC so that all of these farm issues, all of these questions about fair competition in the farm sector, can be addressed. As well, there is the grocery code of conduct. I know not everyone think it goes far enough, but it certainly is a big step in the right direction. It will be reviewed after three years. So, together with the new commissioner specialising in agriculture, and the grocery code of conduct, I think farmers can be very confident that they will have a fair bargaining position vis-à-vis the big supermarkets.
QUESTION:
Speaking of code of conduct, will you be asking Bronwyn Bishop to step aside as Speaker?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. Bronwyn has repaid the money. She will have more to say about this herself later on today, but she has repaid the money and she does a good job.
QUESTION:
But Prime Minister, with integrity such an important feature of your government, isn’t it appropriate that she stand aside, at least while the Finance Department is conducting its investigation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, the Finance Department looks into a whole lot of matters involving a whole lot of members of parliament and I don’t think it is appropriate for people to stand aside simply because the Finance Department might be having a look at something. Look, the important thing is that Bronwyn has admitted that it was probably an error of judgment and she has repaid the money.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] do you agree with that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I can understand why people are interested in this – I really can understand why people are interested in this. The public has, rightly, high expectations of its representatives and whenever something doesn’t conform with their sense of what is right, obviously, there is understandable excitement about it but as I said, Bronwyn, she has done the right thing, she is a good Speaker, she has my confidence, and she will have a bit more to say about it herself today.
QUESTION:
Why is this just an internal investigation? Why is Bronwyn Bishop being treated differently to Peter Slipper?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, absolutely normal procedures are being followed here. Absolutely normal procedures are being followed here. The Department of Finance will have a look at it and if they think there is anything else to do, well, that will be done.
QUESTION:
Why is she being treated differently to Peter Slipper?
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s not correct.
QUESTION:
Members of your frontbench are describing Bronwyn Bishop as a protected species. Is it time that you put aside your personal allegiances to the Speaker in the interest of public confidence in your government?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, Bronwyn has repaid the money, she has repaid the money with, in fact, a penalty – a penalty that was put in place by this Government early in its life. She will have more to say about this herself later on this afternoon.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just back on to the agriculture sector for a moment, so obviously with famers – environmental sustainability is very important to them. Do you think they are concerned that their government is approving mines and things like that but moving away from solar and renewable energies?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I understand that there has been quite a bit of controversy about the Shenhua mine, the Watermark mine, near Gunnedah. It is very important that the highest environmental standards be applied to this mine and that is why Minister Hunt has given it conditional approval: I stress, conditional approval. Those conditions will have to be well and truly met for this mine to get environmental tick-off by the Commonwealth Government. I do want to stress two things: first of all, there has been a very, very thorough process in respect of this mine. It is a 17 stage process and we are up to, I think, stage 14 or 15 and that is the Commonwealth stage of the process – that is the first thing I want to stress. The second thing I want to stress is that mining and agriculture should be able to coexist and provided mining is done under the strictest environmental conditions, that certainly will be the case – that we will be able to continue to have mining and agriculture co-existing in this country.
QUESTION:
You mentioned inside before that you were talking with Barnaby and he was saying mining may only give us another 20 years whereas agriculture is forever. Don’t you think that we should be looking at other more sustainable forms of energy to try and prop up that sector?
PRIME MINISTER:
You’re moving off mining and onto renewable energy, but look, the important thing is that we maximise our economic opportunities, that we maximise jobs in this country, that we maximise prosperity – and we will maximise jobs and maximise prosperity when we have got a very prosperous and successful farm sector which is taking full advantage of all of the opportunities open to it under the free trade agreements that this Government has negotiated, and we have a strong and dynamic resources sector which is operating under the world’s highest environmental standards and that is exactly what we have got here. We have got an agricultural sector which is going from strength to strength and has so many more opportunities now thanks to the free trade agreements and we have got a very strong resources sector which by universal agreement does operate under the world’s highest environmental standards.
Thank you.
[ends]