2008 NTCA Yearbook - Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association

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Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association IncorporatedAdvancing and Protecting the Interests of Cattle Producers in the Northern TerritoryOfficial Opening cont.Cairns a few months ago, and we’ll be meeting again at theMinisterial Council in April – and working out exactly how wemake that review go forward.It won’t just be looking at the weather patterns and how wecan better gear Government assistance to match what the futureweather’s likely to be, but also making sure we look at the socialimpacts. Nobody can have a position of leadership in agriculturalpolitics without being painfully aware of some of the mentalhealth and suicide rate issues that have been out there duringsome of the toughest times in the country. And those issues – thatsocial policy – has to form part of the reviews that we go forwardon. Nobody should feel the slightest bit insecure about the rulesbeing changed from under them – they won’t be.Animal welfare issuesThere’s a couple of issues relevant to this room but not to everysection of agriculture. Can I start by letting you know whathappened when – on a fairly emotional day for a young politician– we’re in the big white car with my wife Cathy and kids, on ourway to Yarralumla to get sworn in as a Minister – and she says,“Remember the day when we were watching Sky News and JohnHoward called the election, this was the driveway he went down.”And my eldest daughter said, “But where are the protesters?”because she remembered watching TV that morning. And upahead, I realised there was one, a human being dressed as a sheep,holding up a sign to end live exports. And so the one demo wehad on the day we were being sworn in was about me. Two scarecampaigns had a run last year. The first alleged that you could nothave reasonable animal welfare standards if you were involvedin live exports. The second effectively said you would not havea live export trade if you had a Labor Government. Both werefundamentally wrong.I’ll deal with the second one first because that’s about melosing my job. I’ve said it in every media interview when I’vebeen asked and I’ve said it face-to-face to some of the animalrights people when they come to me. And when they email me,they get the same response back. But I haven’t said it to all ofyou, and I want you to be in absolutely no doubt.Anybody who is any activist around the world who is lookingfor somebody to threaten, talk down, and shut down, in thisindustry, I say to them simply: Don’t look at me. You havesupport from the Australian Government. You had support fromthe previous side of politics. You’ve got support from my side ofpolitics. For every word that you might have heard during thecourse of the last year, to be in some way afraid for the future ofthe industry if there was a change of government – there now hasbeen a change and you will continue to have the support of theAustralian Government.The other fear campaign is based on a concept not applied toanything else in public policy, and that is that if you can find anexample of things going badly wrong, you have to shut down anindustry in total. That’s essentially the argument. We would notapply that argument to any other industry and I don’t see anylogic as to why we’d apply it to this one. And I certainly won’t.I’ve said, and continue to say, that we need to make surewe are leading world’s best practice. I originally thought it wasenough to say we were ‘meeting’ world’s best practice, but after afew dinners, meetings and conversations with Stuart and others,it was made painfully clear to me that we don’t just meet world’sbest practice – we lead it.Animal welfare standards end up better in a whole lot ofdestination countries because of the Australian industry’sinvolvement. That’s the truth of it. It’s an issue that the rest ofthe country, in large parts, still does not understand. I see it asmy role to help you get that message out – and we’ve got to makesure we’re continuing to push the envelope on that.That’s why recently I approved five separate projects worth$450,000 in total, to further improve animal welfare practices inimporting countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Thoseprojects include infrastructure upgrades in three abattoirs in Libya;upgrades in unloading facilities in ports, feedlots and abattoirsin Oman, Israel, Bahrain and Qatar; another project involvingeducation material to help train handlers to humanely manageAustralian animals in the Middle East and North African regions.Too many people don’t understand the good news story ofwhat this industry has done – not only in terms of jobs, not onlyin terms of dollars for the Australian economy, not only in termsof all the knock-on opportunities for people, particularly in theTerritory, but what is actually done in terms of improving animalwelfare standards in destination countries.It’s huge – and a story that’s not told nearly enough. And Icertainly view it as my job as Minister to be helping you to tellthat story.Quarantine and biosecurityThe final area where you end up with your climate change issuesand your shrinking world issues coinciding and linking up iswith