Primary Industries Scorecard

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): Supplementary: given farmers and producers in the livestock, horticultural and viticultural sectors are reporting double-digit declines in revenue and that government policies are impacting on their ability to do business, what policy measures is the minister going to take to ensure that the livestock industry and the horticultural and viticultural industries do not continue to decline in revenue over the next 12 months?

The PRESIDENT: Before you answer that supplementary, when asking a supplementary question, there is no preamble: you just ask the question. Next time, rephrase it to be a question only.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Attorney, you are not helping.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:43): I think I have spoken on numerous occasions in this place before about the importance of traceability to our livestock industry. I am glad to see that things like sheep prices have started to improve in recent weeks, and that is incredibly important. As we know, without appropriate and robust traceability programs in place, the risks of the industries being destroyed by emergency animal diseases are severe.

However, I have spoken about this on many occasions. Similarly with the viticulture industry, I have spoken about a number of programs and initiatives that the government is doing, including particularly working very hard to re-establish the relationship with China, as I briefly alluded to. We know that this was a relationship that was absolutely trashed by the Coalition federal government, and we know that it is incredibly important to re-establish that trade relationship if that is possible.

I was pleased to see that the Premier and the Prime Minister, of course, visited China late last year. Some of that has already resulted in some very positive outcomes, given that some of the tariffs have been lifted on a number of important commodities.