Motions
Agriculture and biosecurity—Government performance
Motion
Mr Lachlan Hunter (Central Wheatbelt) (5:29 pm): I move:
That this house condemns the Cook Labor government for its persistent failure to deliver for Western Australian agriculture and biosecurity.
I rise as not only the member for Central Wheatbelt but also as the shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food on behalf of the opposition to outline the Labor Party's ill thought out plan and failures, particularly over the last six months since the March state election, for the second largest industry in the state, which, of course, is agriculture. At the last election the Cook Labor government did not have a single policy for agriculture. This is the second biggest industry in the state. It employs thousands of people. We are known around the world for our production of clean, green food. We just heard the member for Roe talking about our fishing industry and how important it is. We have seen the government move time and time again to shut down a viable and legitimate industry. We have seen a Minister for Agriculture and Food clearly not interested in the job. She does not want the job of Minister for Agriculture and Food in this state. We can reveal today that it is probably the first time in the Parliament's history that a government in Western Australia has not had a parliamentary secretary for agriculture. That was confirmed by the Parliamentary Library. We have a minister for agriculture from the other place who has no backup from her own party. The government has an absolutely massive majority in this Legislative Assembly and not one member of the backbench could put their hand up to be the parliamentary secretary for agriculture. The member for Cockburn would be a fantastic parliamentary secretary for agriculture and I urge the government to appoint him. The opposition cannot even ask the government of Western Australia a question to a parliamentary secretary about the second largest industry in Western Australia. We have to go to the minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Hannah Beazley.
It just goes to show the sort of priority that this Labor government puts on agriculture. It went to the election with no agriculture policy. Why do we now see a litany of cuts and the non-backing of a viable industry like agriculture? In the first hundred days of the Labor government, and now a Labor budget, we see cut after cut to an industry like agriculture. We saw that because the government clearly cannot even prioritise this industry or regional Western Australia.
Regional Western Australia spoke at the last election. Government members come in here with their bloated egos to say that they have been returned with a majority. They may have majority in this place, but they do not in the other place. There are people like the member for Albany and the member for Geraldton. It is the first time that those seats have been held by the Country Party or the National Party since the 1940s and 1950s. Yet the government still does not have a parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Agriculture and Food. It does not even have a policy for agriculture. When the McGowan government came to power in 2017, it disbanded the Department of Agriculture and Food. That is the classic Labor Party way. If there is anything to do with the regions or the bush, it just creates a super department called the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
When it comes to agriculture, the priorities of this government are just not there. Its economic contribution to this state is huge. It adds $10 billion annually to our state's economy. It is the second largest industry. The grains sector recorded a 26 million tonne harvest in 2022, and 80% to 90% of that has been exported. We are an exporting nation. Agrifood exports were worth $13 billion in 2022–23. In estimates we revealed that this Labor government cut funding to the Grower Group Alliance. For members who clearly have not turned on their GPSs and left the Darling Scarp of Perth, the Grower Group Alliance is a community-run organisation doing cutting-edge agricultural research that our farmers can lead the nation on. The former Liberal–National government brought genetically modified canola into this state under former Minister for Agriculture and Food, Terry Redman. It was a game-changing aspect of farming that changed the way we produced crops in this country, providing nourishing food to the parts of our world that so desperately need it. That comes from organisations like the Grower Group Alliance. Everyone loves to eat a Pink Lady apple. Those Pink Lady apples were bred and developed in Manjimup in the member for Warren–Blackwood's electorate.
Mr Bevan Eatts: And the Bravo?
Mr Lachlan Hunter: And there is the Bravo apple. I saw a carton of Bravo apples in the members bar, member for Warren–Blackwood. Those are innovative things that happen in our state in our second largest industry. That industry has a peak group called Grower Group Alliance made up of volunteer-run organisations. There is one in my electorate called the Meriden Agricultural Farm Improvement Group (MADFIG). That is what it does. It does an amazing amount of work in broadacre dryland agriculture. It belongs to the Grower Group Alliance. I do not know whether there is a personality issue between the current Minister for Agriculture and Food and the former one, because it seems that in this budget anything that the former Minister for Agriculture and Food, Hon Alannah MacTiernan, touched has the blowtorch on it. Not many people followed Minister MacTiernan's way of thinking, but she certainly was a Labor minister. I know that the former Minister for Regional Development is in the chamber. Hon Alannah MacTiernan was a Labor Party minister with a vision. She believed in agriculture in this state. They might have been in different factions of the Labor Party and did not support one another, because there is a blowtorch on those things. The government announced funding to the Grower Group Alliance of a mere $5 million in investment over about five years—an in-kind contribution of staff and a place to house it in Nash Street. We will get on to the debacle that DPIRD is in at the moment. The second largest industry is left homeless in this state under the department of regional development. People are scattered all over the countryside in the Perth metropolitan area. I do not know what they will do at the Perth Royal Show when all the DPIRD staff have to be kicked out of their offices so the chooks can come in.
The Grower Group Alliance does an amazing amount of work. It applies for federal grants and funds and has invested over $90 million over its tenure into delivering a real extension for growers right around this state. It has been put on the map as a proud ambassador, if you like, for Western Australian agriculture. It is a program and an alliance that the former minister for agriculture could be very proud of. Through going to industry organisations, listening to my parliamentary colleagues going to those field days and talking to grower groups, we have found out that the Minister for Agriculture and Food has sidelined the alliance. The government of Western Australia has asked the Grower Group Alliance for an evaluation report—"Tell us how good you're doing. Tell us what investment you're bringing back into the state of Western Australia and how much money and revenue you're bringing into WA." This government will not release that report because the government has a very, very strong track record of not delivering, or hiding, reports that the Western Australian taxpayers are paying for. The government absolutely hates scrutiny. It is happy to pour millions of dollars of taxpayers' money into a $217 million race track.
Mr Basil Zempilas: No business case.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: It has no business case. But, Leader of the Opposition, there is a business case. This business case was produced at the at the request of the minister, we hear. It was at the request of the government to say, "Show us the numbers about how this actually works", and now the minister has put it in her bottom drawer. She has obviously been seen to by the Deputy Premier, the razor gang of the Labor Party, to say, "No more funding for farmers. No more funding for regional Western Australia. Electorally, we are not popular in the bush."
As Liberals and Nationals in this opposition, we will continue to back the work of the Grower Group Alliance. I know the member for Bicton is not here, but she was saying before in this place that she was overwhelmed. She was overjoyed that a Labor Party member of Parliament got a mention in Farm Weekly and Rural Press. Let me read to members in this place what was in Countryman and Farm Weekly just last week. For those members who are not avid followers of the rural press, not listening to people in regional Western Australia, it is a weekly paper and it comes out on a Thursday. We are looking forward to what those fabulous journalists have to say. But on the front page of Countryman, the headline was "High and Dry". That was about the grower groups cut from this government.
In Farm Weekly, the headline was: "They've really let the regions down". I can table those articles if the chamber wants them. These are the realities that people are facing in regional Western Australia. The Grower Group Alliance has been cut, but we will get to the bottom of this to ensure that we can tell those grower groups that their own state government—I heard that the Grower Group Alliance was hauled up to the minister's office when the opposition pointed out the funding cut during estimates. They were hauled up to the minister's office and were asked to explain what was going on. They were told through backroom deals, "Don't worry, your accommodation space at Nash Street is not going to go anywhere." We will be prosecuting this further as an opposition. We know that there was—or there may have been—a little bit of a severance payment. There may have been a little bit of a severance payment to the Grower Group Alliance—a bit of hush money to let them go away and be sidelined and silenced. But $1 million for a grower group that has delivered over $90 million worth of investment in this state is absolutely huge.