respect to quarantine and biosecurity. When we talk aboutclimate change we usually talk about three things instead of four.We normally talk about warmer temperatures, less water, moremajor weather events.What we keep forgetting is that climate change also necessarilyinvolves increases in weeds, pests and disease. That comes withthe warmer temperatures. Quarantine and biosecurity have alwaysbeen important. There’s been two examples in recent months thathave caused significant and understandable alarm. One is equineinfluenza and the other is babesiosis virus over in New Caledonia.Each case reinforces the message of what goes wrong if ourbiosecurity is not up to scratch. The unique advantage we have,because of our isolation as a nation, in being able to guarantee18 Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association Year in review 2006-2007
Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association IncorporatedAdvancing and Protecting the Interests of Cattle Producers in the Northern TerritoryI’ve said, and continue to say, that we need to make sure we are leading world’s bestpractice. I originally thought it was enough to say we were ‘meeting’ world’s bestpractice, but after a few dinners, meetings and conversations with Stuart and others, itwas made painfully clear to me that we don’t just meet world’s best practice – we lead it.Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Associationfood safety in ways that the rest of the world can’t – but all of thatbeing contingent on continued, strong biosecurity.I’ll get the report back soon from Justice Callinan regardingequine influenza, but I’ve also commissioned my own widerangingreview, not just looking at the single outbreak, but intotal at our quarantine and biosecurity arrangements to makesure they’re sufficiently robust. That review is being conductedby Roger Beale. I’d encourage you to be involved in that process.It’s the first time since the Nairn Review in 1995 that we’veactually had a wide-ranging review of our biosecurity systems. It’sessential to make sure we get this right. There’s too much at stake– not only in terms of the immediate impact on any industry,but on our reputation of being able to provide, uniquely in theworld, the best quality with the best food safety standards, andthat’s why we’ll be going through that. And I understand thatyou only have to be anywhere in the north of the country to becompletely in-tune with how fragile it can be, making sure thatour biosecurity system’s sufficiently robust.After I drove past the human sheep with my family and madeour way into Yarralumla, we all swore an oath. And the oath thatwe swore wasn’t just to the people of Australia. It was to Australia‘the land and its people’.Not many countries do that. But that’s how we do it here –making sure that the land is there for years to come, for what itsays to us all about our national character, for what the land andit being well-managed says to us all for future generations aboutthe productive capacity of the land, and the optimism that youYearbook 2006/2007all have for your businesses for many years to come.All of that comes down to the heart of what I see as my job.I’ve got to tell you – I love this job – I’ve absolutely loved it fromthe moment I was given it. I get to spend my days in the bestparts of the country. I get to spend my days with the best peoplein the country. I get to spend my days dealing with the industriesthat have been talked down for too long, that actually have atremendous optimistic good news story to sell.And the great thing about the two challenges that I’ve spentmy speech talking about this morning – of climate change anda shrinking world – they’re challenges that affect every nationon this planet, and what that means is, the countries that getin front of the game, the countries that do the adjustment andthe investment and get organised early will be the countries thatthrive and get ahead of the pack. I’m determined to see that weare one of those countries. I know from the business sense andacumen of the people in here that this is one part of Australianagriculture that is going to be able to be there absolutely on thefront-line.There’s going to be tough work to do. There’s going to becareful policy settings to make sure we get it right. But at the end,the optimism that you know is going to be made pretty obvious –not just to the rest of the nation, but to the rest of the world.OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATIONThe Hon. Tony BurkeAustralian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry28th March 2008IVSINTEGRATEDVALUATIONSERVICES (NT)IVS is able to offer a full range of commercial industrial andresidential valuation services, specialising in pastoral, agriculturaland rural valuations in the Northern Territory, Western Australia,Western Queensland and Northern South Australia.2/78 Hartley StreetAlice SpringsPh 08 8952 7368Fax 08 8952 075513/82 Wood StreetDarwin CityPh 08 8942 0744Fax 08 8942 0755Email ross@ivsasp.comNorthern Territory Cattlemen’s Association Year in review 2007-2008 19
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2008 NTCA Yearbook - Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association

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