Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Ms URQUHART (Braddon) (13:18): Since coming to government in 2022 we have been delivering for Australian farmers and producers. We're strengthening biosecurity, with more than $2 billion in new funding to keep Australia free from the world's most invasive pests and diseases—a very important issue not just for us down in our island state of Tasmania but for the whole country—and boosting the agricultural workforce, bringing employers, unions and government together to tackle the workforce challenges impacting Australia's agriculture and processing industry.

We've been opening new trade opportunities, through 231 market-access achievements since July 2022, and building a climate-resilient agriculture sector through the Agriculture and Land Sector Plan, backed by more than $2 billion worth of investment, to ensure that our farmers and producers can confidently face our climate future. We are steadfast in our support of industry's ambition to grow the agriculture sector to $100 billion in farmgate value by 2030.

I guess I'm not different from a lot of people in this place. My grandparents ran a dairy farm nestled under the Great Western Tiers, and I've many great memories of growing up there. My other grandparents ran a contracting business out of Kindred, many years ago.

So I think we all have a bit of that soil—beautiful Tasmanian soil—running through our veins. The Tasmanian salmon- and trout-farming industry currently creates around 5,103 full-time-equivalent jobs and has gross production value of over $1 billion. The Tasmanian salmon industry, while supplying just 1.6 per cent of the world's salmon, is the largest fishery in Australia by both volume and economic value.

In Tasmania the forest industry is a critical and fundamental part of the economy and social fabric that make our island state unique. In August, Minister Collins and I visited Forico Nursery in Somerset, Tasmania, to announce funding of $19 million for 15 plantation sites around the country, including five in Tasmania. Forico and the nursery supply seedlings to some of those plantations.

Tasmania supplies the nation with some of the highest quality fresh and frozen vegetables. Tasmania is also a prime location for the production of cereal and seed crops. Some of our farmers are doing it tough in negotiations with local food giant Simplot, who are trying to cut prices for potatoes due to their global procurement policy, and I stand with the farmers in that fight.

The recently released data from ABARES has forecast that the value of agricultural production will rise to $95 billion this financial year. When you include our fisheries and our forestry sector, that figure rises to over $100 billion—forecast for the first time ever. I know that's been said by previous speakers, but it's worth repeating.

This result has not been achieved by accident. It is the direct result of a deliberate and focused partnership between a government that is listening to an industry and an industry that constantly delivers. Australia's farmers, fishers and foresters are some of the hardest-working, most sustainable and most productive in the world, and, since coming to office, the Albanese government has backed them every step of the way.

We're opening up and diversifying trade opportunities. We're protecting and investing in our world-leading and robust biosecurity systems. We're boosting the agricultural workforce, providing skilled and dedicated staff for farms, processing plants and forestry operations.

We're improving on-farm climate resilience, to equip our producers with the tools, knowledge and support that they need to adapt and thrive in the face of a challenging climate. And we're supporting the research and development needed to drive Australian agriculture, fisheries and forestry into the future. Our government has committed to assisting the sector to act on climate and on reducing emissions, and we've announced $63.8 million to commence this work; that includes $28.7 million over 10 years, inclusive of $0.9 million ongoing from 2028-29, to improve greenhouse gas accounting in the agriculture and land sector, and $30.8 million over four years to accelerate on-ground action to reduce agriculture and land emissions; the funding will build on the existing Carbon Farming Outreach Program.

And there's $4.4 million to DAFF to become a partner in the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture Cooperative Research Centre that was established on 1 July 2024. We are proud to be supporting our vital agricultural— (Time expired)