The Morrison Government has a plan to lift Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to a $100 billion industry by 2030.
The industry has a road map to do this – our policies will help get them there.
A $100 billion industry means many more jobs in our regional and rural communities.
Our plan to help the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector reach its potential is focused on:
• Tackling barriers to growth and production.
• Providing the water needed for growth and drought proofing.
• Tackling intergenerational land transfer and encouraging new farmers.
• Expanding exports and improving market access.
• Getting the balance right for the fisheries and forestry industries.
There are challenges, but we’re addressing these too: pests and weeds, external biosecurity threats, climate impacts, changeable consumer preferences and international competition on research and development and commercialisation.
A re-elected Morrison Government will:
• Support farmers to buy their first farm and plan for intergenerational transfer with ‘AgriStarter’ concessional loans through the Regional Investment Corporation.
• Establish the National Water Grid, a statutory authority responsible for national strategic planning and management of water policy and infrastructure.
• Increase opportunities to sell Australian food and fibre overseas including expanding horticulture through a new 2030 protected horticulture strategy.
• Continue to ensure the industry has the skilled workforce it needs through a National Agricultural Workforce Strategy and a new National Agricultural Labour Advisory Committee.
• Support farm safety with a new National Farm Safety Education Fund.
• Implement a Dairy Mandatory Code of Conduct and support more sophisticated contracting and milk marketing tools to increase price transparency.
• Support the battle against pests and weeds in drought affected communities
• Deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full to give Basin Communities certainty – a triple bottom line approach that recognises the continued importance of agriculture in the Basin.
• Deliver increased transparency and accountability in the Murray-Darling Basin.
• Commission the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to undertake a review of southern Basin water markets.
• Protect the right to farm with new laws targeting trespass and protecting farmers’ privacy.
• Develop a National Fishing Plan built on close consultation with the sector to achieve a shared vision for the industry.
• Develop a Commonwealth Fisheries Resource Sharing Framework based on comprehensive surveys and careful analysis.
• Support better mental health for commercial fishers through a trial of a mental health trusted advocate network.
• Support projects that improve the health of Australia’s marine and estuarine habitats.
• Invest in building the capacity of recreational, Indigenous and commercial fisheries representatives.
• Support new and upgraded recreational fishing and camping facilities, regional jobs and fishing safety through a new grant program for local councils.
• Support the planting of 1 billion new plantation trees by developing special Plantation Development Concessional Loans under the Regional Investment Corporation.
• Deliver 20-year rolling Regional Forestry Agreements with relevant states.
• Bring forward the establishment of the Regional Forestry Hub in South West Slopes NSW as a pilot Hub.
• Develop a farm forestry strategy.
• Commission an inquiry into short-term timber supply chain constraints in the national plantation sector through the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources.
Labor risks it all.
Under Labor, farm production will be hit. They have already promised to burden farmers with unnecessary and unprecedented new federal environmental regulations and raise the cost of doing business with additional taxes.
Labor’s trade policy will make it next to impossible to grow our exports. They want to meddle with the Free Trade Agreements our government has delivered. Labor’s trade policy will take us backwards.
Under Labor, there will be no growth in the forestry industry.
Not only do they plan to return to their failed Tasmanian Forestry Agreement, there are real concerns that Labor will abolish Regional Forest Agreements altogether and put forestry under the control of their proposed new Environment Protection Agency in Canberra.
Under Labor, Murray-Darling Basin communities will not have certainty.
