Address to the Sustainable Agriculture Summit

TOOWOOMBA, QLD
THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
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Good morning everyone and welcome to the inaugural Sustainable Agriculture Summit.

I’d like to start by acknowledging the Traditional Owners on the lands we are gathered on and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

Our first farmers, fishers and foresters, whose stewardship of this land for 60,000 years is an achievement of which we should all be proud.

I really want to thank my friend and colleague, Chris Bowen, for making the time to join us here on the Darling Downs during what is understandably a busy time for a Climate Change and Energy Minister.

I think it speaks volumes about how seriously our government takes this issue that we have two Ministers here to speak with you, and listen to you, about the future of Sustainable Agriculture.

It also says a lot that such a broad range of participants have made the trip from Perth, and from all across the country, up the range here in Toowoomba today - farmers and their peak bodies, researchers, processors, suppliers, investors, tech companies, environment groups and the entire ag supply chain. I thank you for coming and I can tell you, we had to turn away as many as the 150 people who’ve come along.

Chris has done a great job of setting out our government’s overall plans for emissions reduction and the role our ag and land sector will play in that decarbonisation agenda.

I’d like to build on that, by talking to you about how our government wants to work with the sector, to build a profitable, productive and sustainable future.

PROTECT AND GROW

My primary goal as Minister is to protect and grow the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors.

Protect the industry from threats in the here and now, like biosecurity incursions and restrictive trade barriers.

And to grow the industry in the here and now, by ensuring you have the workforce and market access required to become more profitable.

Over the last couple of years, this sector has risen to new heights.

The gross value of Australian farms, fisheries and forestry sector is now $90.8 billion, the third highest on record.

That is due to the hard work of Australia’s farmers, fishers, foresters, the workers in those industries and the whole ag supply chain.

And that work is, of course, supported by a government that understands the importance of an industry that feeds us, clothes us and generates enormous wealth for our country.

But beyond the here and now, it is also my job to protect and grow the industry well into the future.

And it’s hard to imagine an issue that will have more bearing on the future of this industry than climate change.

Others in the political domain, including many who have previously held my role, continue to deny that we need to take action on this issue.

They deny the renewable energy transition that is happening right now, bringing down power prices and emissions and bringing in new income streams for our nation’s primary producers and rural communities.

They seek to prolong the use of coal fired power and promote the use of Carbon Capture and Storage in the Great Artesian Basin on their Facebook pages.

Many of them still deny that climate change is even happening.

But the truth is that climate change is real.

The truth is that farmers and Australians living in rural and regional Australia face more severe impacts of climate change.

And the truth is, without intervention, things will get worse.

It is already costing our farmers every single day.

And as many of you have heard me say before, ABARES has conservatively estimated that on average farmers have lost more than $30,000 per annum due to climate change over the last 20 years, with that figure expected to rise.

And the recent Ag2050 Scenario report by the CSIRO highlighted the need for industry to adapt to climate change to continue its growth trajectory.

Previous political leaders described climate change as the great moral challenge of our time.

I see it as the great production opportunity of our time.

The more productive the industry is, the more profitable it will be in the long run.

And continuing to build on the good work that this industry has already done, to lift its sustainability, is integral to lifting that productivity and profitability.

Our ag and land sector can be part of the solution to our decarbonisation challenge, and the sector can do well out of it.

Now I’m not telling you all something you don’t already know, and I’ve had many conversations like this with many of you in the room.

And that shows to me that your industry can see the benefits in becoming more sustainable.

The productivity gains through soil improvement, the market access gains through better provenance and the cost savings through more efficient water, energy and fertiliser usage.

We have a distinct competitive advantage in this area that we can leverage over our international competitors.

And that’s because across the country we have world-leading research teams and strong investment in R&D from government and industry, including many of you.

In the last few weeks alone, I’ve seen terrific work happening in this space everywhere from Armidale to Townsville to Gippsland, including new ways to measure carbon emissions and testing different methane-reducing feed supplements.

Farmers and the wider ag supply chain are also playing their part in meeting the climate challenge.

Whether it’s the beef and dairy farmers and processors trialling those emerging feed supplements, the grain growers learning to understand their carbon footprint and developing low emissions fuels, the development of sustainability frameworks in the chicken, rice, horticulture and other industries.

Just up the road, I’ll be visiting beef producer Mort & Co later today, to see the innovation they are implementing on-farm to reduce emissions in cattle and to develop low emissions fertiliser.

So I really pay tribute to all who’ve been on that journey so far.

But the reality is, that for all of that good work this industry is already doing, we need to do more.

I’ve mentioned the climate imperative of moving forward, but we know that banks, insurers and our domestic and overseas customers also have ever higher expectations.

The good news is that you now have a government that wants to work with you, so that we get there - together.

While industry has been making great strides in the sustainability journey, what’s been missing is government support and government leadership.

