JOEL FITZGIBBON MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE

SHADOW MINISTER FOR RURAL AFFAIRS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HUNTER

J.K. McDOUGALL LECTURE 2014

CHAMPIONING THE BUSH

NEW CULTURE NEW OUTCOMES

ARARAT
FRIDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2014

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I am very conscious of the significance of this event and the quality and seniority of
your past speakers. Im proud to now be listed among them.

I strongly suspect that J.K. McDougall and I would not have agreed on all things.

For example, you are not likely to hear me denouncing capitalists or the capitalist
system.

But there is one matter upon which he and I would agree absolutely.

As would, Im sure, every person in this room.

I hold, and he held, a deep-seated belief that a healthy, vibrant and prosperous rural
Australia is central to our countrys economic and social well-being.

Its not a debate about the city and the bush and which is more important.

Because the reality is, one cannot live without the other. Nor would we want them
to.

Rather, its about how we as a country, best maximise our economic and social
utility.

By that I mean; how do we maximise our economic wealth and, in turn, use that
wealth to ensure we continue to live in a fair, free, peaceful, prosperous and modern
society?

McDougall I believe would have said and I agree you cant have a healthy and
strong Australia without a healthy and strong rural Australia.

It is after all, where we produce all of our food, fibre and minerals wealth.

Its where tens of thousands of farmers act as custodians of our productive lands.

Possibly just as important, the bush is central to any discussion about our national
identity; who we are, what we are, where weve been, and where we are going.

Interestingly, the subject of the bush and our national identity was the subject of
debate between some of our best known poets - Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson and
Dulcie Deamer.

John McDougall would have been acutely aware of, and interested in that debate
he was a contemporary and of course, a poet of note himself.

For me, nothing marks us more as Australians than our bush heritage and its a facet
of Australian life we should strive to preserve.

Yet 66 per cent of Australians live in our capital cities. The number climbs up to 80
per cent when you add our major regional centres like Geelong, Newcastle and the
Gold Coast.

Worse, the ABS projects that in the absence of some circuit-breaker the capital
cities number alone will grow to 72 per cent within the next 40 years.

Thats not what I want for Australia, Im confident its not what J.K. McDougall had
in mind, and if Im any good at picking my audience, I doubt its what you want
either.

So how do we change that trend?

In my view it must begin with a change in our national political culture.

My travels through rural Australia this year have not so much been about partisan
political campaigning but rather, a campaign to lift the prominence of agriculture and
rural affairs within the national political discourse.

Based on the AECs classification system, Australia has 44 rural electorates.

The Labor Party holds just five of them. Two are held by Independents. The Tories
hold the rest some 84 per cent.

In the past 30 years, Labor has held no more than 13 rural electorates. This must
change.

Not for Labors sake, but for the sake of all rural communities.

The status quo represents a structural political problem. Particularly when you take
into account the fact that only about seven of the Coalitions rural seats - all other
things being equal - are currently within our reach.

This is a bad outcome for the remaining 30 or so electorates. Its also a bad
outcome for the nation.

The problem exists despite Labors proud record in both agriculture policy, and policy
initiatives for rural and regional Australia.

The Hawke/Keating years brought a revolution in Agriculture policy. Industry
leaders often say to me privately we only really get real reform in agriculture
when Labor is in power.

Its true.

But what we dont do well is remind people of our significant land-mark reforms.

Let me talk about just some of them briefly now:

Labor undertook the hard economic reforms which removed the subsidies and
protections in agriculture which were holding the sector back no one would
now advocate the return to those practices otherwise today our
international competiveness would be non-existent
We reformed all our Statutory Marketing Authorities, increased their funding,
and put them on a sustainable trajectory
Labor established the research and development corporation model and our
R&D model is still considered worlds best
We established the Rural Industries RDC
We took the hard but necessary decisions in dairy - rendering the sector
much better placed to capitalise on the opportunities in Asia today
We established fisheries management plans for all Commonwealth and joint
fisheries
We created Farmsafe and established rural counselling services
We created one national uniform system for the regulation of farm chemicals
and created the new national regulator the APVMA
We established the Bureau of Rural Science
We signed major agriculture cooperation agreements with China and the
USSR
We strongly backed the Cairns Group on freer agricultural trade
We introduced Landcare
In more recent years we:

Cleaned up after John Howards wheat-for-weapons debacle and further
reformed that sector
Provided farmers with the opportunity to participate in the carbon market to
their great advantage
Funded research into new technologies and better practices for land
managers
Established Caring for Our Country
Expanded the Rural Financial Counselling service
Provided grants for farmers seeking to be more energy efficient
Established reef rescue - helping famers reduce their impact on our iconic
Great Barrier Reef
Produced the National Food Plan, the Asia Century White Paper and the
Feeding the Future reports beginning the process of readying us for the
Asia Dining Boom
In regional policy we:

Appointed the first Regional Australia Minister
Established Regional Development Australia and its local RDAs
Established the Regional Australia Institute
Established Infrastructure Australia
Created a new partnership with regional and rural councils
Spent more money on regional roads than ever before and laid the path for
initiatives like the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail project
Began to close the digital divide by building the National Broadband Network
The list goes on.

