Address to the Global Food Forum, Brisbane

Good morning everyone and thanks so much for having me here.

I’d like to start by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we’re gathering today – our first farmers - and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

I’d also like to acknowledge Penny, Michelle and Charlie from News Ltd and The Australian, Anthony from Visy - and to all our other distinguished guests.

It’s a great honour to be here at the Global Food Forum, right here in the centre of the agricultural universe - Queensland - on the day of the Origin decider.

Much like our all-conquering Maroons, Australian agriculture has been notching up quite a few wins lately.

Whether it be record production levels, grain harvests and exports of beef and sheep meat, new market access for our horticulture products or the resumption of trade with China, our ag sector is going from strength to strength.

I congratulate all of you in our food industry, along with our farmers, farm workers and the whole ag supply chain on those outstanding results.

The future of the industry involves both incredible opportunities, as Australia enhances its global standing as a supplier of clean, green and delicious food, as well as some risks to that ongoing success.

We have many people in this room that have conquered those risks and taken these opportunities to produce brands and products known around the world.

I see my role, and the government’s role, as putting down the foundations needed for you to succeed.

Today I will briefly outline our government’s priorities to ensure our food sector can grasp those opportunities, while overcoming those risks.

Firstly, since our election two years ago, we have invested significantly to maintain our world-class biosecurity system.

Keeping Australia free of exotic pests and diseases is fundamental to protecting our agricultural industries and environment.

From our rapid response to the foot and mouth and lumpy skin disease outbreaks in Indonesia, to fixing the irresponsible gaping hole that our predecessors left in our biosecurity budget, we’ve worked hard to protect Australia from multiple threats.

This will remain a focus for us, especially since there’s always a new threat around the corner, which is why we’re investing heavily to contain the spread of bird flu right now.

Secondly, our ag sector is nothing without its people, so building the sector’s workforce remains a key priority.

Rather than pursuing ag visa schemes that sounded good, but didn’t deliver a single worker, we’ve worked with the sector to deliver real solutions.

Our tripartite agricultural workforce group, which brings together employers, unions and government, will deliver over 14,000 better trained local workers through fee-free TAFE courses, a record number of Pacific workers through the PALM scheme, and is influencing school students and careers advisors to think more broadly about what careers in agriculture can involve - students like Kacie, who welcomed us this morning.

Thirdly, we’ve prioritised rebuilding and broadening our agricultural export markets.

As a nation that exports over 70% of our agricultural produce, we’re not at risk of running out of food ourselves, but these exports are crucial to our national economy and they play a massive role in delivering food security for the world.

Clearly, the stabilisation of our relationship with China is delivering real dividends to our ag sector.

Over the past 12 months, China has removed trade impediments on our exports of barley, timber, horticulture, cotton and hay.

Restrictions on all but two beef establishments have also been removed.

And bottled wine has once again made its way to China - $220 million worth in the last two months – which is almost four times the value of wine exports to China in 2021, 2022 and 2023 combined.

But recent years have shown us the risks of concentrated markets, which is why we’re also working to diversify them, everywhere from the UK, to India, to South East Asia and the Middle East.

Finally – and this is a project that has really just begun – we’re working closely with industry to lift the sustainability of our agricultural production.

Our farmers are on the front line of climate change, with ABARES estimating that changing seasonal condition have reduced the average Australian farmer’s profitability by 23% over the last 20 years.

So there are good economic reasons to take action.

Beyond that, it’s vital to preserve and build our international markets, with customers increasingly demanding more sustainably produced food.

That’s why our government is partnering with industry and investing in a more sustainable future for our ag sector.

The recent Federal Budget allocated more than $63 million to assist the sector with this goal.

This funding will deliver more research, training opportunities and on-ground action, to accelerate a low emissions ag sector, while also improving carbon measurement and reporting.

In the meantime, we’re working with the sector to develop a broader decarbonisation plan for the ag and land sector, which we expect to release later this year.

As I said, our actions on sustainability are driven by pragmatic judgments and good economics, not ideology.

Which brings me to one of the risks I see facing our ag sector – the proposed introduction of nuclear power.

Beyond the existing issues around cost and delay, I see nuclear power as raising some very specific issues for the ag sector.

As the driest inhabited continent on earth, the availability of water is fundamental to a successful Australian agriculture sector.

We need water for the food we produce, water to drink, and sustainable levels of water for our precious environment.

One issue not yet considered in the nuclear debate is the fact that nuclear energy production is a thirsty endeavour.

The generation of nuclear energy requires a significant amount of water to cool the radioactive cores – a lot more water than is required for coal-fired or renewable energy.

The fact is that, for an already risky policy, Peter Dutton hasn’t outlined where any additional water is going to come from for his nuclear reactors.

Many of his proposed reactors are located in prime agricultural regions, including just north of here at Tarong in the South Burnett, which is next door to the Great Artesian Basin.

It is still unclear just how much water the ag sector may have to give up for those nuclear reactors to operate. Or how much more farmers would have to pay for their water, against this competing use.

These are just more questions about nuclear that remain unanswered. And I think our ag sector deserves answers.

Call me old fashioned, but I’m into things that work, not costly ideological obsessions like nuclear power, or gimmicks like letting Coles buy Woolies, and Woolies buy Coles.

That’s why my focus remains working with industry to strengthen our biosecurity, build the ag workforce, expand our export markets and invest in on-farm sustainability.

That’s how we’ll continue to build the productive, profitable and resilient agriculture sector we’re all so proud of.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the forum.