QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms COLLINS (Franklin—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) (14:33): I want to thank our fabulous member for Braddon. It's been a real privilege to be up in her electorate with her and talk to farmers and, of course, taste some of Australia's best produce in her electorate too. Of course, we are supporting our farmers because we understand the importance of keeping our farmers farming during this difficult time for them.
Just yesterday, I was pleased to advise that more than one million tonnes of imported urea has now been cleared through Australia's strict biosecurity system since the escalation of the war in the Middle East in February—one million tonnes cleared through our biosecurity system that, let's not forget, those on the other side left underfunded when they left office.
It's a system now that we've had to strengthen with over $2 billion in additional funding. While our government will never compromise on biosecurity, we have introduced a streamlined process to get our fertiliser to our farmers faster. This has been welcomed by Fertilizer Australia, with their chief executive, Stephen Annells, saying they're 'committed to working alongside the government, ensuring that our collaborative efforts lead to sound biosecurity systems and timely access to fertiliser for Australian farmers'.
As I've said many times, we do have enough fertiliser in the country or on the water, in terms of the current planting season, but we are adding to this. We want to provide as much certainty in uncertain times for our farmers as we possibly can. We've now secured six cargoes of around 209,000 tonnes of additional urea through our $7.5 billion fuel and fertiliser security facility, with our work to underwrite this fertiliser being called for and welcomed by the industry.
The National Farmers' Federation said they're 'pleased to hear more fertiliser is on its way to Australian farmers' and 'every bit counts'. But, of course, we haven't had any clarity from those on the other side. The three parties over there of opposition have been saying, on one hand, they're welcoming the fact that we're getting more fertiliser.
Some of them are saying we're not getting enough. Some of them are saying we shouldn't interfere in the market. They can't make up their minds whether getting more fertiliser for our farmers is a good thing or not.
Well, we make no apologies for getting more fertiliser into Australia for our farmers. We want to make sure that our farmers have access— The SPEAKER: I'll just get the minister to pause. Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?
Mr Tehan: On relevance, this is a critically important issue for a lot of people, and it didn't talk about the opposition. Ms Plibersek: We asked a question about it when you could have. The SPEAKER: The Minister for Social Services is warned.
The minister was talking about alternative policies. I'll hear from the Leader of the House. Mr Burke: The minister was specifically asked what the response to these measures has been, and that's what she's directing to now.
The SPEAKER: The minister should make sure her answer doesn't consist of opposition policy, and the manager should make sure he is listening alongside me. Ms COLLINS: I think my point is they don't have a policy or a view that's coherent. They can't decide whether enough fertiliser for our farmers is a good thing or not.
We make no apologies for getting more fertiliser for our farmers or more fuel for our farmers. We're going to continue that hard work with our international trading partners, with Fertiliser Australia and with our farmers to make sure that we do everything that we can do to get as much fertiliser into this country as we possibly can, clearing a million tonnes of fertiliser since the war, and we'll continue to work for our farmers.