TONY BRISCOE:
Franklin MP Julie Collins is wasting no time catching up on issues around agriculture, forestry and fisheries after being sworn in to the federal ministry earlier this week. I caught up with Julie Collins a short time ago to ask her about agriculture and her change from the housing sector.
JULIE COLLINS:
Look, I’m really excited and thrilled by being back in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry portfolio. I obviously had this in opposition for a period of time, and I’m really thrilled by it. And, of course, keeping my small business hat on, there’s a lot of synergies between these 2 portfolios, so I’m really excited.
BRISCOE:
Now, as you mentioned, you were shadow ag minister before the election, but that changed after the Albanese government came into power. What happened there?
COLLINS:
Well, there’s always changes. You know, we serve and these decisions are decided by the Prime Minister. But I’m really excited to be back in this area and, you know, I’ve already been engaging with stakeholders already and I’ve been chatting to people and I’m really excited about it.
BRISCOE:
Okay. How do you view the role of Agriculture Minister and your relationship with the farm sector?
COLLINS:
Well, obviously it’s about engaging. It’s about listening to some of the challenges that they’re facing and it’s about making sure that we have a robust, sustainable agriculture industry that continues to thrive in Australia. What I want to see, of course, is not just high quality which we’re known for, but also high value and value adding of our terrific products here in this country.
BRISCOE:
There’s lots of things to talk about with the ag sector. There’s also a lot of anger out there over the ban on live sheep exports. How do you, as the new minister, calm that down and is a WA on the cards?
COLLINS:
Well, certainly I will be talking to industry and to the sector about it. I’ll obviously also be engaging with the Western Australian Government. I know Minister Jackie Jarvis very well because, of course, she’s also a Small Business Minister. So I’ve been engaging with her for several years already in that portfolio. So, we’ll be having discussions around that. I think, you know, certainly I can understand the concern of the individual farmers. My job, I think, here is to make the transition as smooth as possible and to communicate with them in a way that they understand and in a way that means that they can transition as smoothly as possible.
BRISCOE:
Will there be any extra money in the package to wind down the live exports?
COLLINS:
Well, you know, we’ll be having those discussions. As I said, I certainly want to engage and I need to get across all of the finer detail of what is the package to date, and to talk to people about what that might look like.
BRISCOE:
Julie, do you think it’s ironic that your home state Tasmania sends hundreds of thousands of lamb and sheep across Bass Strait each year for processing? Is there an animal welfare issue there, and should that processing occur in the state?
COLLINS:
Well, obviously the value adding and the processing of products, the closer you can get them to farm gate the better, you know, in terms of quality and in terms of cost for people. But you know, we work in a very large country and live in, thrive in it and there are great distances to be covered all the time for livestock. So, you know, it is difficult because of course you can’t have an abattoir on every street corner.
BRISCOE:
Yeah. And what about – talking abattoirs, what about the processing of meat in Tasmania? There are lots of farmers and some of them, I assume in your electorate, that would be very happy if there was more processing in the south of the state.
COLLINS:
Yeah, I look forward to having more conversations with them. Obviously as a local member with a lot of agriculture, as you point out – particularly a lot of meat producers in my electorate – some of it is processed locally, some of it travels a bit further away. So, I look forward to engaging with them about that. As I’ve said, ideally, the closer you can manufacture and process things closer to where they’re grown, the better. But that’s not always possible given scale of economy and the size of our country.
BRISCOE:
Biosecurity is always a big issue. Is the biosecurity levy buried and dead with regard to the farm sector?
COLLINS:
Well, as a government we’ve been obviously investing heavily in biosecurity. It is critical to making sure that our very high quality products continue to receive good prices overseas, and it’s obviously important to the farming community right across the country. What we’ve done is we invested now around a billion dollars more over the 4 years, and we’re moving to, you know, user pay charges for those people that are importing and indeed even for Australia Post to make sure that you know we can get cost recovery for protecting our borders and keeping some of these pests and diseases out of our country. I look forward to continuing to engage with the sector about why we need long term sustainable funding for biosecurity in Australia.
BRISCOE:
But is that levy still on the cards, then?
COLLINS:
Look, I’ll be having more conversations with people about it. As I said, we have, as taxpayers, invested significantly more the billion dollars over 4 years. It is a system that people rely on and people get benefit from, and we need to make sure that those people that use it and get benefit from it contribute to it.
BRISCOE:
The Varroa mite incursion has spread on the Albanese government watch. Is enough being done to live with the mites?
COLLINS:
Well, I’m continuing to get briefings on some of those issues and some of the biosecurity issues, whether they be around bird flu, whether they be around the imported ants or the Varroa mite. I continue to engage with those governments, the state governments and the funding that they’re receiving in the joint funding from industry, obviously, and states about those programs and about how we deal with trying to make sure that we reduce the impact as much as possible.
