Tuesday, 3 May 2022

Bills

Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ms ALLAN:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:25): I rise to make a contribution on behalf of the Liberal and National parties on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This bill actually amends 11 different agricultural acts and has a range of changes that I will talk about as I go through these bills, but they are the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 (CALP act), the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975. The Liberals and Nationals obviously will not be opposing this bill. I am sure there will be a number of questions in the upper house in the committee process. We had a very detailed briefing from the department yesterday evening. A number of MPs were at that briefing, and I think there will be some more questions on detail around the legislation in the upper house, but for the debate in this house we will not be opposing it.

With the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992 there are some updates to the authorised officers’ powers to remove certain barriers to sharing information with other regulators and to clarify requirements for giving notices, making requests and recovering debts. In the discussion in the briefing about more clarity around what the additional powers are for authorised officers and the issues around giving notices, the explanation that we received, which is what we will tease out in the upper house debate in the committee stage, was around how authorised officers actually go to properties. A lot of farmers now do not live directly on the properties that they might own—they live on an adjacent property or even a property quite a distance away—so our understanding of this from the brief is it is about how an authorised officer can go about their job to inspect a property and take samples, particularly with the issue of chemical drift, without having to go through the quite arduous process of actually visiting the landholder that owns that particular land if they are not in residence on that property. So we would like some extra explanation in the upper house about how that will actually work and also on the issue around how, once an authorised officer has visited that farm, they will communicate what they have found and the fact that they have been there to that landholder to make sure that particular farmer knows who has been on their property and what they have done or collected from their property.

The other issue that is dealt with in this piece of legislation is the issue around labels on chemical drums that are sold, so that the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s approved label is the label that is used. The question that was asked again in the briefing was: ‘If a chemical is sold with the old label on and the label has been updated, whose responsibility is it to make sure the farmer is aware of what the new issues with the label may be?’. I suppose again we want an explanation as to how that will work in practice. I agree with the principle, but how does it actually work in practice if a drum is sold with the old label on but APVMA has updated the label? How is the purchaser of that chemical made aware of the fact that there is a new label that applies to that particular chemical that is being sold? This effectively harmonises Victoria with the other states around these particular requirements, but I think there needs to be some detail teased out so that people are very clear about how this is going to work in practice.

The next piece of legislation that is amended is the Catchment and Land Protection Act to improve control of noxious weeds and pest animals and to strengthen the related inspection enforcement powers of authorised officers to better regulate their introduction or spread. I suppose the comment I would initially make around giving more powers to authorised officers is that on the one hand we have the Andrews government bringing this piece of legislation to deal with this, but on the other hand we actually have cuts to the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and the number of staff that are going to be available to enforce these new penalties and requirements. So if the Andrews government is serious about controlling pest plants and animals, it should not have made cuts to the department of agriculture and the people who will actually be doing the enforcement of these changes here.

The bill also creates a new offence and imposes new requirements to address the risks of noxious weeds and pest animals actually coming into the state or spreading. It is interesting when you look at the list of weeds and invasive species from Agriculture Victoria’s website and look at the responsibilities of the various levels of government and landholders here in Victoria, it says right up the front that all landowners and land occupiers, public and private, are responsible for managing noxious weeds and established pest animals on their land under the CALP act and any local laws. Under section 20 of the CALP act all landowners, including the Crown, public authorities and licensees of Crown land, must in relation to their land:

take all reasonable steps to—

avoid causing or contributing to land degradation which causes or may cause damage to land of another landowner; and

…

(d) eradicate regionally prohibited weeds; and

(e) prevent the growth and spread of regionally controlled weeds—

on their land and—

(f) prevent the spread of, and as far as possible eradicate, established pest animals.

If you go over to the next page, it talks about the responsibilities of the three levels of government here in Victoria. The Australian government’s role in managing invasive plants and animals is mainly about national preborder and border biosecurity, with a coordination-of-leadership role for achieving national biosecurity outcomes. That is to make sure we keep Australia safe from these pest plants and animals from overseas. The state and territory governments are primarily responsible for managing the risk of invasive species that are already present in their respective jurisdictions and managing those things on public land. I think the issue that comes up every time something is talked about with pest plants and pest animals is that, with all due respect to the various government agencies, private landholders that own land next to public land generally consider that the public land is the neighbour from hell because they do not control their weeds and they do not control their pest animals, and that has been an issue for a long time. Again, with the reduction in staff in the departments because of the recent cuts, that will only get worse instead of getting better.

So it is the state’s responsibility to actually manage their land. Then you go to local government, who have a responsibility to manage noxious weeds and established pest animals and protect land and water resources on the land that they manage. Again this is an issue for local government. I know in the Mallee particularly a farmer may control rabbits on their property but if the local government does not control the rabbits on the roadsides, they reinfest literally within minutes of the person that is controlling the rabbits on private land living there, so there is a real issue around state government not doing their fair share under this particular legislation.

If you look at that strategy for pest animals and plants, the Invasive Plants and Animals Policy Framework, the last time it was actually updated Joe Helper was the Minister for Agriculture, which was from 2006 to 2010, and Gavin Jennings was the Minister for Environment and Climate Change. So there needs to be a lot of work done on contemporising these issues and making sure that government agencies and government have the resources that are available to make sure they control pest plants and animals.

There are a number of examples, and I think everyone would have heard discussion in this house at various times about the control of blackberries. Blackberries are probably one of the worst infesters of public land across Victoria, and there is just not enough done by government and private agencies to control blackberries—including private landholders. Gorse, for those that drive around the areas where gorse infests, again, if it is left for a few years without any control work, is a huge issue for not only that particular landowner but also neighbours who get infested.

I suppose in my area one of the issues that has come to the fore in the last decade is wheel cactus. If you go to Mount Kerang and Mount Buckrabanyule near Wychitella, wheel cactus is just out of control, and there is nothing effectively being done to control it. It is very difficult to control, but there is very little being done.

I suppose the weed I would finish on in what is a long list of weeds is Paterson’s curse. It is a weed that is supposed to be controlled, and as you drive around in the spring and you see the purple flowers everywhere, it is not controlled very well by public land managers. And sadly, I do not think there is enforcement by the agencies to make sure private landholders do their bit too, because it is actually not a hard weed to control if you have a proper management strategy. For the changes that are made to the Catchment and Land Protection Act we need to make sure that government resources are put into that to make sure it actually achieves the outcomes that are set out in this particular piece of legislation.

The next piece of legislation that is amended is the Dairy Act 2000. The bill effectively harmonises the employees of Dairy Food Safety Victoria under the Public Administration Act 2004 and makes sure that those employees are subject to the values and principles set out in the Public Administration Act 2004. Dairy Food Safety, over a number of iterations, has effectively followed on from the old Victorian Dairy Industry Authority, which did not come under that particular act. It is my understanding that this just harmonises something that is a historical issue rather than making any major changes that are needed.

The next piece of legislation that is amended in this omnibus bill is the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, and there are a couple of particular changes there. One is around the use and transportation of schedule 4 and schedule 8 medicines to treat animals and wildlife, particularly after bushfires and after major events. I know the member for South-West Coast might have more to say about this in her contribution, but as I understand it, this is about making sure that there are actually those pharmaceuticals which are restricted use available for use in treating animals who have been burnt or are in severe stress because of a burn and need to be treated. There needs to be access to enough of those schedule 4 and schedule 8 medicines that may not be available in the immediate facilities and can be brought in to be used.

The other issues the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will deal with are effectively removing the impediments to the interstate trade in the hemp industry, harmonising legislation thresholds for THC and low-THC cannabis with other states and improving the effectiveness of how authorities actually regulate low-THC cannabis. I think we all know examples of businesses that are setting up for the production of low-THC cannabis here in Victoria for medical purposes. They are going to be very successful. I know there is a very large one in Mildura, and this legislation will assist them in how they do business between the states for these particular products.

The Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 is the next piece of legislation that is amended. This was a piece of legislation that I had the honour to introduce as the Minister for Agriculture back in 2011. It was modelled on similar legislation in New South Wales. The issue that it was there to address—and we can see how effective the New South Wales act was—was a deficiency here in Victoria. Particularly my then federal colleague John Forrest, who was then the member for Mallee, was a very strong advocate of having this sort of legislation in Victoria so that if a farmer was at risk of having his farm foreclosed because he could not meet the payments on that particular farm, there was a process there where he could get a mediator in and they could work through the issues. Too often when farmers get to that particular situation, there is a lot of mental stress and anguish and they do not necessarily engage with their banker in a constructive way or do not engage at all with their banker because they have put the shutters up and are fearful and stressed about what might happen.

With a farm it is also the family home quite often, and if people are foreclosed on and the farm is sold, they lose their home as well, so there are stresses that go onto people. So this legislation puts in place a process where there was mediation and there were proper rules around how a bank or a financial institution dealt with a farmer who had got themselves into that particular situation and gave them some breathing space and gave them a formalised process to work through those issues. Even if at the end of that process the farm ended up being sold, the farmer had someone there to assist them who was trained to work through those particular issues.

The changes to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 in this omnibus bill are just about harmonising it with the other states and also changing the definition of ‘farming operation’ to include forestry and aquaculture, which are primary production pursuits, so that they come under this piece of legislation as well. The bill transfers all of the administration of this act to the Victorian small business commissioner. Rather than the department of agriculture having some role and interacting with the small business commissioner, this goes to the small business commissioner to run into the future.

The next piece of legislation that is amended under this omnibus bill is the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994. The bill strengthens the existing legislative framework available for the prevention, monitoring and control of animal diseases in Victoria by improving compliance and enforcement tools, creating new offences to underpin livestock and bee traceability through the supply chain and extending and clarifying the powers of inspectors. These clauses also address Victoria’s biosecurity by extending beekeeper registration requirements, establishing better risk management of livestock and providing for the Exotic Diseases Fund to pay the costs of administering exotic disease response activities associated with animal welfare.

