Clean Energy Finance Corporation Amendment (Protecting Australian Farmland) Bill 2026

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (10:55): This, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Amendment (Protecting Australian Farmland) Bill 2026, is a critical private member's bill. Australia is facing a cost-of-living crisis, and the attack on agriculture is part of what is causing that cost-of-living crisis. Families are paying much more at the supermarket, more for electricity and more for everyday essentials.

At a time when people are struggling, government policy should be focused on producing food, supporting farmers and strengthening our regional communities, not attacking them and not attacking agriculture itself. The Rushy Lagoon example that the member for Wannon explained is absolutely perverse in its outcome. More than 21,000 hectares of productive agricultural land was purchased by a foreign investment fund to plant out with pine trees—to stop the farming, stop the economic activity of the local community and plant out with pine trees.

That is perverse enough, Member for Wannon. Do you know what makes it more perverse? It's that the Australian taxpayer helped finance it.

The Australian taxpayer helped finance the destruction of an Australian regional industry in an area where we're supposed to be supporting economic activity, supporting jobs and supporting regional communities. What are we doing in this place if the Australian taxpayer is helping foreign companies to facilitate a purchase of an Australian productive farm and turn it into non-productive areas?

It is crazy. It's like the Murray-Darling Basin thing all over again. It is government policy intervening to take agricultural production away from regional communities.

And what does that mean? It means there's less Australian food security, less Australian food sovereignty, less economic activity for regional jobs in regional communities and fewer export dollars. A lot of these products—Rushy Lagoon was a dairy facility—get exported to South-East Asia, to China.

We are absolutely stepping off the field where we have built up successful export markets over many years through our attack on a successful export industry—agriculture. It is insane to think that we would do this. It's an example of economic self-harm, which has been a trademark for this Albanese government during its four years of being in office.

You only needed to read the papers on the weekend to see where this is leading us. These left-wing policies are not good for the Australian economy, and we're starting to see it. I recommend everyone read Chris Uhlmann in the Australian.

If you wanted to stuff up an economy, this is what you would do. This is exactly what you would do over the last four years. We've got to get back to making sure that Australian taxpayers' dollars are focused on productive and profitable Australian industry, not locking up farmland, taking it away from production and significantly damaging the regional communities that depend on it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Buchholz ): The time allocated for this debate has now expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.