MOTIONS

Mr WILLCOX (Dawson) (17:20): Food security is national security, yet Australian farmland is being bought to generate carbon credits while Australian farmers face tough rules on how they farm, what they can produce and how they manage their land—and then they have to compete with imports produced under lower standards. That is not a level playing field, so I thank the member for Kennedy for bringing this important motion before the House, and I support it wholeheartedly.

I speak on this issue not only as the member for Dawson but as someone who has worked the land myself. I was a tomato farmer before coming to this place. I know what it means to put a crop in the ground, nurture it and harvest it, and then watch as the major supermarkets dictate what you will be paid for it.

Australian farmers are some of the hardest-working people in the country. Farmers get up before dawn, work through the heat, rain and drought, carry the risk of weather, pests and diseases, and then deal with the market forces—yet they're expected to compete in a global market on unequal terms. Australian agriculture contributes around $100 billion to our economy.

Farmers feed our families, employ Australians and keep regional communities alive and thriving. Food security is national security, yet Labor is making it harder for Australian farmers to produce Australian food. Our farmers face some of the highest input costs in the world, including high wages, exorbitant freight costs, astronomical fertiliser prices and an ever-growing burden of regulation and compliance.

Our farmers are not asking for special treatment or government handouts; they are asking for the government to get out of the road, stop adding unnecessary regulation, stop putting barriers between farmers and their land and stop making it harder and more expensive to produce food that this country depends on. Let the farmers farm. Give them a fair chance to produce, invest and grow.

Labor is making it harder and more expensive for Australian farmers to produce, and asking the farmers to compete with imported food grown under conditions that are completely different from ours. This is where this issue becomes more than agriculture; it becomes about Australian fairness. When Australian farmers are forced out of production, we don't simply lose a farm; we lose local jobs, regional businesses and agricultural expertise.

Ultimately, we become more dependent on food from somewhere else. This government should not be creating policies that make productive farmland more valuable as a carbon asset than as a food-producing asset. We've seen taxpayer backed investment being used to acquire Australian agricultural land for carbon projects.

That should concern every single Australian. A family farming should not have to compete with an investment fund backed by taxpayer money to buy the land needed to grow food. We should be growing food on our best agricultural land and supporting the farmers who produce it.

Before this government allows any imported produce into Australia, it should be asking some very basic questions. Does it pose a biosecurity risk? Does it undermine Australian farmers and regional communities?

Was it produced with the same environmental standards? Was it treated with registered and approved chemicals? Were the workers paid fairly and protected from exploitation?

If imported food is produced using child labour, slavery, unsafe working conditions or environmental practices that would not be permitted in Australia, Australian farmers should not be forced to compete with it. When Australians walk into a supermarket, they should have confidence in knowing that that food on the shelf is safe, is free from harmful chemicals that are banned in Australia and is fairly produced with no slave labour, and it should always be Australian first where possible.

When a young Australian wants to become a farmer, they should know that there is a future worth farming for, because once we lose the capacity to feed ourselves, we lose something far more valuable: we lose a part of our national resilience. I support this motion because Australian agriculture is not simply another industry; it is about our food, our jobs and our future.

The farming industry deserves to be protected. Without farmers, we starve.