BRISCOE:
Julie Collins, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, is our guest on the Country Hour. Julie, with regard to forestry, what is your stance on the continued logging of native forests, especially in Tasmania and states like South Australia?
COLLINS:
Well, we obviously need timber. Can I say, Tony, what we don’t know in Australia is exactly what amount of timber we need. Certainly we export some timber, but we import even more. So, we don’t have an ability to have what you might call sovereign capability of our timber industry and the need for timber. I have been in discussions and had some discussions previously – obviously being a Tasmanian with plenty of forest industry and my own electorate – with the sector, and been engaged with them for some time. Certainly I think we need to get better utilisation of existing timber resources and we need to make sure I think that over the long term, Australia has sovereign capability when it comes to timber.
BRISCOE:
Is enough being done for areas that have discontinued native logging areas like Manjimup in WA?
COLLINS:
Well, that’s obviously decision for state governments about what they do in terms of native forest and how they do their transition packages and how they work with their local communities. But obviously I like to see local communities thrive and obviously these have an impact in local communities.
BRISCOE:
Now, in your fisheries portfolio, where do you stand with the continued use of Macquarie Harbour for the salmon industry? And do you have the ear of the Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek when it comes to this issue?
COLLINS:
Well, obviously I have been a long‑term supporter of a sustainable salmon industry in Tasmania. It does support thousands of direct and indirect jobs in our state and my own electorate has plenty of aquaculture in it, as you would be aware. So, I have been a supporter of it for a long time. I do think that it can be done sustainably and we can have a sustainable industry, but a successful industry. Any decisions around the environmental impact and what is happening in terms of the EPBC Act are fundamentally for Minister Plibersek. She has statutory obligations around what she has to do. That legislation, of course, is the Howard government legislation and we’ve indicated that we’ll be introducing different legislation in terms of nature positive laws going forward. But certainly, you know, I support the sector and the industry and Minister Plibersek has statutory obligations about what she needs to do.
BRISCOE:
Will you be telling her that you do support the ongoing salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour as long as everything is environmentally sound?
COLLINS:
Well, I don’t think it’ll come to any surprise to her. She has seen me out and about supporting the sector and the industry and, of course, we had the Prime Minister come down and chat to the industry and my own electorate not that long ago.
BRISCOE:
And what about the Greater South East Irrigation Scheme in Tasmania where the $150 million needed to push the completion of stage 3 did not eventuate in the Budget. What’s your thoughts on that? And once again, it’s Tanya Plibersek who’ll make the final decision.
COLLINS:
It is a final decision for Minister Plibersek in relation to the south east irrigation. But I have been a long‑term supporter of Irrigation Tasmania, and working with the 2 tiers of government and with the industry in terms of making sure that we continue to produce here in Tasmania and have access to irrigation. I think our irrigation systems are indeed nation leading in terms of what we’ve done, and I have been responsible for supporting and getting federal Labor governments to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into our Tasmanian irrigation scheme. Even as shadow minister, I was able to come down and announce another $100 million for the system. So, I am a strong supporter of our irrigation system and I’ve already had a chance to have a quick discussion with the Tasmanian state government about making sure that we put the best possible case up for Tasmania.
BRISCOE:
And it is somewhat urgent though with this issue at the moment. They can’t afford to really wait, the farmers.
COLLINS:
Well, we know that these have to go through usual processes. Tony. We need to make sure that the business case is as robust as it can be. And we need to make sure that we work with the industry and with the state government to get that business case to where it needs to be.
BRISCOE:
Julie Collins, every farm around the country is a small business. Lots of other small businesses rely on those small farm businesses, Many struggling with rising input costs. You’ve got the higher power prices, heavier freight costs, interest rates, etcetera. Is the federal government doing enough for this sector, the small business sector around the country?
COLLINS:
What you saw in our last Budget, Tony, was around $640 million in targeted support for small businesses. We understand, obviously, that some small businesses are doing it tough. In terms of the agriculture sector, certainly input costs have been very high. The advice in my briefings to date is that’s starting to come off in terms of the global impacts, and they’re obviously coming out of COVID and the war in the Ukraine and other things. But certainly I will be keeping abreast of those input costs and making sure that I continue to talk to the sector. I also have been informed that fertiliser availability is better than it has been for the last few years. So, hopefully things are on the improve when it comes to this. But as a federal government, we have been providing some targeted support to small businesses across the country.
BRISCOE:
You’ve got a big job ahead of you, and good luck with it all. And thank you very much for your time, Minister.
COLLINS:
Terrific to be with you, Tony. I look forward to catching up with you. Take care.