Ready to milk ag's future: Joyce

Australia has a great chance, but success isn’t our birth right, and if we are going to focus on one thing, it should be getting a better return through the farm gate.

Federal agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce delivered an optimistic speech to a packed room at a Farm Writers' Association of NSW function today (Friday) in Sydney.

He said with the live export trade reopened to Egypt and Bahrain, the Saudi market close to reopening and the Iranian market, after four decades out of action, also potentially reopening, prices would turn around.

“For once in my life, I’m getting letters across my desk saying thank you for what’s happened; we can make money,” Mr Joyce said.

Mr Joyce said with the middle class swelling in South East Asia from 500 million to potentially three billion in 2030, Australia, as one of the few countries in the area exporting, had a great agricultural future.

“As we speak 16,000 litres of milk is being transported… from Norco in northern NSW into Shanghai.

“They’re on the shelf for seven and $12 a litre and it costs less than $1.50 to get it there.

“We’re hoping to move it in NSW to one million litres a week.”

But if Australian farmers reckon they’ll be the food bowl for Asia, they’re dreaming, Mr Joyce said.

“We can feed double our population.

“Even if we double it, that’s 120 million – we couldn’t even feed Indonesia.”

He said the industry needed instead to focus on continuing its “clean green” image.

Mr Joyce said there was great opportunity but that Australia had to be focussed as countries like Argentina and Brazil were waiting to pounce on lucrative Asian markets.

Investment in infrastructure from, for example “the Wagner boys up in Toowoomba”, who are building a new airport, was an example of the kind of belief in agriculture.

“Because they know there’s a great future in moving product by air,” Mr Joyce said.

The review into foreign investment shouldn’t lead to the country “pulling down the shutters” but “the Australian people have the right to ask questions.”

“We should see the change in guidelines for $15 million before it goes to the Foreign Investment Review Board; $54 million for agribusiness and $1 for State-owned arms of other nation’s governments.”

He said the much-anticipated White Paper on agriculture, was not a partisan document.

“I’m not so naïve to think we are going to be there (in government) for ever,” Mr Joyce said.

“If you look at the polls, we’ll be lucky to be there much longer at all.

“But I want something we can hand over and say if you follow this you’re going to be pretty right.”

Family farms had to continue to provide the backbone of Australian agriculture, he said.

“They have the capacity to deal with the slings and arrows.

“It’s an expectation of Australian people that their land will be owned by the Australian people.”

Mr Joyce on dams:

There will be more dams, Barnaby Joyce told the Farm Writers' audience.

“We used to have about 4.5 megalitres of storage per person; we’re down to 3.5 and if we don’t build more we’ll be down to 2.5, which is way behind our requirement.”

Mr Joyce, who is chairman of the dams committee, said the Prime Minister was unlikely to have selected the agriculture minister for this role if he wasn’t interested in building more dams.

“If he didn’t want to build more dams, he would have put the environment minister in that position.”

He said there would be an extension of the Ord into the Northern Territory; northern water projects close to Georgetown in Far North Queensland and Chaffey Dam, over his “back fence” had finally had a win against the Booroolong frog.

Mr Joyce on MH17

Barnaby Joyce praised Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Prime Minister Tony Abbott for managing the negotiations with Russia but said it was important government be mindful about “repercussions when involving ourselves” in conflicts.

He said, for example, the stoush in the Middle East recently over Mr Abbott’s comments about East Jerusalem that just about saw trade sanctions put on Australia, was “not a good day in the office”.

Mr Joyce said the Russians did not shoot down the plane.

“I think the rebels did.

“How they got hands on weapons is a good question for the Russians to answer.

“We need to keep all things up our sleeves and hope logic prevails.”

Mr Joyce on the inland rail:

While $300 million won’t get the line built, Barnaby Joyce reckons the train line from Melbourne to Brisbane will still be on track for completion by 2020.

He said private investment could see some of the trickier parts of the track for example, the Toowoomba crossing, financed.

Much of the line is already built and it was mostly about “connecting the dots.”

He said Port of Brisbane was aware of its need for the track to progress.

“Port of Brisbane well knows if Gladstone gets to Toowoomba before Brisbane does, it will be Gladstone to Melbourne.”

Mr Joyce on farmer representative organisations:

“One of the first things I came up against was the myriad of organisations you have to deal with,” Barnaby Joyce said.

“They think their industry is the only industry that exists.”

Mr Joyce said the key to representative organisations was to look after their people rather than "building castles for themselves."

He said they should be succinct and have a clear vision of what they wanted to do.

The world was too busy for quasi-agripolitics and if organisations’ goals were clear enough, Mr Joyce would cut and paste them into policy.