Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. The bill makes amendments to 11 separate acts to deliver improvements across biodiversity and food safety, veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment and land protection, rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes. Agriculture is and will continue to be a cornerstone of our economy. Victoria is a powerhouse when it comes to agriculture, and we continue to punch well above our weight. Despite our small size, Victoria is the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for a massive 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports.
While the bulk of our agricultural industries are located in rural and regional Victoria, as the member for Northcote it would be remiss of me not to point out the significance of Melbourne’s food bowl to our food security in this state. Across the metropolitan area of greater Melbourne, across the city’s urban fringe and out to the peri-urban ring, there are highly productive agricultural areas, including the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula, Koo Wee Rup and Werribee, and Bacchus Marsh and Baw Baw shire. Collectively Melbourne’s food bowl produces a wide variety of fresh foods, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables but also eggs and chicken meat and some beef, lamb, pork and dairy. According to a report by the Foodprint Melbourne project, Melbourne’s food bowl represents just 2 per cent of Victoria’s agricultural land but produces around 47 per cent of the vegetables grown in Victoria and around 8 per cent of fruit. Highly perishable foods such as leafy greens and berries are typically grown in the inner food bowl close to the city. That includes 96 per cent of berry fruits, 94 per cent of asparagus, 92 per cent of cauliflowers, 88 per cent of mushrooms and 93 per cent of herbs.
In my own electorate of Northcote and across the inner north we have excellent examples of urban farming which are shortening supply chains and putting sustainability at the heart of their work. Both CERES, along the Merri Creek, and the Melbourne Food Hub, along the Darebin Creek, are leaders in their missions to demonstrate how urban agriculture and food waste recovery can work. Through gorgeous farmers markets every weekend, they are giving locals access to delicious, fresh, local produce. I highly recommend visiting these sites to get a sense of how much can be achieved on a small footprint and the innovative methods they are using to lower emissions, lower water usage and recycle their waste.
To help back our farmers and primary industries the Andrews Labor government has developed a transformative 10-year agriculture strategy which will ensure they are best placed to meet the challenges of the future and play to our strengths. Before I turn to some of the key amendments contained in the bill, I just want to say a few words on the strategy itself, in particular the way sustainability and climate action have been embedded in our plan to support Victorian farmers. We know that agriculture is Victoria’s fourth-largest source of emissions, accounting for 15 per cent of total emissions. But changes to our climate also have a direct impact on the success and future of our primary industries. With decreasing rainfall, rising temperatures and increased frequency of extreme weather events, it is our farmers who often feel the brunt of this. Since 2001 our farmers have seen a 7.7 per cent on average drop in cropping productivity due to climate change. It is not in the interests of our agriculture and primary industries to ignore or delay climate action. The dithering and neglect we have seen from the Liberals and Nationals has been nothing short of reckless over the past decade. On the other side of the pendulum, it does not work to vilify our primary industries, as some of those in the Greens political party have been known to do. Instead we are getting on with the job of changing things for the better. We are investing in our primary industries, in developing the research, technologies and skills that will deliver our ambitious target of 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 and zero net emissions by 2050.
There are already a number of important actions underway, including $92 million for land restoration and carbon farming initiatives, almost $20 million to support the agriculture sector to respond to a changing climate, $10 million to be invested in a pilot program to deliver up to 250 on-farm action plans, an expanded agriculture energy investment plan to support farmers to improve on-farm energy generation and efficiency, and accelerating two trials of methane-inhibiting feed additives at Victoria’s Ellinbank SmartFarm research centre. The 231-hectare, 500-cow farm is Australia’s leading dairy innovation facility and is on track to become the world’s first carbon-neutral dairy farm by 2026. There is no doubt that there is still work to do in this space. What is clear is that only Labor has the vision and the commitment to make it happen.
Turning to the details of the bill itself, I know one element my community will be particularly interested in is the improvements to controls and stronger enforcement powers to better regulate the risk of noxious weeds and pest animals. As a community bordered by a number of sensitive waterways, we are very sensitive to the detrimental impacts that noxious weeds and pests can have on habitat and biodiversity. The spread of weeds from one location to another is a significant issue. Once established in an area, the window of opportunity to eradicate weeds is small and much more expensive than prevention.
Locally we have got some incredible groups, like the Merri Creek Management Committee, the Darebin Creek Management Committee, Friends of Merri Creek and countless volunteers who give up their time to help protect and restore these environments. Litter is one of the biggest problems that we face, but it is not the only one. Weeds and pests like prickly pear are a real concern. These groups do an incredible job of organising activities like weedathons, educating locals and hosting native planting days, and I am actually pleased to be joining the Friends of Merri Park this weekend for a planting day to restore native herbs and grasses. The Victorian government has been an ongoing supporter of these local groups through funding programs and grants like our Landcare grants, but what was really exciting two weeks ago was seeing a federal Labor commitment of $1 million to support restoration and protection activities along the Merri and Darebin creeks in my electorate. This bill creates new offences and imposes new requirements to address the risk of introduction or spread of noxious weeds and pest animals as well as improving consistency between the treatment of weeds and pests—a welcome change for my community.
Turning now to improvements to animal welfare, one of the things the bill does is ensure veterinary practices can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare needs during an emergency like a bushfire. During the Black Summer bushfires residents contacted me concerned about the welfare of wildlife and domestic animals impacted by this tragedy, and they welcomed the deployment of wildlife triage units, food drops and grants provided by the Victorian government to shelters and foster carers to help look after and rehabilitate wildlife. But these fires did highlight key issues that delayed or prevented the urgent provision of vet supplies and medicines for the treatment of livestock, companion animals and wildlife caught up in the disaster. The current legislation is not flexible enough, and the changes in this bill will make improvements to that.
The bill also acts to support our wonderful community of vets, who have faced a couple of challenging years—facing first bushfires and then the pressures of the pandemic. There are improvements to information-sharing provisions, additional investigation and enforcement options for complaints and allowances for more flexibility in registrations. This past Saturday was Word Veterinary Day, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every vet across my community who cares for our much-loved household pets and wildlife.
These amendments build on other important reforms in animal welfare that this government has done, including establishing a pet exchange register. We have delivered Australia’s first animal welfare action plan, we have established Animal Welfare Victoria and we are underway to developing a new animal welfare act, which will for the first time in our state’s history recognise the sentience of animals. This is a hugely significant change, but personally I know that there is more work to do as we look to lead a culture change in the way that we think about and respect the place of animals in our society.
There are a number of other amendments in this bill which reduce red tape and costs for our primary industries, but as I am running out of time I will just say that I am very pleased with the changes that support our emerging low-THC hemp industry, which is an excellent food and fibre crop and an environmentally sustainable material for the building industry as well. Victorians benefit from a strong and growing agricultural sector, the jobs that it supports as well as the skills, expertise and innovation the industry brings to issues like climate change. That is why we are supporting our agriculture and primary industries, backing them in with a plan for the future, and that is why I commend this bill to the house.