We know that the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration is next. Unfortunately, it is next on the chopping block of this anti-farmer, anti-regional WA Labor government. It is an institute that does an amazing amount of work. We have got the polyphagous shot-hole borer, which I will touch on in a minute. It is the biggest biosecurity failure and disaster that our nation has ever faced. Then we have the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration. It is a proven collaboration amongst our four state-owned universities, funded, I might add, by that once-popular agriculture minister Alannah MacTiernan, who this minister seems to have a personality problem with, because it is next on the chopping block. Our word of warning as the opposition is to leave the WA Research Collaboration—WAARC, as it is known—alone. It is doing remarkable work, and it will be a litmus test. It will be a test of this minister and this government, whether or not they put the blowtorch to that organisation. It is letting down farmers and our world-leading research institutions.
I add that I was at the University of Western Australia the other day—my old stomping ground—at the Institute of Agriculture Industry event, where some of the greatest agricultural and primary production scientists and minds join to collaborate and share research to ensure that our industry prospers into the future. They were shouting from the rooftops about how amazing the Grower Group Alliance model is. It is the envy of every single state around the country, and we have learnt over the past two days that the Grower Group Alliance is now receiving phone calls from its mates in Canberra to say, "What's the deal with DPIRD defunding the Grower Group Alliance?" That puts the hard-earned levy-payer money that our farmers are contributing at risk of going to other states. If this minister wants to have levy-payer funds leave the state of Western Australia on her watch, then that is something that we will continue to underline to say that this government has the wrong priorities and the industry in Western Australia will not forget it. We know at the last election, if there was ever a litmus test of how agriculture and regional Western Australia feels about this government, they could look at those election results.
I know the Labor Party hates to talk about it, because it was all politics for the Labor Party, but we cannot forget the live sheep trade—the live sheep trade affects only Western Australia. Let us look at the politics in this country. We have a federal government and we have a state government. Today in question time we saw the Minister for Health, the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors and the Premier, on full display, throwing the federal Labor party under a bus when it comes to supporting our health system.
The Prime Minister and the Premier had an opportunity before the last state and federal elections, when it came to their anti-mining, anti-productive-and-primary-industry stance. We saw the former environment minister in charge of the approval of the North West Shelf project with Minister Plibersek—the Prime Minister-in-waiting, I like to call her—and the nature positive laws were scrapped. They were forgotten about because they knew that WA was important to the national electoral success of the Australian Labor Party. But we saw the state Minister for Agriculture and Food and the Premier get up and say, "We support WA's live sheep trade. We've always said that. We've put it on the public record. We support it!" In the last Parliament, when the member for Roe and members of the National Party asked very legitimate questions about this government's support of the live sheep trade, we saw the Premier of WA make animal noises at the National Party. That is a disgraceful comment that he made to members of the National Party. That is how this Premier and this government treat regional Western Australians. He comes in here and waves his arms around at the Leader of the Opposition when asked legitimate questions about health care in this state. He mocks members of this opposition. That is the Labor Party way.
The Labor Party did a dirty preference deal in Melbourne with the Animal Justice Party. It said it would get rid of the live sheep trade in Western Australia. The Premier and the Minister for Agriculture and Food said they supported it, but did they raise it with the Prime Minister or the Minister for Agriculture at any point in time? It was found out through the freedom of information process that they absolutely did not. We then found out that they had announced some bozo from Canberra to be an advocate for the live sheep trade transition. It was a $139 million package. I am sorry. I should not call him a bozo, he is actually a good bloke. He has met with National Party members of Parliament and members of the opposition on multiple occasions—Dr Chris Rodwell. We found out that the Minister for Agriculture and Food in this state took five months and a press release from me as the shadow minister and calls from members of this opposition to meet with the transition advocate. They are all talk when it comes to flashing cameras of GWN and regional news, but when push comes to shove, this minister and this government are all talk when it comes to the live sheep trade. Maybe the minister is overworked because she does not have a parliamentary secretary. In question time today we heard, in answer to a Dorothy Dixer, that we have the strongest economy in the nation, but we searched in the budget for support for sheep farmers who would be affected by the Labor Party's decision to end the live sheep trade. The Western Australia government came up with the sum total of zero dollars! The Labor Party talks about its history of being founded by shearers, off the sheep's back, under the tree on the hill without any light. That is the Labor Party way. It has screwed over those farmers, shearing families and regional communities.
It is nothing short of a disgrace. We know when the minister came out here to announce a $130 million package, she came to the Muchea saleyards and did not tell anyone in the industry that both the federal minister Hon Julie Collins and Hon Jackie Jarvis were there. There was no warning from anyone. She just rocked up and made an announcement. We will be putting the magnifying glass on this state government when it comes to the rollout of that $139 million because we know $40 million of that will be delivered by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and we will be watching very, very closely.
We saw the biosecurity disaster, and I know my colleagues will be talking about this, particularly the member for member for Warren–Blackwood, who represents a lot of horticulture in this state. I know my good friend the member for Kalamunda, who represents a very leafy part of Western Australia, will be very interested to talk about this as well. What we want to know is: Who knew what when? Who knew what and when about a biosecurity failure of this government? On the day of the budget, we were all putting our heads in the budget, waiting in anticipation to see how much would be in it for hospitals, roads and agriculture. Instead, we saw a miraculous press release from the Minister for Agriculture and Food raising the white flag on budget day to say that the state government had moved away from the eradication of polyphagous shot-hole borer to the control phase.
I do not know what the government printers had been doing, but clearly the decision had been made. We put it to the government that it had raised the white flag on the polyphagous shot-hole borer and surrendered well before the budget was printed. There was no accountability to the people of Western Australia. We know through conversations with people in Canberra that the state government of Western Australia probably knew something about the polyphagous shot-hole borer before the state election, but like everything that this government does, if it gets one sniff of political destruction for the government, it just blows it out of the water. It does not want to know about it. It covers up reports and is not truthful with the people of Western Australia.
The City of Canning created a chemical control for the polyphagous bug and it was simply sidelined and ignored. It was not listened to.
The Acting Speaker (Mr Stephen Pratt): Canning.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: Sorry. Canning, Acting Speaker. Is the member for Canning here? I do not know. That was sidelined and ignored. It was a proven Western Australian–led treatment with a 90% effectiveness rate, but Labor ignored it. I know the member for Geraldton as the shadow Minister for Local Government will go into more detail about the onerous requirements that that have been put onto local governments in this state because of the government's failing.