The exotic disease welfare fund is a fund that is jointly funded by the states and the commonwealth, and quite often it is used to actually stop an exotic disease in one of the other states so it does not get to Victoria. The experience I had when I was the minister was with fire ants in Queensland. We do not want to get fire ants in Victoria, so Victoria actually paid the control program—as did the other states, as did the commonwealth. And the other one is bees—we also contributed to a joint fund that was administered by Queensland to stop the incursion of Asian honey bees into Queensland. The Asian honey bee is a vector of the varroa mite. It would destroy the honey industry in Victoria as we know it if we had the varroa mite here in Victoria. There was an Asian honey bee incursion in Cairns. Unfortunately it got into the jungle up there before it could be stopped, but at this stage it is still isolated in north Queensland; it has not actually come into Victoria.

The bill changes the governance arrangements around appointments to the animal compensation funds here in Victoria. We were assured that this does not change the role the Victorian Farmers Federation has in actually appointing people to those compensation funds, but again, in getting answers in detail in the upper house, it would be good if the minister could take on notice that we would like some very clear assurances that this actually does not change the VFF’s role in how they appoint people to those particular compensation funds, because there is a substantial amount of money in those compensation funds. They do a number of things, but most importantly they are about having people that have literally got skin in the game—having farmers—on those compensation funds who are actually paying the levies to know that those levies are being administered and spent as per the right requirements. At the moment those boards are going to use the Premier’s circular of 2015 about good board governance, which sets out the skills that are necessary on those boards and the mix of skills that are needed. We just want to make sure that the bill does not exclude the VFF from putting forward the names that they want to under that particular piece of legislation.

The next piece of legislation changed is the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, and it provides additional supports to inspectors when they are intercepting and applying the requirements of this act and changes the definition of a plant health declaration to provide a clear power to authorise a person to issue a declaration. One of the things that we unfortunately have had happen in the past in Victoria is that, while most farmers would know what particular weeds are, plant nurseries sometimes have inadvertently sold noxious weeds as garden plants, and that has created some issues over time. So it is about making sure that people can actually make declarations and stop the importation or stop the selling of those particular plants. They may be all right in the garden, but if they escape the garden, as a lot of the weeds that we have now originally were brought here for various purposes—

Ms Britnell: Lantana.

Mr WALSH: Lantana is one. Horehound is another.

Ms Britnell: Pampas grass.

Mr WALSH: Pampas grass. They escape and they cause trouble when they get into the wider environment for farmers.

The next act that is amended is the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, and this is effectively to allow for assistance commissioners to work part time rather than full time.

The next piece of legislation changed is the Veterinary Practice Act 1997, and it provides greater flexibility for the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria, where at the moment there is a requirement for the chair of that particular board to actually be a veterinarian and there are non-veterinary members on that board. This opens up the opportunity for non-veterinary members of that board to actually chair that particular board. It also makes some changes around the fact that one of those veterinary positions has to be an employee of the University of Melbourne.

One of the last two acts amended under this omnibus bill is the Wildlife Act 1975, and it corrects an administrative area that clarifies who can remain in a specified hunting area at certain times during the duck season, ensuring that people in specified hunting areas during specified times during the duck-hunting season hold the relevant game licence. This piece of legislation ensures for the general public but particularly protestors that if they are actually on a wetland during the duck season, they have a duck identification certificate, which gives them a right to be in that particular wetland. It will stop any ambiguity about who can and who cannot be in a wetland during the duck season and will make sure that obviously those protesters are not there causing trouble to the hunters. There are rules at the moment around the distance that a protester can be from a hunter, and there are rules around how close to the water’s edge a protester can be before an authorised officer can take action. So this just strengthens, I suppose, the way that authorised officers or the police can actually enforce the rules around duck season. We have seen some unfortunate situations, I think, where some protesters—and everyone has a right to protest as long as they protest lawfully and they protest safely—get overenthusiastic and enter the water, enter effectively the shot range of those that are shooting ducks. There is a real risk to their personal safety. We do not want to see anyone get hurt in a duck season, but some protesters do go to extremes, which does put at risk their own personal safety. This change, as I understand it, will enable authorised officers and police to better enforce who is actually in a wetland during the duck season.

The last piece of legislation that is changed is the Meat Industry Act 1993, and this makes some minor operational changes relating to the food safety regulatory framework for meat, including packaged meat, and removes ambiguity about the application of the Public Administration Act 2004 to PrimeSafe employees to clarify they are public sector employees subject to the values and principles set out in the act, which is the same as the changes to the Dairy Act that I spoke about earlier.

I suppose the key change that this makes for the meat industry is where there have been some issues over time around particularly farmers markets, where a meat retailer at a farmers market will have their van all set up, they will have packaged meat there that they are selling and there was some ambiguity around whether they actually needed a PrimeSafe licence to have that refrigerated van and sell that meat at a farmers market. This clarifies the issue where if the meat is processed at a PrimeSafe-licensed abattoir and is packed in a cryovac pack—not just wrapped in Glad wrap or something but packed in a sealed cryovac pack—that can be sold by a stallholder at a farmers market without needing to be PrimeSafe licensed. They would need to abide by the local government health inspector’s rules, but they would not need to be licensed by PrimeSafe as long as that pack is not broken or opened to split the meat up and retail it from that.

I can actually remember going to the Kyneton market a number of years ago, and there was a meat retailer at the Kyneton market who was doing exactly that. They had a refrigerated utility. He was selling cryovac-packed meat from an abattoir, but there was this issue around whether they had to have a PrimeSafe licence to do that. So this clarifies those particular issues there for those people who want to buy their meat effectively from a stallholder at a farmers market, at one of our community markets—and a lot of people go to the markets now and actually buy fresh produce. They can now buy meat, as long as it is cryovac packed, from these particular sellers.

In summary, there are just a couple of issues, which I have already raised as we have gone through the bill, for the minister and the department to take on notice for questions in the upper house, but I suppose just to reinforce those, they are around making sure of how the enforcement and the responsibility are going to be handled around the labelling of chemical products, as I mentioned at the start of the debate, and a criticism of the government that cutting agriculture staff is not actually the way to control weeds and pest animals here in Victoria. If you want to work with farmers, if you want to work with Landcare groups and if you want to work with weed-control groups—there are a lot of groups that come together both under the auspices of Landcare but also under the auspices of weed-control groups, and I with the member for Narracan have met with a number of groups in his electorate down in Gippsland, where they actually come together to work across the community to control weeds—they need the support of the department. They need the support of the enforcement powers of the department to make sure a recalcitrant neighbour in that particular district does not let the whole system down. Weed control or pest animal control is a bit like the weakest link in a chain. If there is one farmer or a minority of farmers in a district that do not want to do the right thing and control their weeds or if there is one farmer or a minority of farmers that do not want to control pest animals—rabbits would be the classic example, but it also goes to some areas where there are wild dogs, if you are actually baiting for wild dogs and you have one farmer that is not part of that particular program—it makes it very difficult for that program to be successful across the whole district.

I remember attending a public meeting in Omeo a number of years ago, which was again about wild dogs. There was a gentleman there that got up and said that it was not until he realised that they actually all had to work together—it had to be a partnership between the department, the wild doggers and the farmers with their baiting program and with electric fences to actually make it successful for everyone—that they actually started to go forward.

It is very disappointing that although this legislation is giving the department some more clarified powers around the enforcement of pest plants and animals, the Andrews government has cut staff who were doing that. We would very much like to see, on behalf of those farmers, those staff positions reinstated so this legislation can work for farmers.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (14:55): Deputy Speaker, it is always lovely to see you in the chair—another great regional Victorian MP. I take great pleasure in joining the debate on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is a bit of a shame that we only get 10 minutes to speak on a bill like this. For those who are watching in the cheap seats at home, that is how thick this bill is. A lot of work has gone into putting this together, and I want to commend the minister’s office and the career public servants, who we respect a great deal, who have worked really hard in putting this comprehensive bill together. It makes a range of miscellaneous amendments to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975.

All Victorians benefit from a strong and growing agricultural sector and the jobs that it supports. That is why the Andrews Labor government is backing agriculture with an ambitious vision for the future. We are investing in the strengths of our farmers, our food and in turn our regional communities. In fact we have invested well over four times more than the previous coalition government, which neglected and cut funding to agriculture and regional Victoria.

Victoria punches well above its weight on a national level when it comes to agriculture. Despite the challenges of the pandemic and global shocks to the supply chain Victoria remains the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for a massive 29 per cent of national food and fibre exports—that is $14 billion in exports. By comparison the next largest exporters are New South Wales at 19 per cent and Queensland at 17 per cent. Overall the total value of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion, so we are the largest ag producer in the country. We have over 21 000 farm businesses across the state supporting 75 000 jobs in the agriculture sector, predominantly located in rural and regional Victoria.

Victoria is the leading agricultural producer in milk, where we account for 64 per cent of national production; sheepmeat, 64 per cent of national production; vegetables, the nation’s largest producer with 25 per cent of national production; fruits and nuts, 35 per cent of national production, more than any other state; and table and dried grapes, where we account for a massive 70 per cent of national production. Victoria is also the number one exporting state in dairy, sheepmeat, wool, horticultural products and poultry. In short Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse of the nation, and that is why our government is backing farmers and primary industries with our transformative 10-year agriculture strategy, which will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so it continues to be a cornerstone of our economy. That is why we brought this bill to the house: to support that growth.

The changes that are in the bill before the house can be grouped into supporting Victoria’s emerging hemp industry, and haven’t we seen that take off? Whether it is medical marijuana, whether it is within food or whether it is fibre for rope, these trial commercial hemp crops are being grown across all parts of Victoria, but most commercial production currently occurs in Tasmania. In Victoria hemp now can be legally grown to produce seed for food and seed or fibre for industrial purposes, including use in construction and textiles. I am really proud to have strongly pushed for the changes that led to medical marijuana being legal in this state. Not only has that been crucially important to those suffering a variety of conditions—for pain relief, to limit seizures; it has made a transformative difference to so many people—but also it has grown an industry in this state.

