Interview with Belinda Varischetti, ABC WA Country Hour

Radio Transcript
Prepared: Friday 24 June 2022
Title: Belinda Varischetti interview with Minister Murray Watt
Description: Belinda Varischetti interview with Minister Murray Watt discussing the live cattle trade, the agriculture industry's skilled staff shortage and the ag visa
Channel: ABC South West WA
Program: ABC WA Country Hour with Belinda Varischetti
Date Broadcast: 24 JUNE 2022 
Time Broadcast: 12:06pm - 12:17pm

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Kicking off today with the news that Murray Watt is on his first trip to Western Australia since taking on the job as Australia's Federal Agricultural Minister. He visited a wheat and wool farm at Brookton, 130 kilometres south-east of Perth, and held a series of round table meetings with WA farmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association, relevant State ministers and sheep exporters. As you know, at this stage the Government has plans to shut down the $92 million live sheep export industry but not during this term of Government.

Murray Watt, welcome to the WA Country Hour. You have had the chance to meet with sheep exporters during this trip to WA. Have they convinced you that the industry deserves a future?

MURRAY WATT: G'day, Belinda. Nice to talk to you. This has been a really useful trip for me as the ag minister to get on top of a whole range of issues facing the ag industry in WA, whether it be biosecurity, export markets and, of course, Labor's election commitment to phase out the live sheep export industry. I've been very clear with everyone I've met with on this trip, whether it be farmers, sheep processors, exported and animal rights groups that it is my intention to implement that policy. It is something that we did take to the election and I think it's important that commitments are honoured. 

But what I've also said is that I'm very open to issues like the timeframe for the implementation of this commitment, how it would be done, what kind of industry support would be required, what other opportunities there might be in the way of new markets or meat processing opportunities. So I do think that there's a lot of room for negotiation and discussion as we implement this process and, as you say, we're not in a rush to do this. We're not going to be a bull at a gate. The Prime Minister has made clear that it won't be done in this term of government and that's so that we can do it in a sensible and orderly manner rather than a rushed manner which would really hurt the industry even more. 

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: The industry starts from a difficult position in arguing its case and putting the science and the proof in front of you because you came to power with a bias against the industry. I mean, even Australian Alliance For Animals announced your policy on sheep exports ahead of the party making an announcement and the government ministers constantly saying things like the industry is in decline, which comes, you know, straight from the animal rights hymn book. Isn't it more appropriate for an agriculture minister coming to the table saying how can we fix this, how can we make this work?

MURRAY WATT: Well, I wouldn't say that the policy has a bias. I obviously wasn't involved as the shadow minister in the formulation of this policy but it's my job to carry it out. I would say that our - the then opposition, what is now the Government, had examined the evidence and that's what we're here to make the decision that it did. But, as I say, there is a lot of room for negotiation around how this policy is implemented.

I understand that there are really strong views on all sides of this debate and I recognise that the industry has made improvements when it comes to animal welfare. But there do remain significant concerns around animal welfare as well as the fact that, you know, we can design this right we can actually generate more jobs and income for Australia in the form of extra meat processing.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: How did you feel about Australian Animals Alliance making that policy announcement ahead of your own party doing it?

MURRAY WATT: Well, again, I wasn't in the role at the time but I did notice it from the sidelines and I simply think that that was a mix up. It obviously - our election commitments don't tend to be announced by other parties and I'm not exactly sure what went on there and I think that was unfortunate that that occurred. I raised that this morning when I met with sheep exporters to say that, as far as I am aware, that was a simple mistake but I understand that people may have not appreciated it being done that way and it's not the way it should have happened. So we took some steps after that to try to tidy that up but, of course, we would have preferred it not occur that way.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Are you open to changing your mind? You're saying you're listening to the industry, is it possible that you could be swayed to change your mind on the future of live sheep exports?

MURRAY WATT: Look, I really don't think so. I mean, I said to the exporters today I don't want to give people false hope. I think the worst thing that I can do is to come to WA and try to pretend that things might change when we made a very clear commitment at the election that it is our plan to phase out the industry. But what I was at pains to say, and keep saying to people, is that this isn't something that we want to do in a rush. I do recognise that it is a major adjustment for the industry and something that needs to be done properly and I'm keen to work with industry to see what other opportunities there might be.

