AGRICULTURE Minister Barnaby Joyce said Australia’s dairy industry can take advantage of a potential 1000 per cent increase in exports to China by 2030.
Speaking at an Australian Dairy Farmers national summit in Melbourne today, Mr Joyce said impending free trade agreements with Japan and Singapore put agriculture in a “sweet spot”.
“This puts Australia in a very sweet spot. If there’s something I can deliver back to the industry its confidence,” he said.
Mr Joyce reiterated his commitment to removing the carbon tax, which he said was damaging farmers’ returns.
“In the case of Murray Goulburn it’s a massive tax that flows straight from your farmgates down to Canberra,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s reasonable, it’s obnoxious and it should be removed
“Every day you’re poorer because of it, because you are paying a tax for something you can’t control, which is the weather.”
With the theme of advocacy prominent at the summit, which brought together 86 farmers from across Australia, Mr Joyce urged dairy farmers to get involved in the government’s White Paper.
Mr Joyce said the forums for the White Paper, which was designed to look at ways of improving farmer profits, was a real chance for farmers to “drive an agenda”.
He said today’s summit was a great example of being a part of “the world that turns up”.
Source: Stock & Land