I had the privilege, during our last term, actually, of representing I think it was the agriculture minister or the health minister—I cannot actually remember which one I was representing during the last term—at a national ministerial council of health and agriculture ministers. We signed off a national protocol so that hemp could be recognised as a food. It shocked me when I heard other voices around the table, particularly public servants, saying that it had taken 17 years to get to that place. I am glad that once we got there we moved really swiftly to grow this industry in Victoria. We need the legislative framework to support that.

There are other changes categorised in responding to animal health and welfare emergencies. They ensure that veterinary practitioners can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare needs in emergencies such as bushfires. We know that Victoria is the most fire-prone state in our nation. Of the many profound memories I have of Black Saturday, there is none more than that of being in Strathewen and being on the back of a fire truck and seeing a wildlife rescuer who literally—you could tell from sitting on the back of that truck—was in absolute shock. If he had been prepared for seeing the death of animals, he certainly was not prepared to be dealing with the death of human beings. This poor man was in such a state. We saw at that time that really no native animals were remaining on the fireground, and what many of those wildlife rescuers ended up doing was mostly treating companion animals who had more likely been rescued or saved from that fire.

We really need to support our vets in responding to disaster, but also we need to support our vets because it has been a really difficult time, like for everyone in the pandemic. I want to congratulate our vets and particularly my neighbour Harriet, who is a vet, because last Saturday we marked World Veterinary Day, which celebrates the outstanding work of our vets to promote the profession. We have got actual staff shortages. Just a bit like in the human health medical workforce there is actually a shortage in the veterinary workforce, which is why the government recently added a certificate IV in veterinary nursing to the free TAFE list in 2022. So it is a comprehensive approach that we have to agriculture and to supporting our industries.

In the final minute and a half that I have I would like to express some surprise that the former Minister for Agriculture, the Leader of The National Party, made a positive comment about a previous agriculture minister in Joe Helper. The member for Lara and I had the privilege of serving with Joe Helper as the Minister for Agriculture and member for Ripon. There is no fool such as an old fool, and referring to a minister and saying that a particular strategy had not been renewed since that time, when in fact you were one of those ministers during that four years, I found quite surprising. There was certainly no agriculture strategy that came out of the member for Murray Plains’s office during the time that he was the minister. He also referred to other government agencies and local government not being good neighbours to farms and to pest animals and plants escaping from there. I would remind the member for Murray Plains that when he was the lead minister the environment was made subservient to agriculture under the Baillieu and Napthine governments and the member for Murray Plains oversaw the biggest cuts that we have ever seen to Parks Victoria and to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. You reap what you sow, mate, and I reckon that a lot of those pest plants and animals that we are dealing with now escaped on your watch. I commend the work of the minister, and I condemn, as always, the poor response of the National Party and their lack of policy and ideas. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (15:05): I rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This bill is an omnibus bill that amends around 11 different acts, and the Liberal-Nationals are not opposed to these amendments. In fact some of these amendments do some good things, such as giving authorised officers improved access to enable them to investigate different events that need to take place so we can prevent weed infestation or infectious diseases in animals or biosecurity issues.

I will begin by saying that agriculture in South-West Coast is a very significant industry. Before I go on to talk about the bill, I would like to put on the record some of the facts that really do demonstrate how much of an economic backbone agriculture is for our region. It is the largest food and fibre region in Victoria, the south-west region, and it has an economic impact of about $2.3 billion annually. That equates to about 22 per cent of the total jobs. That does not include the flow-on effects that these jobs have, whether it is teachers in schools or nurses in hospitals who have family members in the industry who are attracted to the region because of the agricultural sector. We produce a very high-quality food and fibre product that clothes and shelters and feeds many people in most countries around the world. We actually export to many, many countries and have a very, very high reputation for quality food. Given that supply and demand for food will be under pressure due to more demand and decreased supply, given that only about 7 per cent of the earth’s crust is now being harvested for food, given the burgeoning growth we have in population, it is a real challenge. Having areas like South-West Coast that are so fertile producing this sort of food for our world is highly important. That is why any legislation that supports and grows agriculture is of vital importance.

I will note that in South-West Coast we are very organised and we understand the importance of agriculture. A group like Food and Fibre Great South Coast, who formed many years ago now out of the economic pillar of the Warrnambool City Council’s initiative, coming from the dairy industry back in 2003 I think it was, brings together all the sectors around agriculture by putting together this group so we can prioritise and make sure we get the environment right for agriculture to thrive. It is a real shame that I did not see in the budget—and maybe I missed it, because it was only an hour or so ago—any funding for that group, who are doing so well to pull together the region and be representative of the region to government so we can have improvements in the sector. It is very disappointing.

Some of these changes, such as to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 and the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, I want to focus on a bit. One of the changes is that authorised officers will have more access to land. It worried me in the briefing—it worried me considerably—that the department that represented the Minister for Agriculture were not confident in their answers when we asked questions around how notifications would be improved to landowners who are not present and do not live on the land that the officers want to make an inspection of. They talked about leaving notifications. We asked questions around: if you nail it to a fence post—if that is how it is going to be notified—what happens if it rains and the person does not see it? Because in the legislation it does say that notification will be oral or in writing. I do not want to have a hearsay situation where farmer A says, ‘I never heard from anyone’, the inspector says, ‘Well, I told them’, and it becomes a ‘he said, she said’. I think in the upper house we will seek some real questioning around what sort of detail will give confidence, because I am afraid the answer that I was given by the department representative of the minister that common sense surely will prevail was a bit concerning. That is why we have legislation—so we eliminate those sorts of situations where things are not clear—and we really need to have a good ability to ensure that we can have inspections when there is something happening.

I remember a situation in my own experience where we had certain conditions that resulted in rough dog’s-tail, which is a noxious weed, growing in a paddock that we had just agisted. It had not been used by farmers for a while, and it ended up creating a situation where cattle just started dropping dead around us. There were 20 dead animals within a couple of hours, and when you have got the department coming and helping you, you really appreciate it. We actually thought we had an outbreak of mad cow disease—that was what they thought was happening at the time—so you can imagine how challenging and stressful that was. It is really important to have the department. So when I see this sort of legislation that strengthens and improves the powers of the authorised officers, such as the vets and the representatives from the department, and we have got outbreaks like we have got at the moment with Japanese encephalitis, and you can see that—that is really unfair. Sorry, I have been passed a note by the member for Polwarth about mad cow disease. I will not share what he has written on his piece of paper, but it has thrown me. Anyway, I am getting back to it. When you have got things like what is going on at the moment with Japanese encephalitis and you cannot actually get someone in the department who has got enough experience to be an incident management person, which is what I am being told by people who are working in the department at the moment in south-west Victoria who I know quite well, or when you have got carbon scientists losing their jobs when the government say they are really interested in making sure we improve the outcomes for the environment by understanding the carbon footprint of agriculture and minimising that—and agriculture have done a hell of a lot to actually minimise the emissions—we have got on one hand some legislation that is improving the powers, but at the same time just in February we saw cuts of hundreds of jobs from agriculture, so it is a bit of a ‘Say one thing but do another’.

I also want to raise the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 changes. There are some things that will assist the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria to be more flexible—that is very good. At the same time we are seeing that vets have far more legislative requirements upon them. As a result we are seeing an increase in the government putting pressures on them, and that has resulted in their registrations going up 15 per cent, the local vets tell me. And what we really see then is that gets pushed back onto farmers, that cost, or onto pet owners who go and see their vets, because at the end of the day it is just a tax that the government are pushing onto the vets, which then gets pushed onto landowners and pet owners. Those legislative requirements have to be implemented by the veterinary practitioners board, and they have to fund it somehow.

Farmers also tell me that whilst we see in this bill improved authority to manage weeds and pests, what we see is that Crown land should be falling under that same responsibility. That is not what farmers experience when they have got as a neighbour Crown land beside them. In these CALP act changes, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, it actually says that all landowners, public and private, have an obligation to the environment to manage their weeds, and we know that is not the case. We see, for example, the Cobboboonee National Park, which is a state-managed forest in South-West Coast, where the biodiversity of that forest is almost lost because the pittosporum has infiltrated the forest to such a degree. When you talk to people like Garry Kerr, who volunteers his time like many others, trying to control it on a voluntary basis, we are losing the biodiversity because we have got one monoculture in the forest of pittosporum instead of the biodiversity of a variety of different species underneath the canopy. Why would we as a state back in the 1990s protect an area and then leave it to be invaded by something like pittosporum, which destroys the biodiversity? It makes no sense, but that is what happens when you have got a government that changes all these acts to improve the powers but then cuts the funding to the department and then leaves not enough to carry out those acts. And it is no attack on the good people in South-West Coast who try and do their best in places like Tower Hill.

Ms CRUGNALE (Bass) (15:15): I rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is not my first time this year speaking about how important agriculture is to our state. Speaking to our government’s commitment to agriculture and primary producers, in February we presented the Livestock Management Amendment (Animal Activism) Bill 2021.

Broadly speaking this bill continues the themes of our government’s agriculture strategy, Strong, Innovative, Sustainable: A New Strategy for Agriculture in Victoria—themes of ‘recover’, ‘grow’, ‘modernise’, ‘protect’ and ‘promote’—launched in 2020 by the then Minister for Agriculture, the Honourable Jaclyn Symes, and continued by our current minister, the member for Macedon. I thank both colleagues for their outstanding contributions to ensuring the future of agriculture is strong in Victoria through an ambitious 10-year plan with a focus on ag tech and low-emission agriculture, including a $20 million agriculture sector emissions reduction pledge.

Today we are making amendments to 11 acts to improve their administration, operation and enforcement. They do say the devil is in the detail, meaning that whatever you do should be done thoroughly; details are really important. So it is with this bill. There are obsolete references that will be removed and technical amendments to improve clarity and improve legislative schemes.