Then we have the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act. I know this minister and this government seem to really not like agriculture because we are only six months into this Parliament and I have a very long list of failings by this government. Goodness knows what the next three and a half years are going to look like for agriculture in this state. Luckily, we have an opposition and a National Party that are on to this government. The Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act is something that local governments, industry and farmers rely on to control biosecurity issues in this state. An independent review into the act started in 2022. You guessed it, Acting Speaker! Where is it? It is nowhere to be seen. It must be sitting in that bottom drawer with the Grower Group Alliance report. Maybe the Minister for Agriculture and Food in this state needs a couple more drawers. Maybe the Treasurer should tell her where the key is to unlock some of those drawers. We know that those drawers contain very real reform for agriculture in this state, which requires the government to actually pull their finger out and be up-front and honest and put a bit of cash behind it to ensure that we are the nation-leading state when it comes to agriculture.
Then there is the US beef import issue. If there was ever a trial run of our state's biosecurity preparedness, it would have been polyphagous shot-hole borer. We know it is the biggest biosecurity threat our country—not our state, our country—has ever faced. Now we have a Prime Minister in Canberra making the decision to allow US beef imports into Australia, something that Cattle Australia, the National Farmers' Federation and WAFarmers have all called to reject so we do not get mad cow disease in this country. If it was going to come into any state, it would come into Western Australia because we know that this government has zero plans or structure to deal with biosecurity matters in this state. It has an outdated act that had an independent review into it that the government will not even release and a $26 million line item in its state budget for the failing of the polyphagous shot-hole borer.
We know that the DPIRD site has been forgotten about. We know that the Minister for Agriculture and Food announced $320 million at Murdoch University, which was promised in 2022 and has still not been delivered. We asked the minister who represents the agriculture minister in this place during estimates and they are still looking for premises. That is a joke when it comes to our counterparts on the east coast, who have proud agricultural departments and research stations and who, under the former Liberal–National government, delivered amazing collaboration with researchers. To be fair, the former Minister for Agriculture and Food in this state, Hon Alannah MacTiernan, delivered some pretty remarkable programs as well. Did she have foresight? Maybe, because she was a senior person in the WA Labor Party, but she got things done.
Then we saw the Perth Royal Show betrayal in the budget. This government loves to pitch city and country against each other, but we have a massive event in our state called the Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia Perth Royal Show and it is great. Sandra Brewer is in the electorate of Cottesloe. She is from a farm in our South West. She is a big supporter of our primary industries and I know that she is always backing agriculture. A lot of the learnings of her city cousins and friends about agriculture were probably because they went to the Perth Royal Show! They got one of those little stickers that says. "I patted a pig at the Perth Royal Show." It was fantastic. My dad used to bring our chooks from the farm and show them. It was fantastic for people in our Perth metropolitan area to see the great work of our regional communities and our farming fraternity.
Under the former government and under this government, I might say, prior to the election, kids had free entry into the royal show. There was $5.2 million worth of funding for free kids entry and half-price entry for adults. That was a welcomed announcement because we know that divide exists. In 2025, that has been slashed to $2.2 million. Kids tickets are half-price only if they are with a full-paying adult. A full paying adult ticket costs $49.95. If a family of four in Western Australia wants to see our great agricultural industry in the member for Cottesloe's electorate on full display in a couple of weeks for two weeks, that is going to cost them a grand total of $126 to walk into the gate. That is before the Labor Premier's Bertie Beetle show bag.
Funding of $126 million into one of Perth's largest industry events is being cut by this government. It just goes to show. Again, it was not in the budget. It took the opposition, a media release, and going out there to make a song and dance about it to say, "Minister Jarvis, where's the money for the Perth Royal Show? Where is it? It's not in the budget!" They announced just days ago that they had done a backflip to support the Royal Show, but half-heartedly, I must say, since being called out by the opposition.
We are calling on the government to reinstate it in full. If it is good enough to support kids to go to the Perth Zoo, then it is good enough to support Western Australian families to experience Western Australian agriculture. I give a massive shout-out to the team at the Royal Agricultural Society of WA. I know many members of the opposition will be attending our country shows in September and October.
On that point, the Dowerin Machinery Field Days is the largest machinery field day in the Southern Hemisphere. We saw a plethora of announcements by this government about regional ministers. The Minister for Education is also the Minister for Wheatbelt. We have the largest agricultural machinery event in the Southern Hemisphere and a couple of weeks ago we had a massive event at the Crown casino called "Bringing Dowerin Downtown" so that people in the industry and stakeholders from Perth could see the amazing work. Do you know what? People did not even have to get into their EV to travel out to Dowerin; they could just pop down to Crown Towers to get a full taste. Who did we see there from the Cook Labor government? We saw the Minister for Agriculture and Food announce that we are pulling out of one of the grains organisations in Western Australia. That was the government's sole announcement, "We're cutting funding to the Grower Group Alliance. We're not supporting the live sheep trade. We're cutting Perth Royal Show funding. We've stuffed up polyphagous shot-hole borer. Now, we're pulling out of the grains industry."
Where was the Minister for Wheatbelt? Nowhere. Here she is—the Minister for Wheatbelt. I hope the Minister for Wheatbelt has packed her RMs and is coming to the Dowerin Field Days in a couple of weeks, because she was not at the "Bringing Dowerin Downtown" event and neither was the Minister for Regional Development. I know the former Minister for Regional Development would have been up at table 1 selling the good news of the government. This government is all talk when it comes to supporting agriculture and supporting regional Western Australia. It is just another little line item on a minister's business card and on the parliamentary website. That is all it is, and when push comes to shove on supporting our regions, they are nowhere to be seen—even when we brought Dowerin to Crown casino! They did not even have to jump in the car and come out to the Wheatbelt. We will welcome government ministers any time they want to come to our regional and rural towns.
The election result saw a massive increase in the number of Nationals WA members and regional members in this place. What happened to the people who lost their jobs at the last election? We now see that the Minister for Mid West, who is also the Minister for Agriculture and Food, who does not have a parliamentary secretary and clearly does not want to be the minister for agriculture, has appointed the former member for Geraldton as Chair of the Mid West Development Commission. If you are a follower of social media, you would think that the former member for Geraldton has been reincarnated because her picture, as the Chair of the Midwest Development Commission, is on every single government announcement. There are probity rules in this place to protect government institutions, like development commissions, from political interference. The 12-month rule seems to be reasonable. Having worked in Canberra, I know that former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull set up very clear rules around former ministers engaging with government departments. What did we see this government do, Acting Speaker? It rewrote the rule book. It rewrote the rule book, and if you are a former Labor Party member of Parliament, you get a cushy job six months out from the election. I do not know whether it is because no-one else wanted to employ these former members, but, seriously, that is a slap in the face to the taxpayers of Western Australia when it comes to good government and good governance. It is a disgrace that the government has one rule for its political mates and another rule for good hardworking people in Western Australia—and we know that former government minister Bill Johnston is now the chair of Burswood Park Board.
Mr Basil Zempilas: Bustling Billy.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: Bustling Billy! He is now Chair of the Burswood Park Board. Good luck selling that $217 million racetrack in Perth that nobody wants.
How many minutes have I got?
Ms Sabine Winton: Take a breath!
