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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 453 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 9 August 2022 by Mr P.J. Rundle

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD — PERFORMANCE

453. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Premier:

I refer to comments by the Minister for Agriculture and Food reported in The West Australian of 21 July regarding foot-and-mouth disease and subsequent calls by peak organisation the Western Australian Farmers Federation for the minister to resign, while the Pastoralists and Graziers Association confirmed the minister has not had the confidence of the sector for a very long time. Will the Premier show leadership and restore the confidence of the agricultural sector and regional WA by asking the Minister for Agriculture and Food to resign?

Mr M. McGOWAN replied:

I have answered this question many times publicly. The Minister for Agriculture and Food used a formulation of words that was clumsy in relation to a significant issue, and she apologised for it. Now, if people have to resign for using clumsy words, member for Roe, you would not be in this Parliament. She made a mistake and she apologised; and that, as far as I am concerned, is the end of the matter. She has a record of achievement as long as your arm in every single portfolio she has been engaged in, including the area of agriculture. The member might recall that when members of the National Party and Liberal Party were ministers for agriculture in the last government, there was a huge fiscal cliff in the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the then department of agriculture, of $131 million because agriculture got cut each and every year over the term of the last government. We backfilled that on the urging of the Minister for Agriculture and Food. We put in place the $48 million grains research partnership with the Grains Research and Development Council. We put in $25 million, because of this minister, to the Western Australian Agricultural Research Collaboration—a huge number of different agricultural research programs across the state that I will not go through, but large numbers with additional funding; and a huge effort into restoring soils and land.

The minister is the first minister to ever embrace carbon farming in Western Australia, which is embraced by industry across the state, and welcomed by everyone. This was not done before this minister arrived in the role. We boosted funding for natural resource management partnerships across the state. Whether it is oats, wine, barrier fencing, dealing with wild dogs—you name it, this minister has driven it. There was $10 million for the Peel food technology facility in the member for Mandurah and member for Murray–Wellington's electorates. The list goes on and on about initiatives to support farming, support markets, support processing of agricultural products and research in Western Australia, and actually support the people working in the industry, particularly in the public sector.