Following on from the important changes we introduced last February, this legislation addresses biosecurity. For example, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010 will be amended to assist in the protection of future plant production, particularly in the Victorian potato industry. My electorate of Bass knows a little bit about potatoes. The first Koo Wee Rup potato festival was held almost 50 years ago in 1973, drawing a crowd of over 4000 people, and the festival may not have been held over the last 20 years, but the area still depends on this industry. Last year’s report showed that in 2020 Victoria had the strongest growth in fresh potato exports of any state, with a 42 per cent increase.

This bill provides additional support for inspectors to prevent the entry and spread of plant pests and diseases. Disease spread intentionally or unintentionally has the potential to wipe out an industry, and our government is committed to ensuring that Victoria maintains its global reputation for first-class produce. Eradication of weeds once introduced, as we know, is almost impossible, and seeds are transported through fodder, machinery and contaminated crops. Invasive plant and animal species will be an ongoing battle, and the proposed amendments will allow officers to search any package that they reasonably believe is in contravention of the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994.

We are this country’s largest vegetable producer, accounting for one-quarter of the national production, and in Bass and the surrounding areas, I guess, too, we are a food bowl—so not only potatoes, but we are very famous for our asparagus fields, growing over 95 per cent of the Australian market. They certainly come to life in September. We have got celery, snow peas, spinach, leek, peas, rocket and herbs—anything green is grown in these amazing rich soils. I did learn recently in Devon Meadows that what is grown there—which would probably go for the Koo Wee Rup swamp area as well—grows six times faster than if it were grown anywhere else, because of the nutrient-rich soil. It is lovely—and you know, there is housing creeping into that area as well, so it is a real balance between the two.

We have Macca’s Farm—and the member for Cranbourne beside me may know of Macca’s Farm on the way to Kilcunda. It is just off the highway in Glen Forbes, proudly boasting acres of free-range paddocks for pigs and cattle, but there are also strawberries and a whole range of produce that is grown there. I am sure they will be pleased to hear the changes contained in this legislation. An amendment introduced into the Meat Industry Act 1993 will reduce the regulatory burden for packaged meats, acknowledging that they are low risk. Small producers who want to sell their product direct to customers will not need a retail butcher licence from PrimeSafe, saving costs on licensing and compliance and helping the small-scale producers. We do have a lot of organic beef farmers: Bimbadeen on Phillip Island and—I think it is—Annie’s meats in the hills just around Archies Creek. We see them often at our farmers markets, whether it be at Churchill Island, Tooradin or Inverloch.

Beekeeper registration requirements will also be extended under the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, ensuring that interstate beekeepers mark and brand hives and register them in Victoria. Of course we have got bees as well. Nearly two-thirds of Australia’s agricultural production benefits from bee pollination, and we will be celebrating World Bee Day later this month, on 20 May.

The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 reforms and amends the agriculture portfolio to strengthen Victoria’s biosecurity and food safety, part of our 10-year strategy for agriculture in Victoria helping the sector adapt for the future and creating opportunities with flexibility. While this bill deals with the protection of food resources, it also focuses on another really vital and emerging agricultural crop, hemp, grown for food but also industrial purposes, construction and textiles. We have got medicinal cannabis as well in Wonthaggi—it is all happening actually in the electorate of Bass. We listened to the recommendations made by the 2020 Industrial Hemp Taskforce Victoria. We listened and heard their recommendation that we raise the THC threshold to 1 per cent to be in line with other states and territories. This legislation amends the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 and aligns us with other states as well, making it easier for Victorian producers to work with their counterparts in other parts of the country.

Humanitarian practices are also at the heart of the proposed amendments. Despite our government’s many commitments to climate action, we must prepare for future catastrophic natural weather events, be they bushfires or floods. Animal welfare was tested to its limits during the horrific bushfires that devastated East Gippsland two years ago when the veterinary community was hampered from assisting local practitioners with the donation of essential drugs and delayed or prevented from sending veterinary supplies and medicines for animals impacted by the disaster. So after consultation with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Zoos Victoria and the Australian Veterinary Association, this legislation will ensure that our animal health and welfare is first and foremost in any future emergency, ensuring that life-saving medications can be supplied without delay even when they are needed the most. I add my voice to those who have already thanked our frontline vets, both here in this chamber and last Saturday on World Veterinary Day. Our government acknowledges that the shortage of vets and vet nurses has put further demand on the stretched workload that they face, from the bushfires to the pandemic, when we saw a surge in pet ownership and now see the surrendering of animals as people return to offices or regret their decisions. It is heartbreaking stuff for the veterinary sector. Adding the certificate IV in veterinary nursing to the free TAFE list in 2022 shows our government listens and acts.

On humanitarian practices for our farmers, the bill also strengthens the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011. Again, much of my electorate of Bass relies on farming. My travels into the areas included in the boundary changes have given me the opportunity to connect with more of our food producers—as I was mentioning earlier, with Devon Meadows—and hear their concerns and priorities as well. These proud people are often not wanting to ask for help. We know the mental health implications of farming, and I hear the stories of things that are beyond their control as well, like the weather.

So to those who say Labor only cares about the city folk: no, that is not true. Of course Labor cares about all Victorians, and strengthening the safety net for farmers facing enforcement action by creditors shows it. We care about farmers. We care about their mental health, and we thank them for the food they provide. One amendment in this bill removes the double handling of sensitive information by transferring responsibilities to the Victorian Small Business Commission, so respecting the integrity and privacy of farmers as businesses and people.

The omnibus legislation amends, as I said earlier, 11 acts to protect our agriculture sector and those in it—the farmers and producers, the professions that assist in their care and the animals and plants that provide us with food. Without them we are actually lost. The origin may not be known, but the quote has truth: ‘When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then may we realise that we can’t eat money’. Our government is committed to ensuring that will not happen in Victoria, and I commend the bill to the house.

Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:25): I am pleased to rise to say a few words on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which is an omnibus bill that covers a wide range of things. But I want to start by seeing if I can get a rise by saying I am pleased to rise as the member for Gippsland South, the greatest agricultural electorate in the state, particularly the greatest dairy electorate in the state.

Mr Eren: Calm down. We’re not bad in the west.

Mr D O’BRIEN: I am surprised, member for Lara, that the member for Polwarth did not beat you to it.

Mr Riordan interjected.

Mr D O’BRIEN: The member for Polwarth does indeed represent a very good dairy electorate, but Gippsland South has got it all. We do, I would say, probably with the member for Polwarth, the member for Murray Plains and perhaps the member for South-West Coast, represent the main dairy electorates across the state. It is indeed a massive industry for Victoria, as it is for my electorate—likewise, beef in particular. Really dairy and beef underpin a huge proportion of the employment and industry in my electorate, and aren’t they loving it at the moment? In particular in the beef sector we have had a couple of very good seasons on the back of good prices. Indeed whilst input costs are going up constantly—whether is electricity, fertiliser, urea and the like, or diesel in particular at the moment of course too—at the same time our dairy farmers are enjoying good prices thanks to strong global demand.

Likewise, in my electorate we are actually seeing an increase in the output per hectare, if you like, in terms of the value of production, as a number of horticultural producers have come into my electorate. We have already got some fantastic salad growers—Covino Farms at Longford is one of the biggest in the state. Indeed I think Gippsland has eight of the top 10 salad producers in the country, including Schreurs down in Middle Tarwin, who have moved in with predominately celery production. I think there is great opportunity for it to grow further in Gippsland South, both in South Gippsland, where we have naturally excellent rainfall and soils, but also in Central Gippsland, where the Macalister irrigation district is a powerhouse of production—historically in dairy, but it is growing more so in horticulture.

I have been pushing the government for some time now for further expansion of irrigation in Central Gippsland, particularly along the Latrobe River. I note there is some money in the budget announced today for the implementation of the central and southern sustainable water strategy. I would hope though that the government actually does follow through with some of the recommendations or the comments in the draft SWS, particularly those on providing more water that is currently sitting in a dam unused by the power industry that could be used for irrigation broadly along the Latrobe. There are great opportunities for existing farmers and for new people to come in.

This bill has a wide range of changes. I think there are amendments to 11 different acts, many of them relating to authorised officers in respect of ag and vet chemicals, plant biosecurity and drugs, poisons and controlled substances and the like. The point, I guess, I would like to make is that it is all well and good to be making changes to clarify or increase the powers of authorised officers, but if you do not actually have any authorised officers it does not make much sense. We have seen under this government over the last couple of years significant job cuts—145 across Agriculture Victoria, which were reported in February of this year, on top of another 47 last year, which were predominantly soil researchers. We hear whenever these come up. We hear a lot from government members about supposed cuts under Liberal and National governments, but they never actually acknowledge that they are doing these cuts, particularly in the agricultural sector and in Agriculture Victoria.

We often hear the minister say in response, ‘Oh, well, but these won’t affect the services provided to Victorians and to Victorian farmers’. It does beg the question: well, what are those people doing now if their loss is not going to mean anything? So while we see the level of executives, particularly in the public service, skyrocketing under this government, we are actually seeing the number of people on the ground—authorised officers, extension officers and the like in Agriculture Victoria—reduced. To go with that we see in the budget today that, whilst the budget papers claim an increase in the budget for agriculture under the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, in fact when you look at the revised figure for 2021–22 of $551.9 million and the budget figure for next year of $504.1 million, that is a $47.8 million cut to the agricultural output budget—in today’s budget papers released—or 8.6 per cent, so a significant cut. You do wonder, ‘Well, how are all these changes in this legislation to be implemented when there is such a significant cut to both the staffing levels and the actual budget of the agriculture department within DJPR?’. This is on top of significant cuts last year to both agriculture and regional development and is a significant issue going forward.

