WITH infectious exotic diseases threatening Australia’s northern borders, Queensland’s new Primary Industries Minister, Tony Perrett, has announced a significant focus on biosecurity as a cornerstone of the Crisafulli Government’s agricultural policies.

Taking the stage less than a month after being sworn into the Cabinet role, the Gympie-region grazier and former local councillor outlined the  Crisafulli Government’s vision for Queensland’s agriculture sector at a sold-out Rural Press Club of Queensland function at the Brisbane Club last Friday.

The same event also saw renowned broadcast and print journalist Peter Lewis  inducted into the Rural Press Club of Queensland Hall of Fame.

Holly Hooper, Rachael Hamblin, and Caitlin Davies.

Mr Perrett, who served as Queensland’s shadow minister for agriculture since 2015, described the State as “a powerhouse of agriculture production in Australia”, with exports to more than 130 countries and generating $24 billion in annual farm gate value.

Agriculture was at the core of the new Government, he told the 150 industry stakeholders present, with the Premier being the son of a cane farmer, the Treasurer the son of a dairy farmer, the Attorney-General the daughter of a cattle producer and himself a fourth-generation cropping and cattle producer.

Rural Press Club of Queensland President James Nason, Minister for Primary Industries Tony Perrett and Director-General of the Department of Primary Industries Grahame Bolton.

The target now is to boost farm gate value in Queensland to $30 billion, he said. “I want this ambitious target to serve as an incentive for other government Departments to get out of the way and allow our industry to succeed.”

Early in his speech he emphasied the importance of the State’s $6.7 billion meat industry, and added that he “unashamedly supports” the live export trade.

The snap 2011 live export suspension had removed a crucial supply of food to Indonesia and badly undermined Australia’s reputation as a reliable trading partner, while also causing severe economic loss and damage to the Australian cattle industry – particularly the many northern operations geared specificaly towards breeding cattle for Indonesia.

The industry had to ensure it maintained best practice to prevent giving opportunities to opposing groups to undermine it, but he vowed to “not taking a backward step” in his support of the industry.

Goretti Lewis, Jane Milburn, Brendan Egan and Leanne Fulmer.

The best thing that could be done to provide certainty for the many producers who rely on the live export industry was “to get a change in the federal government next year”, he said.

“That’s the first thing because we’ll have much more certainty, “ he said. “We have seen what’s happened with the live export sheep out of WA, even with a Labor State Government supporting (the industry), the Federal Government still moved towards it (the phase out).”

Priority areas he also touched on included a review, already underway, of all 23 Queensland Regional Water Plans to determine if any unallocated water can be provided to boost agricultural productivity. He said the Crisafulli Government is planning to build five raised weirs along the Thompson River and new weirs along the Boyne River at Mundubbera and the Barambah in Murgon, in addition to reinstating the failed Paradise Dam in the Wide Bay area (while committing to the project, he said it was too early to commit to a definitive timeline).

Rural and regional roads and curbing rural crime through the just-launched Making Queensland Safer Bill were also front-of-mind issues he discussed during his address.

Biosecurity the “lynchpin”

However he noted that stronger biosecurity measures were the “lynchpin” to keeping the agriculture sector viable.

Peter Lewis, Brad Carswell, Kerry Lonergan and David Foote

Announcements to date have included a $50 million dollar boost to biosecurity funding and a pledge to employ 100 additional staff to strengthen the biosecurity front lines by the next election.

He announced the next steps in that commitment on Friday which included working with local councils to roll out additional frontline biosecurity capacity and establishing regional biosecurity hubs with local leaders in the north, central and southern regions.

Work was also underway to review the previous Labor Government ‘s decision to close the Cape York biosecurity facility at Coen  – “one of our northern-most physical lines of defence”.

Kerry Lonergan, host of Beef Central’s Weekly Grill podcast, observing how much more difficult feral pig populations would make it to curb an exotic disease incursion in northern Australia, asked if the Minister had a plan to control the pests.

Mr Perrett acknowledged that feral pigs were a major and worsening problem in spreading disease and impacting the environment, pointing out they were now appearing on his own property near Gympie where they had not been seen before.

With sources suggesting Australia may even have more feral pigs than people (National Feral Pig Management Plan July 2020) he said it was an issue that crossed borders and required a systematic, whole-of-Government and industry approach.