Mr Lachlan Hunter: Thank you, Minister for Wheatbelt. You are welcome to the National Party stall at site 39 at Dowerin Field Days. I will make you a cup of tea! Lastly on a couple of issues, we know—we heard it again today in question time—that when it comes to supporting regional Western Australia and supporting our agricultural community, the government has its firearms laws. The Minister for Police yesterday referred to me as a mug and he did not have the intestinal fortitude to get out of his seat in this Parliament and go out and look at the hardworking, decent Western Australians out front of Parliament House rightfully protesting against this government's total overreach on firearm laws. He said that he inherited the portfolio from the former minister, who was so useless that the Premier had to give the police minister portfolio to the member for Baldivis to recreate something of it. He said that we were all mugs. Basically, every single person who was out there was some sort of criminal. As my old man would say, "He's a bit of a slow learner." How many times does the government have to get beaten around in regional Western Australia on all these issues before it wakes up and listens? It announced it has regional ministers. It seems to be the day-after-the-election that Alan Carpenter thought. They say, "Well, Alan Carpenter did it, so Roger Cook can do it." But then they come in here and pit law-abiding firearm owners against each other for doing the right thing. Do members know what? The government says that National Party members are country yokels who do not support firearm reform. The minister quoted former Prime Minister John Howard. Well, the National Party actually supported the Law Reform Commission on doing a proper review of Western Australian firearm laws. The government got flogged in the upper house and then came into this place and used its numbers to back the opposition on sending it to a review because it knew how bad the law was.
The hardworking and decent farmers in my electorate want to do the right thing. They have never broken a law or got a speeding ticket in their life. They are on the phone to many of our electorate officers. We get thousands of emails from people saying, "Lachie, we want to do the right thing, but we can't get onto the portal." Then they are basically called criminals by the Minister for Police and the Premier in this place because they need firearms as a tool of trade on their farms. That is the way that the Cook Labor government treats agriculture, farmers and regional Western Australia.
I have two final points, Acting Speaker. One is the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. Let us not forget that little moment in history when this government totally failed on consultation. I know the Attorney General loves to write books. He might like to write a book on how not to do public consultation on government policy, because it was one of the biggest failures of any state government we have seen in a long time. I am regularly reminded as I traverse regional Western Australia of the incompetence of the Labor government in pitting one group of people against another.
In closing, I want to put on the public record something about the Prime Minister's and Minister Saffioti's five-minute last-ditch election commitment about a week and a half before the state election around the buyback of our grain freight rail, which will particularly affect my electorate, the member for Roe's electorate and the member for Mid West's electorate. It is just window-dressing. We know it is window-dressing because when it comes to this government supporting the rail industry in this state, there is $70 million on the table to support tier 3 lines—
Mr Don Punch: Do you support the buyback?
Mr Lachlan Hunter: We support the government spending money on tier 3 rail lines like it promised. Government members go out to the wheatbelt for two minutes; the Labor Party did not even have a candidate running against me until four weeks out from the state election. About 13 people had been asked before that, but they all said "No, thank you. Your name's mud out here." They got a 20% swing in Central Wheatbelt. There was $70 million on the table that this government promised to support our rail network. Then the government went, "Oh, Jeez! We don't have a policy on agriculture"—that is clearly in the minister's other bottom drawer—"so now let's have a policy on the rail buyback!"
"The rail buyback—what can we think of? Let's go with eight million bucks to do a study into what if we bought it back and how would that work." I urge the Minister for Wheatbelt to get in the car and have a look at some of those tier 3 lines around my electorate. Members on the other side have been in government now for a very long time. They have had the opportunity to do something about it. They have put money on the table from the former Liberal–National government. I know former ministers Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack laid money on the table to do something about this, and this government has just sailed off into the sunset. Government members come in here in question time and they are like, "Oh, we've got a little quote from Phil Gardiner and Max Trenorden; what did they say about it?" They have not been in Parliament for years.
Government members come into this place and make these absurd comments about supporting our grain industry, and then they just announce an $8 million study into it. The government should go out there and put its money where its mouth is. Do not scare grain growers in Western Australia. The government wants to put up the price of freight rate and make ARC Infrastructure, a Canadian-owned super fund, not spend any money on those rail lines. If someone was on a board of an organisation, with a government wanting to basically tear up a lease, why would they put any more money into maintenance of those rail lines? They absolutely would not. That is what we have seen from this Canadian super fund because of a government decision and announcement. It is absolutely disgraceful. We support our farmers, and we know that this government does not support agriculture and regional development.
I support this motion to ensure that this government realigns its priorities around supporting agriculture, regional WA and, first and foremost, biosecurity to keep our nation safe.
Mr Bevan Eatts (Warren–Blackwood) (6:11 pm): I rise to support the motion that this house condemns the Cook Labor government for its persistent failure to deliver for Western Australia's agriculture and biosecurity. I want to speak plainly and directly about the alarming attitude of this Labor state government towards agriculture in Western Australia. Our agricultural industry can withstand drought. It can withstand flood. It can withstand global market forces. It can withstand the toughest seasons when our farmers are supported. What it cannot withstand is a failure of advocacy from this state Labor government. In particular, the Minister for Agriculture and Food has failed to stand up for our producers, our communities and the industries that underpin regional Western Australia. She has failed to have a strategy in place to protect Western Australian agriculture and our food security; to stand up for the Western Australian live sheep export industry; to take decisive and effective action to stop the spread of polyphagous shot-hole borer; to protect higher production agricultural land from wind farms and pine plantations; and to defend the viability of small- and medium-size producers. This all demonstrates a lack of importance placed on our food security and agricultural economic success by this Labor government. There appears to be a lack of strategy and planning specifically to ensure the success of our growers and our food security. When our farmers are gone, who will feed us all? Let me outline where that failure has occurred and why it matters so deeply to the people of Warren–Blackwood and regional WA, and why it should matter to all of us.
First and foremost, let us talk about live sheep exports. This industry has long been part of the economic fabric of regional WA. Sheep producers, wool growers, stock agents, transporters, shearers, vets, exporters and entire towns support these communities, as do fuel stations, grocery stores, egg supply stores, cafes, the schools and other service providers that support the families of these people. Entire supply chains are tied up to supporting sheep farming and the export of live sheep. Many of these would not exist without sheep farming in those areas, yet the federal Labor government has moved to ban live sheep exports by sea by 1 May 2028. What has the state Minister for Agriculture and Food done? She has done very little. There is no strong defence to protect this viable industry and its communities, and no meaningful challenge, not even timely engagement with a federally appointed transition advocate. The WA agriculture minister took over 140 days, or over four months, before she even met with a person tasked with helping Western Australia manage this transition. That is not leadership; that is neglect. It is total disregard. The effects are already being felt. The confidence in the sheep industry is crumbling. Flock numbers are declining. Wool sales are decreasing. Young people are leaving the industry. Local businesses that rely on sheep production are struggling. This is not theory; this is reality. It is happening now. It is what I hear every week from farmers across Western Australia. Families who have worked livestock for generations are now questioning whether they will stay on the land.
When the federal government finally announced a $139.7 million compensation package, the Premier called it a good deal. Tell that to the farmers who stand to lose everything. Tell that to the shearing contractors whose season has been cut short. It is not a good deal when the damage far exceeds the dollar value, and it is certainly not a good deal when the money is going to the wrong people. If we lose our farmers, where will the food come from? That is a simple question with serious consequences. Without local producers growing our grain, raising our livestock and supplying our fresh fruit and vegetables, we will be forced to rely more heavily on imported foods. It will be food grown to poorer standards than we expect. It will be travelling thousands of kilometres across the world and be vulnerable to global price shocks. We will lose more than just local produce. We will lose the food security that comes from knowing the people who grow what we eat. Once our farming families walk away, they do not come back, and that land does not always stay in production.