I might just touch on clauses 89 to 107, which talk about the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 and include expanding the definition of ‘farming operation’ to include forestry and aquaculture. And just briefly on farm forestry, it is an area of considerable opportunity for Victoria, but on plantations more specifically it is an issue again of great failure by this government. We saw an announcement in 2017 of $110 million from the government to establish new plantations in the Latrobe Valley, which was in part to try and address the shortfall in plantations and was subsequently relied on by the government to say, ‘It’s part of our transition out of native forest harvesting’. But what has happened with that $110 million? We are now five years down the track—literally five years today since the 2017 budget—and that $110 million has not gone anywhere. There is not widespread new plantation—indeed, from the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee we have been able to ascertain that so far just 500 hectares of plantations have been planted under that scheme and indeed they were not new plantations; they were government plantations on land that had previously been leased by HVP. So it is a net gain of zero in terms of forestry plantations, and that is not helping with our food and fibre production in this state, it is not helping with our exports and it is particularly at the moment not helping with the cost of building materials and subsequently the issues that are affecting the state in terms of housing and housing affordability. So the government stands condemned for being all press release and no action on that issue. I would be concerned as to where it goes in future as well, and there is nothing further in the budget today to give us any hope that that situation will improve.

In other aspects of the bill it certainly does touch on weeds and pest animals, and every rural MP will tell you that is one of the biggest bugbears of our farmers, not just from their neighbours but their roadsides. The Crown and indeed state land more broadly, whether it is state forests or national parks, are havens for weeds and pest animals, and I do not believe this government has given that issue serious enough consideration, including—and I go back to the issue of authorised officers—one of the issues that I get pretty much every year, which is the issue of ragwort in particular, blackberries and thistles in the hills, particularly in the Strzelecki Ranges. It is often about absentee neighbours—absentee landholders—but there is just not the effort from the department these days to enforce the existing rules. We can make changes to the legislation here today, but it is the enforcement of the existing rules, which is very, very much in my experience dependent on the actual ag officers within the department. There are some that have been great and they have a good reputation, but there are others where nothing is done and landholders who are doing the wrong thing simply do not get punished under the existing law.

This bill does tidy up a lot of areas. The opposition is not opposing this legislation. It is an omnibus bill with a lot of minor changes involved. But I say again there is no point making these changes trying to strengthen our agriculture sector when at the same time this government is taking it away by cutting jobs in Agriculture Victoria, cutting the agriculture budget and ensuring that we do not have the future that we should as an agricultural producing state.

Mr EREN (Lara) (15:35): I am delighted to be speaking on this very important bill before the house. Of course it is yet another superb bill by the Andrews Labor government, and I commend the minister involved, the Minister for Agriculture obviously, who has done a power of work in relation to this. This is an omnibus bill, and it makes amendments to 11 acts in order to improve their administration, operation and enforcement. It will introduce new legislative schemes, provide amendments to reflect machinery-of-government changes, remove obsolete references to departments and make various miscellaneous and technical amendments to improve clarity and consistency. The bill will make amendments to the following acts: the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975. So as you can see from that, it is a comprehensive overhaul of this very important sector. Of course we know how many jobs are associated with the agriculture industry, and there are 18 members of the government who understand and appreciate the valuable input that those industries provide for their electorates right across Victoria and obviously in those regional and rural areas.

I think it is important to highlight that we are back. As a state, obviously, we were the powerhouse for jobs in the nation prior to COVID. We got hit hard, as did many other states and indeed many other cities across the globe, with a once-in-a-century pandemic, and now we are back, bigger, hopefully, than before. And that is why the budget that was handed down today incorporated a sensible plan to grow our social services areas and health areas and educational services and, of course, importantly as well, to grow the economy and get our budget back to surplus. Certainly one of those ways to becoming a powerhouse in terms of employment in this nation is to look after our producers, our agricultural sector.

Despite some of the challenges that we have experienced, Victoria actually punches well above its weight on a national level when it comes agriculture, and I would like to highlight some of the stats that I will be presenting today. Despite some of the challenges of the pandemic, as I have indicated before, and global shocks to the supply chain, as we have experienced, Victoria remains the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, which is amazing. That is a power of work not only by the producers themselves, obviously, in getting through that very hard period of COVID but also in terms of government support. That is where I think congratulations should be given to those who have helped not only protect our agricultural industries but also enhance them in some way, shape or form.

So being the largest agricultural exporter, Victoria accounts for a massive 27 per cent of the nation’s food and fibre exports—that is a whopping $14 billion of exports. For comparison, the next largest exporters are New South Wales at 19 per cent, $9.6 billion; and Queensland at 17 per cent, at $8.6 billion. Overall, the total value of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion. We are the largest ag producer in the country—and I underline that: the largest ag producer in the country—which is a credit to everybody involved in that industry. We have 21 000 farm businesses across the state, supporting 75 000 jobs in the agricultural sector, predominantly located in rural and regional Victoria.

I am lucky enough to have some wonderful ag businesses in my own electorate of Lara. I point out to the member for Gippsland South, who tried to take credit for being the biggest and the best dairy producer in the state—I admire his ambition and his enthusiasm, but I have got to correct him—obviously in the west we are much better than the Gippsland area in that respect.

Late last year I was able to visit one of these fantastic local businesses, the Kyvalley Dairy in North Geelong, along with the Minister for Agriculture. Kyvalley Dairy are one of the largest suppliers of fresh dairy products, with exports going to markets across China, Malaysia and Singapore. We are proud to announce support for the industrious team at Kyvalley Dairy through the Food to Market program. As you may be aware, Acting Speaker, it is a wonderful program which assists companies such as this one, which continues to grow its newly launched Geelong Dairy brand and expand it into new markets. And that is exactly what we want: we want to expand into new markets so that we can be the leader in this industry for many more years to come.

Victoria is the leading agricultural producer of milk, where we account for 64 per cent of the national production, which is a phenomenal amount; sheepmeat, where we account for 46 per cent of national production; vegetables, where we are also the nation’s largest producer, accounting for 25 per cent of national production; and fruit and nuts, where we account for 35 per cent of national production and also more than any other state, which is again a credit to all of those businesses that are involved and all of those industries involved in this very important sector. Can I also mention table and dried grapes, where we account for a massive 70 per cent of national production. Victoria clearly is also the number one export state in dairy, sheepmeat, wool, horticultural products and of course poultry. It is safe to say that Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse of the nation. That is why I am proud to be a member of the Andrews Labor government, who are backing farmers and primary industries with our transformative 10-year agricultural strategy, which is working tremendously. This will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so it continues to be a cornerstone of our economy in this state—and in our nation to a certain extent. We are happy to carry that load, and we are doing it spectacularly.

This bill provides an opportunity to make a number of reforms and amendments across the agricultural portfolio, supporting Victoria’s emerging hemp industry, if I can just mention that, which is obviously one of the big industries that is growing in terms of demand as well. The Victorian government is committed to working with industry, communities and trading partners to ensure that the agriculture sector is strong, innovative and sustainable going forward. The Victorian agriculture strategy is a 10-year strategy. It is a road map for action and investment to help the sector respond flexibly to emerging challenges and to capture new opportunities, and this includes supporting emerging industries such as hemp, an industry which has been developing since commercial production was first legalised in 1998. Agriculture Victoria issues licences to authorise the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp and seed for non-therapeutic and non-medicinal purposes.

There is so much more in this bill. I wish there was more time to go through all of the different changes that are occurring, but in terms of responding to animal health and welfare emergencies a further amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will ensure that veterinary practitioners can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare needs in emergencies such as bushfire. Unfortunately Victorians know too well how devastating fires are for our communities and also for our pets, livestock and wildlife. The Black Summer bushfires of 2019–20 highlighted the issues that delayed or prevented the urgent provision of veterinary supplies and medicines for treatment of livestock, companion animals and wildlife caught up in the disaster. We know that during the fires vets seeking to donate medicines were unable to do so due to restrictions under the current act, so we are making changes there. We are supporting the veterinarians.

We are doing so much in this bill, which is fantastic obviously. I wish I could go through all of it: support for small-scale packaged meat producers, the Farm Debt Mediation Act, the Wildlife Act, the Dairy Act 2000, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010—which is another very important part of our sustainability going forward as a state obviously—and the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act. This is a fantastic bill; it really is. It is going to make a big difference to sustain growth in the industry and protect that industry going forward. I commend the bill to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage.

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (15:45): The member for Sunbury was just getting a little bit ahead of himself there. There must be an election on. He is wanting to get up and make things known out in Sunbury that he actually knows what a farm might be, rather than an airport only.

I rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and like an earlier speaker from Gippsland I too take credit for having one of the best and most productive and most profitable agricultural regions in the state. Despite the sort of pointed claims by the member for Gippsland South, I point out to the member for Gippsland South that I can actually grow real crops as well as dairy and meat and sheep and everything else—so anything they can do in South Gippsland, we can do better in Polwarth. There is no doubt about that.

This reform, this omnibus bill, is a fairly lengthy tome by the government. I do not know how many pages it racks up—there are a heck of a lot of them there. I reckon most farmers around my district would like to see a lot more reforms in this omnibus bill than what are suggested by the government in this round. I mean, as the member for Gippsland South pointed out, this government often gives far too much lip-service to the agricultural sector, which is always disappointing in our regional areas because it is in fact the farming sector which certainly through the COVID pandemic has really kept Victoria afloat. It has boomed along nicely. Without excessive hardship, of drought or flood or bushfires, which we have managed to avoid in the last few years, agriculture has really come into its own, producing pretty much the food, the fibre and the other basic day-to-day necessities that all people need not only in this state but around the world. I point to a couple of great success stories in my own community of Colac, where the local dairy plant and the local meat-processing plant really kept hundreds and hundreds, into the thousands, of people gainfully employed and in full-time work throughout the COVID pandemic, and that is a great credit to those operators and to the wonderful product and produce that they value-add to on a daily basis in our community.