But I return to my theme changing the political culture.

Too many Conservative-held rural electorates in Australia have too often found
themselves stuck between a Coalition which takes them for granted and frankly, a
Labor Party which finds them all too hard.

This in turn plays its own role in diminishing rural Australias place in the political
debate and consequently, its share of media attention.

This must change. A lack of political contestability in agriculture and other rural
issues is a bad outcome for our farmers and rural communities alike.

Labor must initiate and lead this change, for our sake, for the sake of agriculture,
and for the sake of the countrys rural communities.

When we change so too will the Tories by necessity.

And to those who think winning more rural seats is all too hard I say this in 1996
who would have thought that within a couple of years, John Howard would enjoy an
army of supporters in Sydneys west known as Howards battlers?

And who would have believed that the Libs would lose Indi at the last federal
election?

But yes, it will be hard and giving effect to change will require us to:

Commit more of our people and financial resources to rural and regional seats
Strengthen and rejuvenate our country Branches
Attract more quality candidates
Demand the Federal Parliamentary Party more aggressively and loudly pursue
agriculture and rural issues in Canberra
All these things sound hard and they are.

But the efforts and rewards can be circular. More energy in Canberra will bring
more energy to bush Branches. More energetic Branches armed with the
enthusiastic work of the Parliamentary Party will bring bigger, more active Branches,
more money and more quality candidates.

That in turn will seat more rural members at the decision making table in Canberra
bringing stronger rural outcomes which in turn, will further fuel success in the bush.

In many ways this process has already begun.

The democratisation of our Party is already energising our Branches and Bill Shorten
is backing the rural cause.

As a former AWU leader and organiser Bill Shorten understands bush and agriculture
issues.

Its why he extended my portfolio title to include rural affairs and its why he has
supported the formation of the Country Caucus. He understands the need for us to
do better in the bush.

For my own part I asked to be appointed to the Agriculture portfolio for three key
reasons.

First, I represent a rural electorate in NSW and I thought that would help bring the
Party credibility in the portfolio.

Second, I felt enthused and energised by the challenge of lifting the Partys stocks in
Agriculture and therefore, on rural issues more generally.

Third, I was attracted to the sectors diversity and its future potential.

And plenty of future it has. The Asia-led Dining Boom offers Australian agriculture
an opportunity the likes of which weve never seen before.

But it wont just come to us, well have to plan and work for it.

Success will largely be determined by the private sector but government will have a
key role to play in providing strategic guidance, securing market access, in branding,
in marketing, in facilitating the inflow of favourable foreign capital, and possibly
making tough decisions about natural resource allocation. Backing and encouraging
research and development will also be of critical importance.

While volume will be important, despite our best endeavours in R&D and in
innovation, we will always be constrained by the limits of our natural resources.

Thats why our efforts must be largely directed to the pursuit of high return products
and markets we want to be not Asias bistro but Asias deli.

Our clean, green and safe food image and the maintenance of it, provides us with
that opportunity.

In government Labor began the strategic planning with a range initiatives some of
which Ive already mentioned the National Food Plan, the Asia Century White
paper and the Feeding our Future report.

Sadly, that work has stalled under the Abbott Government. In more than twelve
months weve had nothing but broken promises in Agriculture. They will say all will
be revealed in their Agriculture White Paper.

Well, we shall see. So far the signs are not promising.

But the twelve months we have lost is twelve months we will never get back. The
policy inertia has been breathtaking.

This is yet another reason Labor needs to do better in the bush. We cant win
government without at least 13 rural seats and we cant progress our vision for
agriculture and rural and regional Australia from the Opposition benches.

The election of the Abbott Government has proven a disastrous outcome for rural
and regional Australia. Not only has it dropped the ball in agriculture, the adverse
impacts of its unfair Budget have fallen disproportionately on rural and regional
Australia.

So win we must. But to win we will need to win the hearts and minds of rural and
regional Australia.

Our record alone wont get us there. We need to show them were hungry for their
support and show them we have a plan.

A plan to:

Encourage and tap local leadership
Encourage collaboration
Encourage economic diversity
Fund the necessary local economic and social infrastructure
Provide the platform to build local knowledge and skills and to retain those
skills
Reduce regional disadvantage through technology
Tackle natural resources sustainability
Fully capitalise on the Dining Boom
This is an approach I believe would win the approval of J.K. McDougall.

I thank the Branch for keeping his memory alive, and I thank you for the privilege of
addressing the J.K. McDougall Lecture.

ENDS