Australian Response to the Frank McDougall Memorial Lecture

ROME, ITALY
SATURDAY, 1 JULY 2023

43rd Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation

Distinguished delegates, Director-General, Excellencies, and participants.

Australia is always honoured to provide a response to the McDougall Memorial Lecture, which is an important part of each United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Conference.

It is my privilege to address you here today as Australia’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

And it is an honour to be able to respond to Senior Minister Tharman’s speech.

I’d like to start today by reflecting on the namesake for this speech: British born Australian farmer and economist, Frank McDougall.

As you know, Frank was instrumental in establishing the FAO, in response to food availability challenges, arising from war and disease.

Not unlike the circumstances the world faces today.

In doing this, Frank promoted the crucial role of agricultural production in contributing to food security, human health, and economic development.

And he was a staunch advocate for collaboration - creating a mechanism where we, the 195 members of the FAO, can all work together on these shared challenges.

Despite global agricultural production increasing nearly 4-fold (380%) since the 1960s, Frank’s goal to improve food security remains as relevant today as ever.

Conflict, disrupted supply chains, climate change and pandemic recovery are all impacting on the ability of the world’s growing population to access the food and nutrition they need and deserve.

Just as we face challenges like those Frank encountered 80 years ago, there also remain opportunities for us to work together.

In his speech, Senior Minister Tharman highlighted the benefits of collaboration to value water for efficiency, sustainability, and equity. 

I recognise and thank him for the work he is doing globally on this critical issue.

This matters a great deal to Australia.

We are the world’s driest inhabited continent and one of our most famous poems describes us as a ‘land of droughts and flooding rains’.

Yet we are also a successful agricultural producer. 

We’ve done this by - among other things - embracing water efficiency.

Producing more from less.

Growing our agriculture sector in the process.

We haven’t done everything right and we still have work to do. 

But the changes we have made mean that Australian rice growers use 50% less water to grow one kilogram of rice than the global average, and we are working with our Indo-Pacific neighbours to assist them to do the same.

Australia’s journey towards recognising the value of water for all of its benefits has been built on reforms that were difficult to implement - both practically and politically.

But there are many lessons we can share, particularly around establishing water markets, to help improve agricultural productivity, while also delivering for the environment, and communities. 

Equally, there are lessons we can learn from each of you - which is the point of forums like this.

For if we are serious about achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, we need to use forums like the FAO to seriously reform our agriculture sectors.

So that our food production is not only environmentally sustainable but can also support food security for a growing global population.

This is particularly pertinent given the current global food crisis, with increasing numbers of people that are hungry and starving, or unable to afford a healthy diet around the world.

The challenge is not getting easier, with the OECD estimating global agricultural productivity needs to increase by 28 per cent over the next decade if we are to achieve zero hunger.

And this needs to be done at the same time as we reduce agricultural emissions to meet the Paris Agreement Targets and work to improve biodiversity outcomes.

This is no mean feat.

But it is not insurmountable - if we work together.

As a starting point, we should embrace and share innovation and our learnings in climate smart agriculture to improve sustainability, productivity and profitability.

We should continue to enhance food market transparency and policy responses for food security, including through the Agricultural Market Information System.

And Australia is pleased to invest more funding to support this vital service.

But collectively, we will not solve our food security challenge without supporting more open, transparent and rules based international trade.

In particular, we can do this by reforming and repurposing harmful and distortionary practices, such as agricultural subsidies and tariffs.

As the FAO’s own research - along with many others - shows, this is critical to dealing with our common food security challenge, as well as promoting more sustainable agricultural practices.

The FAO’s 2021 report, titled “A multi-billion dollar opportunity” proposed a six step process to repurpose agricultural subsidies to transform our global food systems.

Removing distortions to agricultural markets, supported by environmental safeguards, has the potential to increase food production, lower consumer prices, increase food consumption, support economic development, and reduce emissions from agriculture.

This is something all nations can benefit from and all nations have an interest in collaborating on.

I recognise the challenge presented by the prospect of doing this - particularly for smallholder farmers - when they are looking for more support not less.