The other thing that agriculture is doing so particularly well at the moment is innovation—new products both coming to our domestic market and also fit and ready for export. I will just mention a couple of stand-out boutique products that have really come into their own in recent years and continue to show that agriculture is not only an age-old profession and one of the oldest industries around but also one that continues to innovate and provide new opportunities. If we look through the Polwarth electorate, Shulz dairy down Timboon way has really gone well and strongly into the organic area. We have a product just to the north of the Polwarth electorate, in Meredith Dairy’s goat cheese; it is a major producer to all the main supermarkets and exports. If you look at Bulla foods, which is now a well over 100-year-old company based out of Colac, not only does it provide huge quantities of ice cream and frozen product and high-value dairy products into the market but in the recent floods that were inflicted on New South Wales, where some of their processing capacity was somewhat diminished, those industries in our area were able to pick up the slack and continue to provide the food product into the marketplace.

This bill deals, as I said, with some basic tidy-ups around I think nearly12 pieces of legislation that cover the important agricultural industries, but I will refer to some of the things that it could always go further on—even while the opposition is broadly supporting this omnibus bill. Take, for example, amendments to the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the CALP act, which is a vital piece of legislation in its own right, governing catchment management authorities and the way we look after land. Farmers’ one great contribution to society and economy is that overall land stewardship that all Australians take for granted really, that most of our land is being managed and by and large looked after by them. This amendment seeks to impose more stringent rules and enables the government to act more on recalcitrant landowners that are not doing the right thing, whether it be weeds or pests, but what it stays very silent on is who we all know in country Victoria to be the worst land manager, and that of course is the state government. One the worst things you can really do is have the government as your neighbour, whether it is a roadside, whether it is a state park or whether it is a national park. You can always bet that that parcel of land that is adjoining your property will be badly fenced and riddled with weeds and vermin, and there is really nothing you can do about it. I know most people in rural and regional Victoria would love to see and would support strengthening authorised officers’ ability to police that, but they would love to see them actually policing Crown land as well.

This bill also seeks to deal a little bit with the potential growth of the hemp industry. The hemp industry is one that is starting to show its head in my electorate, and that is hemp for both the nutritional side, for hemp seed and hemp oil and other things of a medicinal or semimedicinal use, but also increasingly the fibre opportunities there for value adding, clothing ranges, other uses and potentially even paper and fabrics—a really important future use. There is no doubt people will support anything the government can do that will make trade in that particular commodity easier and more transparent and will enable that industry to grow well here in Victoria; that would definitely be supported.

Amendments to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 is another important one. Even though we have had pretty good times in agriculture across south-west Victoria over the last few years, we have been through bushfires, we have been through droughts and we have been through dairy price crunches, and we know how important the rural financial counselling services are across our region. They are there when people and farms and farming families need them the most, so any amendments to continue to make sure that farmers are dealt with with as much dignity and compassion as can be at times of great financial hardship are ones that I certainly support. I have been with families who have had to use those services. It is a very good service that is basically backed by the state, and it is one that could always be funded better. But any elements to that that actually allow farmers to be dealt with more carefully and more compassionately are certainly things I would support.

They are only small amendments, but for new industries, new agricultural processing and new products that are coming to the market there are some minor amendments to the Meat Industry Act 1993, which I also support, because one of the things we are really seeing a lot of is boutique meat producers and people that are trying to work and produce a meat product that is ethically sourced and supplied in the best environmental conditions they can. They are finding a real economic opportunity in farmers markets, in stalls, in boutique product ranges, in some quite good restaurants and in the urban market, and so anything that allows those people to package their product, to get that product to market and get it to their customers more quickly and at lower cost is definitely a good change.

Amendments to the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010 is another important one, protecting and increasing powers that really protect farmers and farm communities, because if you get a disease into grapes, if you get a disease into potatoes or if you get a disease into hops or any sort of agricultural commodity that can be really detrimentally wiped out or badly affected, with years and years of crop prevented from growing, not only will it affect that farm and that farming family but it can quite often affect whole communities, because if you take out or wipe out production, whether it is on chook farms or any of these other food commodities, it is not only that farm that can be affected but whole communities, which can set local economies back for a long, long time. Anything that strengthens the ability to make sure everybody is kept safe and, all too importantly, biosecurity is kept under control is a good measure. They are just some of the highlights for me that I think really affect constituents in my patch. I hope to see that some of the bigger questions are also further assessed when this bill heads into the upper house.

Mr J BULL (Sunbury) (15:55): Like others have this afternoon in the chamber, I rise to make a contribution to the debate on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As others have mentioned, this is of course an omnibus bill. It makes a number of amendments to 11 acts in order to improve their administration, operation and enforcement; to introduce new legislative schemes; to provide amendments to reflect machinery-of-government changes; to remove obsolete references to departments; and to make various miscellaneous and technical amendments to improve clarity and consistency.

There are a range of different provisions within the legislation that go to changing or making amendments to those 11 acts, those acts being the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975.

Before I go to some of the more specific changes which are contained within those changes to various pieces of legislation that I have just outlined, I do want to take this opportunity, as other members have done throughout the course of debate today, to acknowledge and thank local vets within my community and those who do really important work to support our wildlife and animals across my community but also right across the state. We know that those that work within veterinary clinics, whether it be the vets themselves or the staff within those organisations, and the many people who work within wildlife rescue and animal welfare groups across the state do important work. I just want to take this opportunity, as others have done, to acknowledge that because there are some changes that relate to veterinary clinics contained in the legislation.

We know of course that the bill goes to amending those 11 acts, but what is continually important for this government—and indeed should be important to all governments across states, territories and other jurisdictions across the nation—is to consult widely and to make sure that we are working with industry, working with those within specific fields, to ensure that we are getting changes to legislation and various amendments that go to better governance. So this government has through the development of this legislation consulted with Better Regulation Victoria, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, the Department of Health, the Department of Justice and Community Safety, the rural assistance commissioner, VCAT, Victoria Police, the Victorian Public Sector Commission, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, the EPA, the Game Management Authority, PrimeSafe, Animal Medicines Australia, the Australian Banking Association, the Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association, the Australian Meat Industry Council, the Australian Veterinary Association, CropLife Australia, Field and Game Australia, Nursery and Garden Industry Victoria, Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association, the Victorian Farmers Federation, the Victorian Farmers Markets Association and Zoos Victoria—a really extensive process of consultation—and importantly we will continue to engage with those stakeholders as we draft various amendments to various pieces of legislation.

Obviously other members of Parliament through the course of this debate have spoken about a whole range of those different amendments. I do want to focus my contribution on some of the responses to animal health and welfare emergencies. The amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 ensures that veterinary practitioners can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare emergencies in bushfires. We know of course that this state is subject to some significant and devastating bushfires. We have seen that in recent times, and we have seen that over the course of many decades. We know that bushfires are a significant challenge for our community. We know that bushfire emergencies will continue within our community, and we know because of climate change that bushfires are going to continue to be a significant challenge for our community. So what this amendment to this specific piece of legislation, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, does is ensure that amendments allow for an animal health emergency to be declared, mirroring some current provisions within public health emergency orders, ensuring that some of those vital medicines that are required in times of the emergency are able to be provided quickly. In future emergencies this provision will allow for specific requirements in the act to be suspended or altered temporarily to ensure an efficient response to animal welfare needs. Another important change within the legislation is to ensure that a response can be generated or enacted in a timely manner.

I did mention and thank the work of our vets, and the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 contains amendments to the Veterinary Practice Act 1997. I do want to again take the opportunity to acknowledge that work. We know that World Veterinary Day was on Saturday, 30 April—a day to celebrate the outstanding work of our vets and promote the profession. We know that making sure that we have availability of local vets within our community is something that is incredibly important, but what we have seen on the back of some really significant demands that have been placed on local communities is a shortage of vet nurses. This we know is related to a significant amount of work and both mental stress and the impacts of dealing with the day-to-day challenges that that role brings. That is why it is important that we support our vets, and that is exactly what this government is doing.

In recognition of staff shortages and capacity constraints faced by the industry, the government has recently added certificate IV in vet nursing to the free TAFE list, and of course we know that for communities right across the state that ability to get training when and where you need it, but most importantly at no cost, is something that is incredibly important to this government, but most importantly, incredibly important to the individual that receives that level of training, that is able to upskill and access our free TAFE program. We know that list continues to grow. When we had the opportunity to first be elected to government, we knew the damage that had been done by those opposite to TAFE. We have at each and every opportunity, both through the budget process and through investment and initiatives that this government has generated, made sure we have continued to invest in TAFE, because we know it is critically important to upskilling individuals within our community to be their very best.

Many of the functions or the provisions contained within this legislation go to ensuring that those changes across those 11 acts are about striking a critical and important balance between, as I mentioned earlier in my contribution, industry and those who rely on community services right across the state, whether that be services within the city, whether that be services within the suburbs or indeed whether that be services in rural and regional Victoria. There are of course a range of other mechanisms within this piece of legislation that work across those 11 acts, but what we want to make sure we continue to do is invest in our local communities, make sure we are working with industry and make sure we are striking that key balance to always ensure that our acts that are before the Parliament are modernised and up to date but are responsive to the needs of local communities. This is an important piece of legislation. It builds on the government’s strong record of investment in this space, and I very proudly commend the bill to the house.

Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (16:05): Today I am also speaking on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As we have heard, the bill is a fairly large omnibus bill covering a lot of ground, so I will not speak to every aspect of the bill, but there are a few select areas that I do want to make some comments on.

Firstly, on invasive species management, which I will spend most of my time on, this bill makes changes to the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994. They are things like improving powers to regulate weeds and pest animals and tweaking the penalties for spreading weeds. They are important changes, absolutely, but really they are just scratching the surface of the invasive species issues that Victoria is facing, which a lot of people in this chamber would have direct experience of. It is not a secret that introduced plants and animals are one of the biggest threats to Victoria’s environment—probably the biggest threat after climate change, in all honesty. This comes out every time there is an assessment of the state of Victoria’s environment—just how damaging pests and weeds are to our native species and ecosystems and habitats.

