PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (12:12): I want to thank my good friend the member for Gippsland for bringing this motion before the House. There is a lot that I actually do agree with in this motion. Our livestock producers make an enormous contribution to this country.
They put food on our tables, they support regional jobs and they keep local economies moving. In the Hunter we know that firsthand. From cattle properties around Lake Macquarie, Cessnock, Singleton to the smaller communities across our electorate, agriculture is part of who we are.
These producers work bloody hard. They get up early, they work long days and they deal with drought, floods, rising costs, changing markets and pests. Wild dogs are another challenge they shouldn't have to face alone.
When a wild dog attacks livestock, it's not just a number on a spreadsheet; it's an animal that a farmer has raised, it's lost income and it's hours and hours of extra work. For a lot of farmers, it's extremely upsetting to walk into a paddock and see what's just happened. So I agree with the member for Gippsland that wild dogs are a serious issue and that they do need coordinated control measures.
But I don't accept the suggestion that the Albanese Labor government has walked away from pest management and biosecurity. The Commonwealth has invested more than $20 million to support wild dog management through the National Wild Dog Action Plan. We've also provided a $650,000 grant to Australian Wool Innovation through the Supporting Communities Manage Pest Animals and Weeds Program to support delivery of that plan.
That matters because wild dogs don't care where one property ends and another one begins. They don't care about council boundaries. They don't care about state borders.
If one landholder is doing the right thing but the property next door isn't involved in the program, the problem doesn't disappear. That's why farmers, governments, researchers and industry need to all work together. In our region, coordination matters because a wild dog can move through rough country and across multiple properties.
No single farmer, no matter how hard they work, can solve this problem alone. That's exactly the sort of approach that works in places like the Hunter, where you've got farms, bushland, national parks and difficult country sitting alongside each other. This government also understands that biosecurity is bigger than any one pest.
Since 2022, we've invested more than $2 billion in additional biosecurity funding. That money is strengthening prevention, detection, response and recovery right across this country. We've invested in frontline biosecurity, we've backed preparedness for H5 bird flu and we've supported responses to the red imported fire ants.
We're making sure our system is ready for the threats that can hurt our farmers, our environment and our economy. Why does that matter? Because Australian agriculture is something worth protecting.
Farm-gate production was on track to exceed $100 billion last financial year, four years ahead of the industry's 2030 target. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because Australian farmers are among the best in the world; it happens because our produce is clean, safe and trusted; and it happens because governments, industry and farmers work together to protect that reputation.
I also want to recognise the burden that pest control puts on individual landholders. A farmer in the Hunter already has enough to do without spending more time and money dealing with wild dogs. They need support, they need practical information, they need neighbours working together and they need governments at every level doing their part.
States and territories have the primary responsibility for managing established pest animals on the ground, but the Commonwealth has an important role in coordination, research and national leadership. We'll keep playing that role; we'll keep working with states and territories; we'll keep working with the industry; and, most importantly, we'll keep listening to the farmers who deal with these problems every single day.
There might be a political disagreement in this place about individual programs or where funding should sit. That's fine. But there shouldn't be a disagreement about the goal.
We want fewer livestock lost to wild dogs, we want stronger regional communities, we want productive farms, and we want a biosecurity system that protects Australian agriculture for the long-term. The farmers of the Hunter don't want speeches full of politics. They want practical results.
That's what we'll keep fighting for, and that's what this government will keep delivering.