“I’d much rather under promise and over deliver in that space, because I don’t underestimate the task at hand to try and deal with it,” he said.

“I look forward to being able to stand here and say we have less pigs in a few years’ time than we have now, but I acknowledge the impact they’re having.”

Other topics touched on during the event included:

Qld levy on foreign investment in Ag: In light of the Crisafulli Government’s $30 billion target for Queensland agriculture, Michael Blakeney, Riparian Capital Partners, questioned the Minister on the State’s existing tax on foreign investment in agriculture, which had become “a disincentive” to attracting offshore Capital in the state.

Mr Perrett said it was an issue the new Government had heard raised often and something that he believed would be able to be dealt with “in the fullness of time”.

“It’s certainly something that’s been highlighted early and I’m pleased to hear that it has been raised again, because if industry continues to raise that and demonstrate the impact that it’s having on that investment and ultimately to growing what we need and then the value of agriculture, that’s important.”

EU deforestation rules: Cattle Australia director David Foote said it was pleasing to see the Minister commit to tackling biosecurity issues, but noted that another key issue for the State’s cattle producers were the recent EU deforestation rules that sought to override lawful land management of vegetation in Queensland.

“Are you in any way engaging our Federal Minister for Ag or Federal minister for Trade in trying to create an Australian position and acceptance of our land management in Australia?” Mr Foote asked.

Mr Perrett said he was “acutely aware” of those issues and said he had only just discussed them on a teleconference with the Federal Minister for Agriculture earlier in the day before speaking at the Rural Press Club of Queensland lunch on Friday.

He noted that the EU had deferred the implementation of the deforestation rules by 12 months, but said that “as a State we’re taking a very active approach”, and urged industry to keep demonstrating its sustainable practices to the world.

“I understand the challenges it presents, but I also encourage industry particular, and particularly industry organisations, to also take a strong lead which I know they are and demonstrate that what we do in this country is sustainable and that we do have a clean and green product to be able to export to the world.”

Latest cattle tick outbreak in clean country: An outbreak of cattle ticks on eight properties near Roma is the latest in a long running series of tick detections in hard-won “tick-free” areas of Queensland.

ABC Country Hour host Kallee Buchanan questioned the Minister about whether the latest outbreak could be contained and whether affected graziers would be receiving compensation.

Mr Perrett he understood the issue well having dealt with ticks where he grew up at Kingaroy and more recently on his property at Kilkivan west of Gympie (which is in the ticky area).

“I understand the angst when you find them in an area well inside the current tick line,” he said.

“They are not the only incursion that is inside the tick line.

“At this stage we don’t know how they got there, and those works are ongoing.

“We really need to establish how they got there because if we can understand that, then we can know how to deal with it and the extent of it.”

The Department was still trying to determine if the latest outbreak at Roma had resulted from the illegal movement of ticky stock into a clean area, or from ticks developing resistance to control chemicals.

There were some subsidies available for affected producers, but it was not a ‘complete’ subsidy, he noted.

“It can have an enormous impact, particularly if those stock get tick fever and the like,” he said.

“I understand the issue and there are eight properties and we are working hard with those producers to make certain an eradication process is in place that can get rid of ticks out of that area.”

Inequity of methane metrics: Sam Hughes from Georgina Pastoral Company told the Minister the beef industry is being judged by an outdated metric for methane – GWP 100 – and following that metric would mean the beef industry would have to shrink by 30 percent, “driving down our standard our living in Queensland and also putting food prices up”.

Asked for his opinion on the differences between the GWP 100 and GWP * metrics in the current methane debate, Mr Perrett agreed it was a challenging issue, with large corporates and supermarkets also weighing on what cattle producers do.

“We can’t afford to lose agricultural production in this State,” he said. “And I won’t accept for us to lose agricultural production, particularly in the meat industry, because it is vital to our economy.

He said the industry had to be “well researched within and bring forward to solutions to it”.

“But equally we need Government to recognise that and as a Minister for Primary industries in this State, I give you that commitment today, that is what I want to take forward to the Cabinet table and that is what the Premier is asking to do.

“While I am concerned, I am not daunted by those challenges, but equally we have got to be proud of what we do in this State and not always be subject to someone else, and I think we have enough strength in our agricultural economy to be able to do that.”