Interview with Tony Briscoe, ABC Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC COUNTRY HOUR
TUESDAY, 4 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: New national food security strategy Feeding Australia; freight equalisation scheme

TONY BRISCOE, HOST: The Federal Agriculture Minister and Franklin MP Julie Collins has announced a new program called Feeding Australia at the ABARES conference this morning. The Minister told Laurissa Smith the new program will try and boost the security and supply chain resilience of agriculture and food production systems in Australia.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: So, we've announced a national food security strategy called Feeding Australia. What this is about is bringing together the important work that's already been done across government, whether it be the work that's been done by the Minister and the Department of Industry in relation to food manufacturing, whether it be the great work that the Infrastructure Minister and her department have done in relation to some of the logistics around supply chains, but it's about bringing all of it together in a cohesive strategy to make sure that we have enough food security here in Australia. It's about looking at the weaknesses, how we might mitigate and the cost effectiveness of those mitigations. So what we want to do is make sure that we can continue to feed Australia and we're ready for some of those impacts, whether they be things like global issues or whether they be things like climate change, or whether they be things around biosecurity. We've seen some of those things recently. You know, we had a cyclone in Northern Queensland. We've obviously got our Queenslanders and New South Welsh people just today considering the impacts of what a cyclone in their area might look like and the impact that it might have. We've had a bird flu outbreak. We eradicated one last year, we got another one back. All these things are impacting our food security system in Australia and it's about, is there anything more we can do? What does that look like? How much will that cost? Is it cost effective to put in those mitigations? It's important because even though we produce enough food to feed Australia more than twice over, we have felt some of those interruptions of the food supply and obviously we had a lot during COVID. There's been a lot of work done across government, across government agencies, and it's about bringing all of that work together and coming up with a comprehensive strategy.

BRISCOE: Who's driving it? Who's going to be on the initial committee?

COLLINS: Yeah, so we're going to have a National Food Council who will actually develop the strategy. We will work with industry and with sectors about the membership of that committee, and make sure that we get that good advice and then importantly, what does the implementation of that strategy look like.

BRISCOE: The government decided not to go ahead with the biosecurity levy, to legitimise it? How are you going to address the biosecurity issues if that's not the case?

COLLINS: Well, what you've seen from our government is more investments in our biosecurity system. We've now invested more than an additional billion dollars into our biosecurity system. You know, recently our announcement with more than $100 million to prepare for the H5 bird flu. We're the only continent that currently doesn't have it, so we're getting ready for that. We’ve made those investments. But importantly, we also now have cost recovery mechanisms. So, our importers are paying their fair share. Australia Post, with all the parcels coming into the country, is paying its fair share. So it's about working, I guess, with farmers and industry about what is their share, what does that look like going forward in terms of a sustainable biosecurity system. We want to make sure that our biosecurity system is not in the position it was when we came to office. As I've said, we've had to put in over a billion dollars to make it more secure and to stabilise and strengthen it. And we've got some great staff doing some great work. Our detector dogs and our team have picked up a lot more detections just over the past year, you know, another 14,000 that they've picked up of things coming to the country that shouldn't be.

BRISCOE: You mentioned that this food security strategy will help to minimise price volatility and costs at the checkout. It's not just about food security for farmers, it's more for the broader population. How can you do that when you have a duopoly that has proven through multiple inquiries that is continuing to cause all sorts of issues for suppliers and also for customers?

COLLINS: Well, obviously we've also done some work in relation to that. You know, we've made the food and grocery code mandatory. We've now funded Choice to do, you know, a basket of goods to put that information out in the public, to put downward pressure on some of those prices. But this food security strategy is about making sure that right across the food supply system that we're doing everything we can do to put downward pressure on prices, but making sure everybody along that supply chain gets a fair price for the work that they're putting in. You know, we want to make sure our farmers get the best possible price, but at the same time we need to put downward pressure for consumers. Both of those things are possible if we have an integrated strategy.

BRISCOE: So, shouldn't the ACCC's report into supermarket behaviour, which is now with the Federal Treasurer, needs to be made - shouldn't that be made public before this policy has been announced? Obviously, what that report is going to reveal will be critical to how this strategy is going to be put in place.

COLLINS: Well, obviously what that report will reveal is part of the work that will be done in preparing the strategy and bringing it together. This strategy has been called for from a lot of people across industry and the sector, and it's been widely welcomed today as an important part of Australia's food security system, but also a part of our national security more broadly. You know, we export 70 per cent of our produce, we export it globally. We are feeding the globe as well as Australians, and we need to make sure that that's done in a sustainable way and it's done in a way that is secure and that we have as little disruption to it as we possibly can.

BRISCOE: Do you think the freight, and I'm talking about the case of getting freight from Tasmania across Bass Strait, is sustainable? It costs more to get produce across Bass Strait than it does to leave the country, if you say trying to get something to Asian markets. How is that a realistic proposition?

COLLINS: Yeah, I've talked to many producers in Tasmania, and indeed to the fruit growers and other exporters in Tasmania, about the Tasmanian freight equalisation scheme. We obviously have now a Senate committee report into that. We're having a close look at that. One of the things that we need to be careful of, and I've talked to people about this, is that if a government changes the way we subsidise what we don't want to do then is put more pressure on prices going up and the charges going up. So, it's about how do we have an effective system whereby the government is supporting, you know, Tasmanians getting their great produce to feed Australians and the globe, but at the same time put downward pressure on the costs of shipping across Bass Strait.

BRISCOE: Why is there a review of a review? So, there was a Senate inquiry late last year and now that inquiry is being reviewed by the government. That doesn't make sense to me.

COLLINS: Well, we're looking at that inquiry and the recommendations that it made and, you know, talking to the Minister for Infrastructure about how do we make sure that we don't do something that actually increases prices across Bass Strait. You know, we need to put downward pressure on prices across Bass Strait.

BRISCOE: Federal Agriculture Minister and Franklin MP Julie Collins talking there to Laurissa Smith at the ABARES conference in Canberra about freight and the new program Feeding Australia.