This is not the first industry that Australia has had that has been phased out over a period and sometimes we've seen examples where that's been done poorly and it's destroyed regional economies and employment and sometimes we've seen it done well where actually regional economies grow and that's the way I want to go about this by close consultation with everyone who has got a view on it so that we can end up with the WA economy actually coming out ahead as a result of this.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Just onto the live cattle trade now. Now that trade to Indonesia has eased over the last three or four weeks as anxious Indonesian importers put the brakes on paying record prices for Australian cattle because there's no clarity on how they would handle an outbreak of FMD, foot-and-mouth disease, at their end. What is the latest on how the Australian Government is assisting Indonesia to contain FMD, keep it out of Australia and keep that cattle trade back to business as usual?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, this is a really big concern, Belinda, and it has come up again in the meetings that I've had in WA, just as it has in meetings I've had in my home state in Queensland and many others as well as and we need to do everything we possibly can as a country to keep foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease out of our country.

To give them their due, the former government did put in money to supply vaccines and technical expertise to Indonesia and we're now in the process of procuring foot-and-mouth disease vaccines and meeting other requests from Indonesia such as technical advice and training. We've also provided LSD, or lumpy skin disease, vaccines to assist Indonesia. But I'm working really hard with my department to get on top of what would be the next steps because we know that's not enough. 

We did manage to get the new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, to raise this as an issue of concern when he met with the Indonesian President recently and I'm actually going to be travelling myself as the Minister to Indonesia in the near future to reinforce that visit, to talk about what more we can do to assist Indonesia. We've got some other ideas that we're working on at the moment and I hope to have some more to say about that quite soon.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: 12:13 and you are listening to Murray Watt. He's the new Agriculture Minister and he's made his first trip to Western Australia, just about to fly out but he spent the last couple of days here. The text is 0448 922 604 if you're listening along and you want to be part of the conversation. 

Murray Watt, this text just through and it's an important issue, too. It's from Michael who says ‘please ask the Ag Minister what the government's plan is to enable farmers in WA to recruit skilled farm staff direct from Europe and to employ them permanently if they meet all safe operator standards’. How are you going to address this issue in terms of making these ag visas or some kind of visa system available to get the staff that these industries need?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, Belinda, I would say that the work force shortage is probably the biggest issue that's been raised with me by farmers and farm groups ever since I took on this role and, frankly, it was being raised with me even when I was in Opposition in my dealings with the ag industry because this is not a new problem. This is something that's been a problem for a number of years. It's obviously got worse since international borders closed through COVID and we've got to tackle it. 

We went to the election with a commitment to expand and strengthen the Pacific Island Labour Scheme because that has been a successful way of attracting workers, both skilled and unskilled, to work in the ag industry in Australia and I've noticed a lot of criticism, a lot of talk from David Littleproud, the former agriculture minister, about his ag visa in recent days. The problem is that for all of the talk that David Littleproud and the former government went on with about the ag visa, it didn't actually produce a single worker and what we're keen to do is look at solutions that work and that's why we're looking so hard at the Pacific Labour Scheme to expand that. So that's a priority for me to get that policy up and running and deliver those workers. 

But I also think we've got to continue thinking about what more we can do to train and supply Australian-based workers for ag. We do have people who, I think with the right training, would be able to take up these careers in ag because as know, there's many fantastic careers available if we can train people with the right skills and I've been very clear with both farm groups, unions and anyone else, that if the solutions that we've already got on the table prove to not be enough then of course I'll sit down with people and work on other ideas as well.

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: You mentioned that Pacific sort of visa system getting workers from there, but the industry here in WA, the pastoral industry in the north with the pastoral stations, the ag industry in the south mainly, are really looking for those workers coming from, say, Europe or even South America. So they are having real trouble getting any workers through the visa systems available now. 

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, and,  I mean, I suppose to be fair, I've been in the job about three weeks, Belinda, so I'm doing what I can to get things moving. But, again, visa issues that were in place and were causing problems well before we took office and what I can assure your listeners is I'm working hard on this. Probably work force shortages and biosecurity would be the two biggest issues that I've been working on with my department since I took office and I can see that there might be some other options out there, like the ones your listener has just texted through. So it's been raised with me as part of the meetings I've done in WA and I'll be having some further discussions with my department about it that. 

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: Thank you so much for being part of the Country Hour here in Western Australia, Murray Watt. Really appreciate that. I know you're at the airport about to take off so I will let you go. Thank you again. 

MURRAY WATT: You can probably hear the planes. Thanks, Belinda. 

BELINDA VARISCHETTI: See you. Murray Watt, he is the Agriculture Minister and he's been in Western Australia for a couple of days and just about to leave the State, as you can hear. He's been having a few round table meetings with WA farmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association, caught up with the sheep exporters today and also visited that farm at Brookton 130 kilometres south-east.