ADJOURNMENT
Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (19:56): Every decision affecting Australian food production should begin with one simple question: does this strengthen or weaken Australia's ability to feed itself? The Albanese Labor government would do well to ask this question as it continues to attack primary producers in this country.
Australia is blessed with something many nations would dearly love to have—the ability to feed ourselves. That is not something that we should ever take for granted. The growth of imports of food is growing faster than the growth of exports by dollar value.
A nation that cannot feed itself is a vulnerable nation. The same applies if that nation cannot access the fuel, fertiliser, chemicals and other inputs required to produce its own food. We've seen, repeatedly, in recent years just how quickly global supply chains can be disrupted.
COVID showed us that. Wars and geopolitical instability have shown us that. Natural disasters have shown that.
It was the coalition that announced funding from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to get the Perdaman fertiliser project to an investment decision. And yet, at precisely the same time that Australia should be strengthening our domestic food producing capability, the Albanese government seems determined to create more uncertainty for the people who actually produce it.
Recently, I had the great pleasure of attending the 90th anniversary celebrations of Pace Farming at Rollingstone, just north of Townsville. For nine decades, the Pace family has been part of the extraordinary agricultural story of North Queensland, producing crops, including bananas and pineapples. They are one of scores of family farms and farming families across regional Queensland who get up every morning and do the crucial work of feeding Australians.
At the Ekka in Brisbane over the weekend, I spoke to pineapple growers James and Will. James and Will are looking forward to a future growing pineapples for Australians. They understand better than anyone the devastation that an exotic pest or disease could inflict.
All these growers represent generations of knowledge, investment, infrastructure, hard work and risk. Once we lose that productive capability, it is incredibly difficult to get it back. That's why farmers are rightly concerned about the federal government's consideration of new pathways for imported bananas and pineapples.
In June, the department of agriculture commenced a new biosecurity import risk analysis, considering alternative measures for fresh Cavendish bananas from the Philippines. Australia currently imports no fresh bananas from any country. Our domestic banana industry produced almost 369 tonnes in 2024-25, worth more than $700 million, and 94 per cent of those bananas were grown in Far North Queensland.
Why would any government take unnecessary risks with that industry? The department has now released a draft report proposing that fresh decrowned pineapples from India and Indonesia could be permitted into Australia, subject to biosecurity requirements. Again, this matters enormously to Queensland.
Nearly every commercial pineapple grown in Australia is grown in Queensland. Our industry produced more than 68,000 tonnes in 2025. The department's own assessment has identified eight pests associated with fresh pineapples from India and Indonesia that require risk management measures.
Growers are understandably asking what benefit to Australia justifies taking additional biosecurity risks with a successful domestic industry. Biosecurity is one of Australia's greatest competitive advantages, but, once a pest or disease arrives here, it is very hard to eradicate. Whether I'm in cane paddocks, on cattle stations, talking with commercial fishers or sitting around a table with fruit and vegie growers, the message is consistent: they want their government to understand that Australian producers already face some of the highest labour, energy, environmental and regulatory costs in the world.
They're competing against imported products that can be produced under very different standards. Trade does not mean abandoning common sense. Our priority is that every Australian should be able to eat Australian, and farmers should be able to grow food, catch fish, raise livestock and manufacture the imports that our farmers need.
We should be protecting our Australian farmers, and the coalition will always put Australians first.