There is another layer to this issue that cannot be ignored. The live sheep export compensation package appears to favour major processes, not producers or the other businesses impacted. Processors, in other words, abattoirs, are undoubtedly a vital part of the sheep industry supply chain. They provide essential processing capacity, local employment and are the link between producers and domestic consumers. Without them, the farmers have no market and Western Australians will not be throwing a chop or a lamb steak on the barbecue. With live sheep exports being phased out, the government argues that abattoirs will see increased demand and should, therefore, receive taxpayer-funded support to meet the increased supply of sheep in coming years. That prompts a serious question. If this shift to domestic processing is generally a growth opportunity, why does it require public money to sustain it? If the Labor government truly believes in the long-term potential of this model, its biggest concern should be securing a reliable supply of sheep into the future, and that means supporting the farmers because without farmers there is nothing to process.
We are already seeing record high lamb prices. This is not because of the ban on live export; this is because there is not enough supply and farmers are exiting the industry. When supply goes down, the price goes up, meaning that lamb will become more expensive for local Australians. If producers continue to exit the industry, as many are now considering, no amount of investment in processors will make up for the collapse in supply. A viable domestic industry should be able to stand on its own two feet, yet we are seeing millions of public funds flowing to large processors to prepare for a supply of sheep that probably will not materialise, while the very people who breed, raise and shear the sheep are left carrying the risk. This is not a fair or transparent transition. It is time the minister stood up for those at the farm gate, not just those at the end of the chain.
Let me now move to another key area of failure—protecting biosecurity. The polyphagous shot-hole borer was first detected in WA in August 2021. It poses a major threat to horticulture and native vegetation, especially in the Warren–Blackwood electorate with our native forests and avocado plantations. What began as a chance to contain and eradicate this pest, quickly became a race against the clock. We lost that race. The national management group has now admitted that this pest can no longer be eradicated, and we have moved to containment. Why is that? Was it because there was no timely or effective response?
This should have been a top-tier priority for the agriculture minister. Instead, communities were left confused, support was slow to arrive and the damage continued to spread. As the state shifts from eradication to containment of the polyphagous shot-hole borer, the burden of managing this pest is increasingly falling on local government, industry groups and farmers. Now the state has committed $26.5 million to management, money that could have been spent on earlier and stronger intervention and eradication efforts. Let us not forget the varroa mite. Industry has been pleading for tighter biosecurity to protect our bees.
Another failure that I will explain is that pressure is growing on priority agricultural land from wind farm developments and pine plantations. We support renewables but not at the cost of losing some of our best food-producing soils. In regional Western Australia, more and more landowners are being approached by energy companies. The planning framework lacks safeguards to protect prime ag land. Communities and local governments are not being consulted meaningfully. If we are not careful, the very land that grows our food will be tied up in energy infrastructure. That is not a sustainable future. That is not food security for our state or nation.
This also applies to land for pine plantations. Farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on land prices as the Forest Products Commission enters the market with deep pockets to secure farmland for pine plantations. The FPC is offering well above market-value figures that are simply not viable for farming businesses trying to expand or businesses trying to transition into agriculture. Pine trees do not need to grow in prime agricultural land. Look at the Gnangara pine planation in the northern suburbs of Perth. The trees are growing in sand. This Labor government's buying spree is distorting the rural land market, pricing out the very producers who keep our agricultural economy running, the people who are feeding our communities and the world.
Instead of supporting food and fibre production, taxpayer funds are being used to remove productive land and agriculture altogether and turn it into pine plantations and wind farms. It is a policy that undermines both farm viability and our state's food security. All these failures point to one bigger issue: the agriculture minister is not standing up for the viability of smaller producers. Everywhere we look, the squeeze is on. Input costs are rising, access to markets is tightening, regulatory pressure is increasing and land-use competition is heating up. Yet, there is no targeted support for small or medium-sized farms—no strategy to help them transition, diversify or add value. There is no clarity around how they fit into the government's long-term vision for agriculture. It is as though the agriculture minister has written them off. But we on this side of the house have not because these producers in regional Western Australia are the backbone of our towns. They sponsor the footy clubs, they employ locals and they feed us all. They deserve an agriculture minister and a government who fights for them.
Let me summarise what I have just outlined. I turn to the live export ban. There has been weak advocacy and inadequate support. Compensation favours processors over producers, and there is not enough compensation. There is delayed action on biosecurity and failed eradication. There is no protection from wind farms for priority ag land. With pine plantations, farmland is lost to overheated property markets. There is no strategy or support for small growers. This is not the record of an agriculture minister championing agriculture, it is the record of a minister missing in action. Where is she on these issues? Where is she now? If we lose our farmers, where will our food come from? It is a simple question with serious consequences. Without local producers growing our grain, raising livestock and supplying our fresh fruit and vegetables, we will be forced to rely more heavily on imported food grown to lesser standards travelling thousands of kilometres and vulnerable to global pricing shocks. We will lose more than just local produce, we will lose the food security that comes from knowing where the food we eat comes from. Once our farming families walk away, they do not come back, and the land does not always stay in production.
We are at the crossroads. If we continue down this path, more family farms will fold, more regional jobs will go, country towns will diminish and more of our food supply will come under threat. But it does not have to be this way. With a clear strategy to protect Western Australian agriculture, with the right advocacy, the right priorities and the right policies, we can restore confidence and deliver real outcomes. The agriculture minister has the authority to lead. She has the authority to protect those industries and those people who work with them, as well as all of us who rely on the food they produce. So I ask the Labor government: make Western Australian agriculture and biosecurity a priority. It must recognise its strategic importance and do everything it can to protect it, because the people of Western Australia deserve nothing less.
Mr David Bolt (Murray–Wellington) (6:25 pm): I rise to support and make a contribution to the debate on this motion, so adequately prosecuted by the member for Central Wheatbelt and the member for Warren–Blackwood. I thank them for their contributions. I was going to say much of what they said, so in the interests of keeping it short, I want to make a few comments. In this house we all know the importance of the agricultural industry. I understand that both sides would find common ground on much of that. It is important that we remember how big and important this agricultural industry is. It is resilient, innovative and globally competitive, not because of all the policies we create in this house, but because of the hardworking people on the land. They run the livestock and they keep our supply chains moving. We have to keep them in our mind when we debate in this house. They are the people who get up early in the morning. They are the people who work so hard to drive the industry. They are the people who feed us. They are the people who grow such an important industry. It sustains around 60,000 direct jobs and underpins the survival of many rural towns across the state, from Esperance to Geraldton, from Katanning to Carnarvon. My comments are made with those people in mind.
We have a diverse base of agriculture, commercial fisheries and aquaculture, which we heard about today, and a growing food and beverage manufacturing sector. It is one I encourage us to continue to support. Together, these industries add more than $10 billion to our annual gross state product. It is not a small or insignificant part of our economy. More importantly, as I have said, it anchors jobs and our economic development across regional Western Australia. The grain sector is our largest agricultural sector and is a globally competitive industry. Around 80% to 90% of our grain is sold into international markets. When we talk about things being made Western Australia, we say this is food grown and made in Western Australia. We can come up with all sorts of other things that we want to do. We have aspirations to do manufacturing in Western Australia, but we also want to manufacture and support the industry that already grows food here and, more importantly, that is starting to add value by building food and beverage exports. The food and beverage market already exceeds $13 billion. There is demand for our products internationally, and it will continue to grow if we support the industry and manage it well. We have a natural advantage in this region. We sit on the doorstep of the rapidly growing middle-class markets in Asia. We also have a hard-won reputation for sustainable production, strong animal welfare standards and rigorous biosecurity. We must protect that. These are not just box-ticking exercises, they are market premiums that we must back to continue to grow our industry in the future.