But Australia offers a case study in how this can be done, in how to weather this storm, in repurposing domestic support.

We lived through the tough times, and we have seen the benefits.

As Australia developed as a nation, including through Frank McDougall’s time, successive governments provided a range of supports to our farmers.

These policies were well intended.

They attempted to stabilise farm returns and offset some of the hardships of living, working and running businesses in rural and regional areas.

These policies led to the common refrain that Australia’s prosperity “rode off the sheep’s back”.

But it became clear that so-called prosperity was masking significant distortions to our agriculture sector that were holding us back, not taking us forward.

By the late 1980s, high levels of government support had resulted in overproduction and misallocation of resources.

It had, for example, encouraged Australian farmers to produce wool at the expense of other agricultural products, such as meat and wheat.

Our sheep numbers peaked in 1989 at 170 million, we were producing more than 1 million tonnes of wool, and there were around 25,000 wool-producing farms across Australia.

In 1991, Australia’s wool price support scheme was no longer sustainable and was suspended, amid much controversy.

This drastically changed the face of Australian agriculture.

So much so that today, our national sheep flock is around 70 million, we’re producing around 400,000 tonnes of wool each year, and wool-producing sheep farm numbers have dropped to around 10,000.

This sounds like a disaster, but it wasn’t.

It was change and the agriculture sector was supported to make that change. 

Not all wool growers went out of business or left the sector.

Some did.

But those that stayed adapted to the new environment.

Importantly, it allowed the sector to innovate and grow, not constrained by government created incentives that were misaligned with consumer or market demands.

And our producers are now taking advantage of newly opened, high value overseas markets, for wool and sheep meat.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, as we’ve sadly lost two champions of this approach, former Australian Agriculture Ministers John Kerin and Simon Crean.

Across the 1980s, ‘90s and into the 2000s, Ministers like them led Australia through a period of trade liberalisation and deregulation.

Supporting our farmers, but supporting them differently.

Repurposing subsidies into research and development and developing new export markets, removing government control of markets and fostering international collaboration in pursuit of these goals.

And while these reforms were at times painful, they generated efficiency gains that accounted for around a third of agricultural productivity growth from 1989-1999 and two-thirds between 1999-2009.

And here’s the even better news.

While wool production declined, Australian agriculture prospered.

Our farmers innovated, diversified their production systems, became more responsive to market signals and are now better able to manage risk.

They’re more competitive.

They’re more efficient – including by better optimising their chemical, fertiliser, and fuel use.

There’s greater food diversity.

We’re getting better environmental outcomes.

And importantly, farm incomes increased.

In short, it has helped Australian agriculture to be more sustainable and productive.

This is good news for farmers, for consumers and for the global population.

I know I am just one voice here in this plenary hall today, but I believe this is an important story to tell.

And like Frank McDougall wanted, one that can help us all work together to achieve our zero-hunger goal.

Through this spirit of cooperation, Australia is working with countries, like Singapore, to deliver more fair and transparent trade.

We’re working together on initiatives such as the Singapore-Australia Food Pact and our first of its kind Green Economy Agreement, which are supporting our economic, trade and investment goals.

And we’re using this to deliver on our respective climate change, agricultural sustainability, and food security objectives.

This is the type of collaboration – and outcomes – I believe would make Frank proud.

And as someone who likes to work alongside others – to find solutions together, through strong partnerships – I am keen to continue this collaborative approach.

It’s this way of doing things that I would like to replicate with other trading partners, across regions and at other forums internationally.

With both developed and developing nations.

I am looking forward to meeting with agriculture leaders from the Southwest Pacific tonight.

I am keen to continue the conversation on how Australia can work in partnership with countries across our region to improve food security and address climate change.

I hope to have many more conversations like this with you during my time here in Rome.

In closing, I would like to thank Senior Minister Tharman again for his address.

I would like to thank Frank McDougall and his contemporaries for having the vision to work together to seek to eliminate hunger and improve nutrition and standards of living through increased agricultural productivity.

And I look forward to working closely with you all - to make the tough calls that are needed to overcome the world’s present day food security and sustainability challenges.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here today.