Stewart McArthur (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Trade. Would the minister advise the House what measures Australian farmers are taking to assist in the current World Trade Organisation negotiations? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Corangamite for his question. He represents one of the electorates which contribute very significantly to Australia’s rural exports, which were worth $26 billion last year. Yesterday the National Farmers Federation released a trade policy brief in which they committed themselves to an ambitious outcome in the Doha Round of trade talks. They are working constructively with the government to develop a response to the various policy issues and to look at ways in which we can drive an ambitious agenda forward to a successful outcome. The NFF shares our view that a good outcome from the Doha Round of talks can deliver very substantial benefits to Australian farmers. They have outlined the potential for increases in income of up to eight per cent for Australian farmers if in fact we are able to break down some of those barriers which prevent the access of our products to the best markets of the world. They also know that Australian farmers would be amongst the losers if indeed this round were not to come to a successful conclusion.

Clearly the rules based trade system has been of benefit to Australian agriculture, and indeed Australian industry, over the years. The WTO, in a recent report on Australia’s trade policies and practices over the last four or five years, spoke very highly of the way in which Australia has responded to the trade challenges of the era. They particularly complimented Australia on our workplace reforms. They say in the report:

Unemployment has reached its lowest level in 30 years, in great part due to reforms that have rendered the labour market more flexible.

They go on to comment on the rise in productivity and improved competitiveness of Australia’s goods and services in world markets. The report states:

Reform has also made the economy more flexible and resilient to external shocks, like the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and, more recently, the drought in 2006.

So the reform of the Australian economy has been good news also for our exports, which of course have more than doubled in the term of this government. The agricultural sector has made a very substantial contribution to that performance.

The honourable member also asked about alternative policies. In that regard I was interested to read in the last edition of the Land newspaper comments attributed to Leader of the Opposition. He claimed to have been up and down more wheatfields than he cares to remember. I would have thought a handful of visits to wheatfields in a lifetime would hardly be more than one would care to remember if you had any sympathy for the rural community whatsoever. This is a man who has hardly befriended the wheat industry over the years. As the minister for health said, he has quite a bit of form on dealing with farmers in his previous role as chief adviser to Premier Goss. That was an infamous period for the farmers of Queensland. Amongst other things, the Goss government closed 13 rail branch lines which were essentially associated with taking the farmers’ wheat to the port for export. The Goss Labor government, under the advice of the current Leader of the Opposition, closed 13 of these lines. They slashed hundreds of staff from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries. They were never to be seen whenever there was a need to provide support for farmers. What is particularly hypocritical in light of the Leader of the Opposition’s question today is that they were nowhere to be seen when drought assistance needed to be provided to Queensland farmers. Labor has an appalling record of providing support to the agricultural sector in tough times and a very poor record of supporting them in their trading needs and helping them to find the best markets in the world. You could not expect any change if ever they were to come to office at the federal level.