We can never take the sector for granted. Unfortunately, many people in our regions have told us that they feel they have been taken for granted. We do not just make this up. The policies coming from this place do not often support them to the degree that they need. They are resilient people. They need and want our support. They are not asking for handouts. They just want a government that values and listens to them, and delivers real resilience, serious investment when they need it, when they tell us they are in trouble, and strong advocacy, not only locally but internationally. They do not want tokenism, they want serious and genuine support. Unfortunately, they feel this government is failing.
We have heard about the challenges that they face in climate conditions and drought. The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that WA's South West has experienced a 20% decline in winter rainfall since the 1970s. During cropping losses in 2023, the drought ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars, yet the support they got from the state barely touched the surface. We have heard about biosecurity threats—it is real. Invasive pests like the shot-hole borer have already forced massive tree removals in Perth and the horticultural industry is just holding its breath. They are very worried about this. We need to support them. We need to take their issues seriously. The WAFarmers president, John Hassell, warned in May 2024 that we cannot afford to always be on the back foot—once these pests are there, it is too late.
We also have trade uncertainty. The federal ban on live sheep exports will strip an estimated $85 million a year from WA's economy—more than that, it impacts all those supporting industries around it. WA is the only state impacted by this policy, yet our government here has failed to secure adequate compensation from the federal government—I could go on. As for infrastructure, we talked about our roads and rail networks, but so much more needs to be done to send the message that we support them. We talked about issues such as cutting funding from the Grower Group Alliance, raised by my colleague here. I will not go into that, but we need to ask why that is the case for a group that has been doing such a great job. Only recently, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development stated how wonderful the organisation is, how much support it gives it and how highly valued it is by the industry.
We need to understand what is behind that decision and, if possible, reverse it. We have heard about the live sheep export producers. I will not prosecute that case any further in the interests of time, but it is serious. Our industry feels neglected and unheard. WA's agriculture sector is worth billions to WA 's economy. It is our second economic pillar. It feeds our state, it feeds the world and it sustains our communities. But under the last two terms of this government—now into its ninth year—farmers feel left exposed, underfunded, in drought, unprotected against pests, undervalued in trade debates, and ignored when it comes to infrastructure. These are not our words; these are the words the industry is telling us. We are the messenger. That is our role as the opposition here—to raise our voice in this house and ask that the government listen to that voice. We are trying to put focus on the things that we believe are important. We come from diverse backgrounds in this house. Many of us come from these country areas and this is the message that they are telling us. Our farmers need a government that looks ahead; not one that waits for the crisis to arrive. Let us not do that. They deserve better, so let us support them better.
Mrs Kirrilee Warr (Geraldton) (6:33 pm): I also rise today to speak to this motion. I am a little disappointed that there are not many people left in the chamber—in particular, the member for Perth because he would be interested to know that when he called us over this side "The Muppet Show", he referred to the member for Central Wheatbelt as Miss Piggy. However, I think this morning he was referring to me as Miss Piggy because I seem to be hogging the microphone a little bit today! But I could not resist this opportunity to stand because I am very passionate about regions, and agriculture in particular. For generations, agriculture has been the backbone of our state. It underpins our economy, sustains our exports and holds our communities together in both good years and bad. Yet under this Labor government, support for our regions is steadily withdrawing, sending the clear message that the regions simply do not matter. I speak with firsthand experience. I am a proud generational farmer who is actively involved in our family business and has lived the highs and lows of the agricultural sector. As we have heard today—and I absolutely agree—at its core, agriculture is about producing food, not just for us here domestically, but also the world, and is the very foundation of our community's economy and way of life. Yet more and more communities are telling me that they are being let down by a government that is failing to invest or deliver. A stark example of failing to listen, act and invest is the outbreak of the polyphagous shot-hole borer. Thousands of trees have already been destroyed across Perth, and food crops are at risk next. This is not merely an environmental issue; it is a direct threat to livelihoods and regional sustainability. The government's shift from an elimination strategy to mere containment highlights a failure to act decisively. Millions have already been spent attempting to slow the spread, yet the problem continues to advance, leaving farmers and local governments to deal with the consequences.
The question remains, as my colleagues and other members have already spoken to: Who knew what and when? Where is the transparency on this? We know, as history has laid bare, that orders, effectively gag orders, were placed on councils, preventing them from alerting neighbouring local governments about infested trees. Privacy concerns were cited, but this lack of transparency allowed the pest to spread further, putting more trees and, potentially, crops, at risk. An 18-month management phase has now been announced, but the long-term cost and responsibility will likely fall with our local governments and farming communities. It should not be farmers, producers, landholders or local governments who bear this burden alone. Farmers already contribute through levies to biosecurity, one through rates directly to RevenueWA. I kid you not. I pay thousands of dollars in biosecurity rates as a landholder and a grain producer in WA. Why should we be asked to pay more due to this government's failure to act swiftly? The government must take responsibility and provide a clear plan and commit the resources needed to protect our trees, crops and the future of Western Australian agriculture. Members ask: Why? Because our farmers and producers are world-leading. They are the second biggest industry in this state, as we have heard from other members. I thank those members for their contributions and highlighting that. Our farmers continually improve practices to deliver productivity, sustainability and a resilient agricultural sector. Yet, the top-down policy decisions, excessive red tape and lack of meaningful investment are stifling their potential. Consider the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. For years, under two ministers, there is still no permanent home for this essential department. Without world-class facilities for research, laboratories supporting pathology, disease management and breeding programs are all now at risk. Staff work from temporary offices or even from home due to asbestos concerns, while laboratories critical for innovation and biosecurity have been scattered across multiple locations. How can this government expect productivity? That is a huge hot word at the moment. We are having roundtables and all kinds of conversations about productivity and lifting productivity. Well, I tell members, our farmers are definitely producing, lifting and pulling hard to make sure they are producing. How can we expect this sector to continue to do what it needs to do to drive productivity for this state when the infrastructure is simply not there to support them?
Organisations that support regional, rural and remote communities are also being defunded. We have heard today from the member for Central Wheatbelt about the Grower Group Alliance, something that is dear to my heart. We have many of the grower groups across our small communities within my own electorate, and they do fantastic work. In fact, we are hosting in our electorate tomorrow one of the prominent calendar events, being the Northern Agri Group's Spring Field Day. That will be followed up next week by the Yuna Farm Improvement Group's Spring Field Day. These events are groups of farmers coming together to share their knowledge around what they are doing on their farms, what researchers are doing in the area and what other opportunities are there for them to diversify or look towards the future. Yet, the government wants to defund them.