I’m pleased to say that under the Albanese Government, that support and leadership is now here.

As Chris mentioned earlier, our government is not going to leave it to farmers or the ag supply chain, to turn climate change from a challenge to an opportunity on your own.

We’re not going to make it the sector’s issue to solve.

We’re going to do this, together.

AG AND LAND PLAN

The Ag and Land Sector Plan will be central to the work undertaken by government to help industry on this journey.

We are meeting this climate challenge head-on, by partnering with industry and supporting you to meet your own and our government’s ambition for a climate-smart agriculture sector.

By doing this, we will collectively help secure a future for Australian agriculture, which is good for farmers, good for Australia and good for our economy.

We have consulted extensively already with a large cross section of the ag and land sectors and this Summit is another important step in that piece of work.

But we’re not waiting for the plan to be finalised before getting moving.

You would have seen the Prime Minister’s announcement of a record $519 million investment in drought preparedness, through the Future Drought Fund.

Accompanied by a commitment to incorporate broader principles of climate resilience, greater public benefit and support for longer-term trials.

Beyond that, though, our government wanted to demonstrate to you, that we are serious about being a partner on this journey with you, starting now.

That’s why last week’s Budget also included $63.8 million as a down payment to assist the sector contribute to the whole-of-economy transition to net zero and make the most of existing and future opportunities as we develop the Plan.

This initial funding was borne out of what we heard through the consultation process, as well as the countless meetings and conversations I, my office and department have had with industry about these issues.

Put simply, what we’ve heard is that farmers and the wider industry are up for change, but they want to know what to do, where they can find trusted information, how they can measure their impact, and what further R&D can be supported.

And this initial funding moves things forward on all of those things, so I am very pleased to announce the breakdown of this funding today.

BUDGET FUNDING

Meaningful emissions reduction from agriculture depends strongly on innovation, research and development.

And enhanced coordination and collaboration will increase the likelihood of achieving important R&D outcomes, and at a faster rate.

That’s why, as part of our Budget commitment, the Albanese Government has committed $4.4 million over 10 years for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to become a formal partner in the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre.

The centre will be established on 1 July 2024, with 73 partners across the ag and research sectors and will be a major vehicle for long-term research required to support emissions reduction from Australian agriculture.

Our government has already delivered $87 million to this centre through our colleague Ed Husic’s CRC funding program. It seemed appropriate to me that the Federal Department of Agriculture should be involved too.

This partnership will ensure the Australian Government is actively involved in this important initiative for a lower emissions future to drive positive outcomes for the sector.

The importance of research and development cannot be understated, but the effectiveness of its application is reliant on the training and education we provide farmers and their trusted advisors.

Prioritising training, education and capacity building for farmers is a no-brainer.

It accelerates on-ground action to reduce agriculture and land emissions, and helps farmers integrate better practices into their core business decisions and activities.

To build these skills we have allocated $30.8 million over 4 years to the existing Carbon Farming Outreach Program to:

• provide additional train-the-trainer sessions to trusted advisors who can share good practices with our farmers;
• establish a knowledge-bank that combines existing training and climate-smart farms’ agenda for farmers to access; and
• provide grants for our Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) to develop commodity specific information on how to implement low emissions solutions that can be accessed by producers.

But if we’re going to keep building the capacity of our farmers to reduce their emissions, they and we need to know what impact it’s having.

I’ve lost count of the number of carbon calculators or methodologies I’ve heard of or had pitched to me since becoming Minister nearly two years ago.

And I’ve equally lost count of the number of times farmers, their suppliers and customers, bankers, insurers and more have told me we need some sort of benchmarking of these measurement techniques if they are to have any credibility.

It happened again at the Croplife post-budget breakfast, where a representative from Rabobank asked me whether the government would set some standards for emissions calculators for use on-farm.

The answer is yes.

Empowering the ag and land sector with improved estimation and reporting mechanisms will drive action to reduce emissions.

That’s why this Budget aims to improve greenhouse gas accounting in the agriculture and land sector at the national and farm level with an investment of $28.7 million over four years.

Funding will be used to:

• enhance the National Greenhouse Accounts methods and data collection processes;
• develop, publish and maintain voluntary emissions estimation and reporting ‘standards’ for industry; and
• support the incorporation and maintenance of those standards into a farm-level greenhouse gas emission accounting platform that can accessed by new and existing calculator interfaces.

These Budget commitments are not the end of our investment, but they are a very important start.

By investing in R&D collaborations, building on-farm capacity and injecting integrity into our carbon measurement techniques, we are laying the building blocks for further action through the forthcoming Ag & Land Sector Plan.

A plan I look forward to us developing further today.

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Today, together, we take another step forward towards a lower emissions agriculture industry and all the benefits that come along with it.

But after a decade of delay, we have a lot more to do.