During estimates, I asked some critical questions about the Rural Regional Remote Women's Network of Western Australia, a vital organisation that has connected women across WA, giving them a voice, creating leadership pathways and strengthening the communities that sustain agriculture. For those who do not know about the RRR Network, and for the record, it was first funded by the Western Australian state government and established in 1996. Guess who was in power then? It was the Liberal–National government. Our very own Monty House was the Minister for Primary Industry. The RRR Network initially operated as a ministerial reference group under the WA state government. During this period, it received government funding to support its activities, including hosting the annual Rural Women's Awards and producing the RRR Network magazine. I was a part of that group many years ago. I get referred to as the reference group member who had her babies during that time, so they were RRR babies. They used to come along to the meetings and happily just play on the floor while mum sat there, trying to advocate for more for the regions. It is also the place where I met the current agriculture minister herself, Hon Jackie Jarvis, because she was intimately involved with this group, believe it or not. During estimates, I raised concerns about its funding. When we look at the four-year budget, we can see that $400,000 was spent last year, but in the forward years, only $2,000 is listed for this year, only $100,000 for next year and zero in the out years. This is more than a cut; it is a message. It says to regional women in particular, "Your voices don't matter." It says to the agricultural sector, "We do not see the value in the networks that sustain your future." Previous ministers from both sides of politics recognised its importance and I have just demonstrated that. It was a ministerial reference group. It was more about families, communities and leadership—all the things that sustain our communities and are behind our agricultural sector. This government, however, is deliberately walking away, dismantling one of the most effective grassroot organisations supporting regional Western Australia.
I plead and I ask in the essence of time—I do not want to take too much more—that this government needs to start listening, acting with intent and starting to support our regional communities. Without that, we continually fail to recognise that the true strength lies is in our regions, the heartbeat of Western Australia. It underpins our economy and we deserve some more investment.
Mr Adam Hort (Kalamunda) (6:41 pm): Acting Speaker, I was going to take you on an agricultural tour of the Perth hills in my segment this evening, but I appreciate that time is not with us. Core Cider is a wonderful family-run institution in Pickering Brook, but I appreciate I do not have time for that so I am just going to make some really quick points.
Ground zero of polyphagous shot-hole borer was my next-door neighbour—this was in the Perth hills, not across all of Western Australia. I did not know. I had no idea. In fact, the whole street had no idea. The people who were living there were just house sitting. It was not until nine months later I found out because I doorknocked and they told me what was going on. I have dozens of trees on my property, but had no awareness of this. It was for the sake of biosecurity that I could not know as their next-door neighbour. There are sheep and cattle 500 metres down the road and 1,000 metres down the road there are orchards. I am in the middle of an agricultural precinct and no-one could know that polyphagous shot-hole borer was right there. Now, orchardists are stung with the price of lopping off branches and mulching them to a standard that is significantly higher than they are used to. It falls on the farmer and on the orchardists. The failure of this government to properly bio-secure and keep our state safe is a shame. It is an absolute shame. Government members should hang their heads in shame. That is where I will end my remarks, Acting Speaker.
Ms Sook Yee Lai (Bibra Lake) (6:43 pm): I rise today to share some genuinely good news that after eight months of rigorous surveillance, containment and treatment, my electorate of Bibra Lake and the surrounding areas have officially been declared Queensland fruit fly–free. It is a bit of a tongue twister! This is an outstanding result, not just for my electorate but for Western Australia as a whole. It also marks the 10th time in nearly 40 years that Qfly has been successfully eradicated from the Perth area.
This outcome, confirmed by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, means that in Western Australia's Qfly-affected areas, freedom has been reinstated and the quarantine restrictions are now lifted. As many will know, Queensland fruit fly poses a major threat to Western Australia's fruit and vegetables industry. It is one of the most invasive horticultural pests in the country, capable of devastating fruit and vegetable crops, damaging backyard produce and threatening the very industry that supports jobs and economic opportunities across Western Australia. Qfly targets over 300 species of fruit and vegetables, including some of the most common and cherished plants in our backyards. Our Qfly-free status is critical to WA's export relationships, from sending avocados to Japan and Thailand to sending strawberries to South-East Asia. Maintaining that status is not just good for growers; it is also good for jobs, trade and food security. If Qfly were to establish itself in WA, it would put at risk a $1.49 billion horticultural sector, undermine export markets, increase grocery costs and devastate homegrown harvests.
Many members will know that Bibra Lake has a deeply rooted legacy of market gardening. Bibra Lake was once home to a thriving network of small-scale producers who supplied Perth's food markets. Generations of migrants and local families built a life by growing food for markets.
Thankfully, when Qfly was detected, the state government, through the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, acted swiftly and decisively. In November 2024, Qfly was first detected in Willagee and Palmyra through DPIRD's early warning surveillance network. In response, a 15-kilometre quarantine area, spanning 22 local governments, was declared and a full eradication effort was launched. The campaign was enormous. At its peak, more than 260 DPIRD officers and contract staff were on the ground. Field teams worked over 100,000 hours to contain and eradicate the pest. More than 12,000 properties were visited, which was a huge logistical effort. Over 10,500 fruit fly lures were deployed in targeted areas and nearly 600 samples of fruit were tested for signs of infestation. This was all coordinated from the State Biosecurity Response Centre in Canning Vale, with forward posts at Winnacott Reserve in Willagee. It was a phenomenal effort and I am so grateful for the result.
Throughout this operation I doorknocked and spoke with residents across Bibra Lake whose homes and gardens were part of the eradication zone. What struck me was how many of them were supportive of and grateful for the effort being made. From grandparents to young families, everyone I spoke to who had been impacted had good things to say. Many told me that they were reassured by the presence of field officers, who were courteous, informative and responsive to questions. Some even commented that they learned new things about pest management and garden care through these interactions, proof that this operation was about not just eradication, but also community education. I want to acknowledge the professionalism of DPIRD field staff, who showed compassion and clarity at every doorstep, as well as the City of Cockburn, which supported engagement and education during this critical time. This effort extended well beyond residents. DPIRD worked closely with Perth Markets, market vendors and industry stakeholders. This was whole-of-community biosecurity in action. The Qfly eradication campaign is proof of what is possible when we act early, act together and act with purpose. Although this incident is officially closed, the work continues. More than 2,300 permanent Qfly traps are maintained across WA, from Geraldton to Albany, helping to ensure early detection, strong trade credentials and long-term food security.
I want to close by offering my sincere thanks to the 260 DPIRD officers and staff who responded with urgency and professionalism. Their dedication to protecting WA's biosecurity and horticultural future is truly commendable. These people are the unsung heroes of our agricultural economy, and I want their work recognised and celebrated in this place. To the residents of Bibra Lake, Willagee, Palmyra, Bateman and beyond who showed what community cooperation looks like, your cooperation has been absolutely vital to the success of this operation. I thank you sincerely for your patience, your vigilance and your care for our environment. Lastly, I thank Minister Jarvis for delivering leadership, resourcing and transparency in this coordinated effort. I thank everyone who played a role in the successful eradication of the Qfly, and I look forward to the continued efforts to protect our biosecurity, our growers and our environment. Let us keep WA Qfly free!
Mr David Scaife (Cockburn—Parliamentary Secretary) (6:49 pm): I rise to oppose this motion. I start by saying that in our caucus, I often refer to the member for Nedlands' contributions in this place as "old man yells at sky", but we got a bit of a taste of "young man yells at sky" today from the member for Central Wheatbelt. I almost wanted to take a point of order on the member for Central Wheatbelt, just to give him a chance to have a Bex, have a lie-down and have a breather. The member for Central Wheatbelt has a lot of rage to channel. But I thought it was a bit cheeky for members opposite to say "We don't get a chance to ask a question of a minister" or "We don't get a chance to ask a question of a parliamentary secretary" and then leave us 17 minutes to reply to their private members' business. That is a pretty interesting line to run. We hear the opposition talking about scrutiny, but what they really hate is when there is scrutiny directed at them, so they just run down the clock so that we have 17 minutes—five minutes each—to respond, and then we also have to get the Minister for Water to respond, so I will be very brief.
I just want to say in response to the member for Central Wheatbelt's contribution that I thought it was a real shame to see biosecurity being used as a political football. I have made this point before in this place. There is no issue that is sacred to the opposition. There is no issue on which they can find bipartisan spirit. They always want to look for the political point to make. We saw that in the contribution from the member for Central Wheatbelt. When it came to polyphagous shot-hole borer, he said, "We want to know who knew what and when." He is saying he wants to know who he can politically blame for this.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: Absolutely!
Mr David Scaife: "Absolutely", he says. He is not interested in solutions. He is not interested.
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
Mr David Scaife: I sat through the member for Central Wheatbelt's nonsense for almost an hour and said nothing, but in the limited time that I have left, members of the opposition just cannot possibly control themselves. This is a fair point. The opposition does not come in here with solutions. I have to say to the member for Central Wheatbelt that that is a far cry from his predecessor. I have said it before: I had a lot of respect for Hon Mia Davies because she came in here and gave considered contributions. In the middle of a parliamentary term, years out from an election, she would give a speech in this place in which she would propose policy solutions. I know that Hon Mia Davies had already been leader and left it behind, whereas the member for Central Wheatbelt is still aiming for it, so they have different political motivations.
Several members interjected.
Mr David Scaife: I have the class clown! I know that he has been told by his chief of staff, "Don't respond to the member for Cockburn!" I can tell he has been told that. I am talking about the member for Churchlands here. I have the class clown.
Mr Basil Zempilas: My chief of staff doesn't know who you are, mate!
Mr David Scaife: Oh, yes! Do any of us believe that? This guy—I have been living rent free in the Leader of the Opposition's head for months. He has been told to behave himself.
Several members interjected.
The Acting Speaker (Mrs Lisa Munday): Members!
Several members interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Members!
Mr David Scaife: He has been told to behave himself, but he still cannot help it. Narelle, if you are watching this, send him a text! Say, "Basil, don't! You've been told. You've got to look like an alternative Premier." He does not, but anyway.
Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.
Mr David Scaife: See, he cannot help it. He cannot help the interjections. He is the class clown. Can members believe that this class clown wants to put himself forward as the alternative Premier? It is just shocking.
Several members interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Members! Thank you.
Mr Basil Zempilas: It must be shocking!
Mr David Scaife: This is the point that I am making, Acting Speaker.
Several members interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Thank you, members!
Several members interjected.
The Acting Speaker: The member for Cockburn is on his feet.
Mr Basil Zempilas interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Leader of the Opposition, thank you.
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt, thank you.
Mr David Scaife: It is just appalling, Acting Speaker. It really is appalling to see the behaviour from the Leader of the Opposition in this chamber, particularly in circumstances in which the members of the government were given almost no time to respond to this. But the bottom line is this. The member for Central Wheatbelt comes in here looking for a political blame game, looking to politically pointscore, and does not come in here with any solutions. He does political backflips and gymnastics to somehow blame the Labor government for the Liberal and National Parties' decision to privatise the freight rail network. He will not support our plan to bring it back into public hands and do the right thing by his own constituents, yet members of the Nationals WA have the gall to act exactly like what they are, which is a party that is not ready for government.
Mr Don Punch (Bunbury—Minister for Aboriginal Affairs) (6:55 pm): Agriculture, the agricultural sector and regional WA are serious issues and, for the most part, they should be bipartisan issues, particularly biosecurity. I sat mostly in silence and listened carefully to members opposite laugh and continue to laugh and not take the issue seriously. That is an indictment. When I think about the previous members who have represented the electorate of the member for Central Wheatbelt, Hon Hendy Cowan and Max Trenorden, they were serious people who came in here with policy responses. Hon Mia Davies took that to a pinnacle. The member has a long way to go to fill her shoes.
If the member were serious about this issue, he would be in the Legislative Council in estimates, but he has not taken up that option. He would have the opportunity to talk to the minister directly on these issues.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: We can't even ask the minister.
Mr Don Punch: I did not interject on the member.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: You did interject on me.
Mr Don Punch: I would not.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: You did.
Mr Don Punch: I interjected earlier. Now, listen and learn. The agricultural sector, as every member opposite knows—I acknowledge the member for Murray–Wellington's considered contribution—is in the process of change. It has climate change issues, global market change issues, issues with differential markets within Australia—
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
Mr Don Punch: This minister—
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
Mr Don Punch: Acting Speaker, please call the member to order.
The Acting Speaker (Mrs Lisa Munday): Member for Central Wheatbelt, please.
Mr Don Punch: This minister has some very strategic pillars. The first thing she has done is reinforce research and development within the department. I can recall—I have it here—the previous government slashing staff numbers in the then Department of Agriculture and Food WA; there was a 37% cut. Skills and expertise were lost. The West Australian referred to big cuts at the then Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia and the refusal to reactivate the police department's stock squad to crack down on theft. That is where the opposition was when it was in government, so the member should not come in here and talk to us about what we are doing. The first thing is research and development.
Mr Lachlan Hunter interjected.
The Acting Speaker: Member for Central Wheatbelt, we have three minutes.
Mr Don Punch: Just take it seriously.
Mr Lachlan Hunter: Where is your policy? We have a policy; you do not.
Mr Don Punch: I have talked about research and development; the challenges for the northern agricultural sector, which is one of our pillars; grains transformation; and resilient agricultural futures. We are thinking about what this industry is going to look like in the future as it transitions through some of those major challenges. We are looking at new agricultural technologies, the importance of Aboriginal science engagement, capacity building and extension, and research and development, with new PhD programs and PhD scholarships for over 24 PhD students in agriculture. We are serious about building a future based on research and innovation.
Then we go to industry investment. I know that there have been strategic investments across the state to build capacity in the ag processing sector and to look at opportunities to get into new markets.
Then we have biosecurity. Our government takes biosecurity very seriously, and protecting Western Australian farmers is our priority. In the 2024–25 state budget, $26.2 million has been invested to bolster biosecurity, and there is $16.4 million for emergency pest and disease responses, $6.8 million to upgrade border checkpoints, including at Kununurra, and $3 million to protect our environment and farming communities.
As the member for Cockburn said, the opposition left us 17 minutes to respond, and I now have one minute to respond to what is a very serious issue. The Minister for Agriculture and Food in the Cook Labor government is setting about protecting this industry through biosecurity responses and ensuring that there is a positive and innovative future as it deals with the challenges that it has to face.
I want to finish with a quote because the member talked about Farm Weekly, but he has missed out.
Debate adjourned, pursuant to standing orders.
House adjourned at 07:00:21 pm
Questions on notice answered today are available on the Parliament of Western Australia's website