The damage done by invasive species was again identified as a key threat to the environment in the recent ecosystem inquiry, which was initiated by the Greens. The Legislative Council’s Environment and Planning Committee ran that inquiry over the last couple of years, and they came out with a good report that had a number of really important recommendations, which we are yet to see the government act on. We very much hope that they will act on them over the next six to 12 months, but unfortunately, to date, management of invasive species in Victoria has not received the attention it needs from the Victorian government. It has not been prioritised. It receives just dribs and drabs of funding, and beyond this it is largely done with a focus on agriculture rather than protecting threatened ecosystems. This is not always bad, but it does mean that sometimes a lot of the pests and weeds that are the most environmentally damaging, say, to our threatened species or our native habitats, do not get the funding or the attention they need, and then our native species and threatened species are put further at risk.

Back in 2011, under the previous coalition government, there actually was a comprehensive review of management of invasive species in Victoria, and it made a very strong case for the development of new standalone legislation for the management of invasive species. A key problem with the way we did things then, as is still the case now, was a lack of focus on prevention and early intervention when it comes to pests and weeds. This is absolutely key, because if you do not get something early, it becomes almost impossible to eradicate. We are seeing that now with, say, deer across Victoria, where we had this window to act and we did not and now it has become this huge problem that we may never be able to get rid of. It is a tragedy; it really is.

The other problem that we see is a real lack of funding for research into new methods for controlling pests and weeds. Yes, it is expensive to control pests and weeds in some cases if you do not get them early, but we do not even then do the research to look into, say, biological controls that might be effective or other measures that might be effective, and that lack of research funding means we are really hamstringing ourselves in the options that we have available to us.

In 2014 the coalition even got as far as preparing a standalone invasive species management bill. However, it did not pass Parliament before the change of government in November 2014. Then Labor came in and unfortunately in the eight years since, while of course they have done a few good things here and there with small amounts of money, the Labor government has not progressed the whole-scale invasive species reform that our state really desperately needs if we are to protect our threatened species and our habitats and the native habitats and ecosystems that people so value.

I think Victorians really value nature. They want to spend time in nature, and any Victorian that has gone out bushwalking or camping or who lives on the land or who has gone out and enjoyed our beautiful native environment would have seen for themselves with their very own eyes just the incredible damage that pests and invasive species are wreaking on our environment. Whether it is blackberries or deer or any number of other plants and pest animals, they are becoming worse and worse, and you are hard-pressed to go out and find an ecosystem that is untouched by them. I personally find that really sad and devastating when I experience it, and I know a lot of other Victorians do as well.

What we actually need is for invasive species management to be given a higher priority within government. The work, we believe, should be led from the environment portfolio, and it should be properly funded, especially given just the scale of the crisis that we have at the moment. We do need effective standalone laws. We need to undertake prevention and early intervention to stop new invasive species, and we need to do everything we can with the existing invasive species that we have running rampant across our state. We need containment and eradication of existing species driven by sound environmental and scientific outcomes, not simply for political reasons—not just picking a species like wild dogs, for example, because there is a particular industry that might be affected by that. We actually need to look at it from an environmentally sound perspective.

Over the last almost eight years Labor has, as I mentioned, done some good things on invasive species, particularly in regard to managing incursions of pest animals into new areas after the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires. That was a good focus because we know that after bushfires invasive species find it easier to come into a damaged area. That is one good thing the government has done. But in a lot of other ways we have really dropped the ball, because if you look at, say, for example, deer, there are now more than 1 million deer roaming Victoria. They are having an incredibly devastating impact on the environment with their hard hooves. They are having a devastating impact on agriculture and community safety as well. You are seeing them run onto roads, and people are running into them with their cars. You are seeing them run onto school grounds in peri-urban and regional and rural areas. They are actually a huge threat to us as well as to the environment.

But in this ridiculous situation our laws in Victoria still categorise deer as a protected species, which does not make any sense whatsoever. This harks back to when deer were introduced as game and they were protected, but the law still continues, and it actually undermines a lot of the efforts needed to get on top of the problem. And when we ask the Labor government about it, they say, ‘Oh, no. It’s fine. It doesn’t really change anything, how we categorise them’, but it actually does because you need, for example, private landholders to be on board with eradicating deer, and if they are being sent mixed messages that actually deer are protected rather than a pest, then they are not given the kind of tools or even the social licence to be able to deal with them. So it really undermines our efforts in dealing with deer, having them still listed somehow, for some bizarre reason, as a protected species in Victoria when we know they are not. They are a pest species, and they cause so much damage.

Labor had the perfect opportunity to address this issue in the recently released deer management strategy. They did not. It could be because they caved in to pressure from the recreational hunting lobby, who have a vested interest in keeping deer populations actually up in our landscapes, and unfortunately, even though some of them might have intentions to help us deal with deer, the research shows that they do not make a dent in deer populations, recreational hunters, and also are not usually well equipped to deal with deer humanely either. Also, having non-professional hunters roaming around close to population centres can create a pretty significant community safety issue. We have seen instances, for example, of shots fired through houses into children’s bedrooms and things like that accidentally, which is a pretty scary situation, in some of these areas.

With the current review of the Wildlife Act 1975 underway, Labor has another opportunity now to fix this issue and recognise that deer are a serious problem, remove them as a protected species and categorise them as an invasive species. I really, really hope this government takes that opportunity. Feral horses, we know, are also a big issue. They are particularly devastating in our alpine environments, and a lot more work and attention needs to be given to horses as well as many other invasive species that we have across Victoria.

We would also really love to see another important reform, which is the introduction of a banned list to stop the sale of weed plant species in our nurseries. Right now nurseries in Victoria can still legally sell some of the most damaging weeds. You can walk into a nursery, buy them off the shelf and plant them in your garden. Then they get away; they proliferate and they might get into our waterways or our native ecosystems. That should not be happening. It is a really commonsense change that we could make that would make a big difference. That is a bit about the invasive species section of the bill.

Another area covered by this bill is the regulation of agricultural and veterinary chemicals. My Greens colleagues and I are particularly concerned when it comes to the use of rodent poisons, which are having a big impact on our native wildlife, particularly birds of prey. People may not be aware that there are two main different types of mice and rat poisons sold in Australia: there are what are called the first-generation rodenticides and there are what are called the second-generation rodenticides. The difference between them is quite significant. These products that we are talking about, you can just walk into Bunnings or walk into the supermarket and buy them off the shelf to control rats and mice in and around your home—things like Ratsak and the like. Unfortunately what happens is when predators of mice and rats eat the second-generation rodenticides they get poisoned themselves. This is becoming a huge problem.

First-generation rodenticides work more slowly; they break down more quickly. I am going to completely butcher this, but they contain active ingredients warfarin and coumatetralyl. Sorry, Hansard—I will give Hansard my notes because I am completely butchering the names, and I do apologise. Owls and other wildlife like birds of prey or even marsupials might eat the rats and mice but they are unlikely to die from exposure to those poisons in those first-generation rodenticides. In contrast the second-generation rodenticides contain active ingredients of, bear with me, brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difenacoum. I am sure I have mangled those ones as well, but these poisons are faster acting on rodents and they build up in the animals that eat them. Unfortunately there is growing evidence that this build-up of these poisons is killing native birds of prey like owls and eagles and native carnivores like quolls. They are not just killing them but weakening them so they are less able to defend themselves or less able go and get food, for example, and then they die. They are also, interestingly, dangerous to household pets. We have had a number of vets contact us who say they have seen a really big and worrying increase in cats, for example, coming in and needing to be treated for poisoning from these chemicals, so much so that some vets have run out of the chemicals and the medicines that they need to treat cats who have been poisoned by these chemicals.

The sad thing is there is not really a reason the second-generation rodent poisons need to be sold in Australia, let alone as widely as they are. At the moment anyone can walk into Bunnings or Woolworths or many other locations and buy them, and it really is a failure of regulation, a failure of governments to adequately regulate dangerous chemicals. Our regulation here in Australia is well behind the latest research and well behind other places such as Europe where the use of second-generation rodenticides is tightly restricted. They still allow some limited use in agricultural settings, for example, where it is needed, but they do not allow the sale at supermarkets to anyone given that there are much less dangerous alternatives available. What we are being told is that it is the use by households, particularly in peri-urban areas where there might be more wildlife around, that is causing the huge damage to bird and native animal populations, not necessarily agricultural use, although it would be great to have more evidence and research into that. But it is the fact that you can walk into Bunnings or Woolworths and buy these things off the shelf and then you are significantly putting wildlife at risk. Most people are not aware of it. We do need more than just labelling. I am aware that the federal government is looking at it, but it is happening very slowly. I am quite concerned they might make some pretty weak recommendations, like just putting a small label on the products, but what is needed is to restrict the sale like is done in other countries.

The ACT is actually looking to move ahead with restricting sale on its own, so it would be really great to see the Victorian government do that as well. I think it would be an easy way to protect some of our iconic species. We are talking about species like Bunjil, the wedge-tailed eagle—iconic and incredibly environmentally and culturally significant in our state and a species that should be protected. So what the Greens will be doing is seeking to amend this bill in the upper house to limit the sale of these second-generation rodenticides in order to protect our endangered and precious native species.

Before I finish I just want to make some very, very brief comments on other aspects of the bill. The Greens and I support the amendments to enable our hemp industry in particular to operate in Victoria. Low-THC hemp is an amazing fibre. It has huge potential to replace native forest fibre in many uses, and it is really quite a tragedy that the stigma associated with cannabis means the industry is really far behind where it could be. The bill also, in several places, makes changes to enable wildlife to be better cared for during emergencies, and of course the Greens will support those changes. With that, I will conclude my contribution.

Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (16:22): I am very happy to rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I come from a very proud farming family in the Western District in Ararat. For over 100 years our family have been on the farm, and I am really aware of what extraordinary communities collect in farming communities—incredibly resilient communities. I have been reading the notes as we have talked about this bill. It is extraordinary that we have faced these incredible challenges through the pandemic—global supply chain shocks have just been felt throughout industry and business—and yet we find that the total of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion. We are the largest ag producers in the country. Despite facing all of these challenges, the industry has been extraordinarily resilient.

This agriculture amendment bill is an omnibus bill; I think there are 11 different acts that it makes amendments to. But really if there is anything that we can do to support the agricultural industry, then I am delighted to stand and speak in support of it. While these amendments might seem small, they will make a real difference to many of our producers. In Victoria we have over 21 000 farm businesses across the state, and they are supporting something like 75 000 jobs in the agricultural sector. So it is an absolutely integral part of our economy. I would like to acknowledge our wonderful Minister for Agriculture. She has done some extraordinary stuff in this space, and I have seen that commitment from her, the commitment she has, to support our industry. So while these are smaller amendments, it just speaks to our commitment to this sector.

I look around at regional Victoria. Since this government was first elected we have invested over $40 billion in regional Victoria. It is just extraordinary—and you can sense that. I live in the regions; I live and breathe the regions. It is no inner-city living for me, with an electorate that is a long way away. I actually live and breathe my area, and you can see what this government’s investment has done. It is not just about the wonderful $500 million hospital development in Ballarat; it is actually about those smaller towns around. This government understands that regional and rural Victoria are incredibly important to our economy.

I look at my own electorate, and you would be amazed at how much farming goes on in my wonderful electorate. It is primarily made up of three different local government areas. Look at Golden Plains shire. Golden Plains shire produces 21 per cent of Victoria’s eggs. So next time you are sitting down and having your egg breakfast think about Golden Plains shire in my electorate. But it is more than that. The Ballarat region—the Ballarat LGA—produces about 100 000 tonnes of processing potatoes, so next time you are eating your chips, think about Ballarat. Bacchus Marsh is another extraordinary one. I look at Bacchus Marsh, and in Bacchus Marsh there is that whole irrigation sector—it is the food bowl. I know my wonderful colleague the member for Melton is very proud to show me around that area and to talk about how it is the food bowl for Victoria. We traditionally think of it as the irrigation area, but it is not just that. It is not just stone fruit; there are also those new businesses. The member for Melton and I were really delighted to visit, in fact with the Minister for Agriculture, Parwan Valley Mushrooms a while ago, a really amazing business locally. I guess what I am really trying to highlight here is that my electorate is 3000 square kilometres and within it there is an enormous amount of production.

On top of that, I come from further out, where there is that kind of broadacre farming. In the 10 years I lived and worked on our family farm, we started off as a fine wool farm, but by the end of it we were cropping and we were producing fat lambs for sale. Sadly, they were only $70 a head in those days and they are more like $350 now, but hey, that is the way it goes. I have got a really strong passion for agriculture, and I know that that is shared by the Minister for Agriculture. It is evident in everything she does, and this bill is just another sign of that commitment.

We have been backing farmers and primary industries with our transformative 10-year agricultural strategy. I know the Minister for Higher Education, the wonderful Minister Tierney, asked me to chair a review into agricultural training last year, and that was fascinating because I got to go out of my own electorate and really speak to farmers and the agriculture industry across the whole of Victoria. It is such a vibrant community and so, so important to our economy. But that was again another commitment from this government. We have got the Minister for Higher Education. Her mind is turned to how we can better service our agriculture industries, and she is obviously working with our wonderful Minister for Agriculture. So I just think it is plain to see the commitment that this government has had and continues to have for regional Victoria but also in particular the agriculture industry.

As I say, there are a variety of amendments in this bill. The member for Melbourne in her contribution differentiated farmers and people who care about the environment, and I would like to take that to task. You did very clearly say that this government concentrates on noxious weeds in terms of farming and agriculture but not so much on looking into the environment. I guess what I would really like to point out here is that from my many, many years on the farm there are no people more committed to landcare and the environment than farmers. For want of a better word, that is our office; that is our workplace. We care very deeply about the environment that we work in. I think you only have to look at one of the greatest environmental programs that Victoria has ever seen, which is of course the Landcare program, and let us not forget that that was a program that was established by a Labor government working hand in hand with the Victorian Farmers Federation. So farmers and Labor governments have been committed to working for landcare for a long time.

In this bill one of the amendments is around noxious weeds and pest animals. I know it might not be enough for those on the other side or for the Greens, but I look at my dad. I went to see him only the other day, and he was very proudly sporting his shirt from the Victorian Gorse Taskforce. He is a gorse task force warrior, and I am really proud of him for that.

Mr Edbrooke interjected.

Ms SETTLE: Yes, they run around and they clear up noxious weeds. Gorse is a terrible problem out there in the regions, and we have got these extraordinary volunteers, of course backed by government funding through the catchment management authorities (CMAs), that go out there and deal with noxious weeds. This bill is going to strengthen those enforcement powers, which is a wonderful thing.

There is also the element around the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, which is around veterinary practitioners being able to respond to emergencies. I have seen the devastation that happens on a farm when fire runs through it, and it is heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking for every farmer when you have to look at those animals and, I am sorry, a lot of the time you have to put them out of their misery because they are in a very bad way after a fire, so anything we can do to support making sure that vets can be there to support farmers and to support those livestock is worthwhile.

Very quickly in the seconds that I have got left, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011—really pleased to see this. I personally many, many years ago sat down with the rural finance counselling service and talked about succession, which is a big issue in agricultural families, and they were just extraordinary, so again, we will do anything we can do to support that.

I am running out of time. In these last few moments I would again like to acknowledge the wonderful Minister for Agriculture and this government generally for standing up for regional people, for understanding the importance of agriculture in our economy broadly but also the work they do in the environment and supporting them all the way. Through CMAs, through the gorse task force, this government has been a great support to regional people.

Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (16:32): I am delighted to rise and make a contribution on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This bill does make changes to 11 different acts, as we have heard from other speakers. Although we have been told through the department that the charges are minor and minimal, we know with this government’s history of neglect of the regions we have got to watch very carefully how this rolls out. On face value it looks like most of the amendments and the changes to the acts are fairly minor and there are some good ones included in that.

I will start with the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992—no, I will not, because I will go into that in detail a little bit further. I will start with the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 amendments, which cover many things but significantly the declarations around weeds and pests, and I do hope this is the beginning of focusing on the weeds and pests that we have in regional Victoria. Our humble kangaroo is nearly not seen as a pest anymore because we are overtaken by sambar deer and the like up in our region. I was up at the Bright Autumn Festival on the weekend, and you talk to people out of Harrietville and Smoko and Freeburgh and Bright and the likes and it really is a massive impost. The deer population is growing out of hand. If you live in Harrietville, you do not want to manicure your garden because it just makes it a lolly shop for the sambar deer as they come in every night. I also saw the result of an accident over Easter with a car and a sambar deer, and it is fair to say that it did not work well for either of them: the car is a write-off and the sambar deer is dead. As I say, with this bill it is about making sure hopefully this is a step in the right direction of making some significant changes and not just tweaking the edges.

The bill goes into detail about noxious weeds—buying and selling noxious weeds—and the penalty is a whopping 480 penalty units. At $161 a penalty unit, that is a $77 000 fine. That is quite significant, and when I compare that to the Gippy Goat scenario it is significantly different. That was just a slap on the wrist. I am not critical of the fine in this instance because it is important that we do not have people trading and dealing in noxious weeds and seeds, but we just want to make sure that we are fair when we are putting fines on, and the points system and the dollars represent the significant impost that it has on the farming community as well.

While I am still on weeds and pests—you would have heard it from other speakers—blackberries on Crown land continue to get out of control. I talk to many farmers in my electorate in the Ovens Valley, whether they are through Milawa and Oxley or further up in the hills in Myrtleford and Bright. Sometimes they describe Crown land as the neighbour from hell, because the blackberries do get out of hand, and although they are required to look after the noxious weeds on their place, for the neighbour, being Crown land, it significantly gets away. Again, we have to make sure we are balanced when we put in these rules and regulations to make sure what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The amendments to the Dairy Act 2000 pretty much just deal with the appointed officers and the employees of Dairy Food Safety Victoria. They are minimal changes and there is nothing significant in that.

I will go back to the agricultural and chemicals act, which makes changes to labelling. The bill will amend the definition of the advice note, so we are talking about the labels on the containers. That came through again yesterday in the bill briefing with the department, the uncertainty about the supply chain and who is responsible for that note, or the labelling, on the drums or the cans of spray, whether it is the retailer or the wholesaler or the purchaser in the end. I think there is still a bit of detail to find out about that, so we will look forward to that feedback when it comes.

Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981—there are some changes in there, and they are focused around the schedule 4 and schedule 8 drugs for animal use. These changes will help to ensure that the drugs are available and certainly more available after a bushfire event or another catastrophic event, and as other speakers have said in the chamber tonight, that is a step forward to make sure that those drugs are available in those circumstances.

Now, touching on the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, that is another change in the bill—of the 11 changes, this is one of them. Having been a dairy farmer for nearly 30 years before stepping into this industry, I have certainly seen the highs and lows. Many dairy farmers do—whether it is milk prices, whether it is the Australian dollar or whatever it might be, the challenges that you have in the dairy industry or of the farming industry, so to speak, whether it is Mother Nature or the climate. It is a really difficult situation. I think it is really important. As the member for Murray Plains said, when he introduced the debt mediation bill in 2011 it was modelled on a New South Wales system, and that became a safety net for farmers. Before bankruptcy or before foreclosure it was compulsory to have those discussions with the banks. That was a really significant step forward because, as the member for Murray Plains said, when you are a farmer your home is on the farm, so if foreclosure sets in, bankruptcy, you are not just losing the farm and the business, you are losing the family home as well. I think it is significant that those discussions and that moderation are compulsory and go ahead because quite often people close down. Sometimes you see what might be the second, third or fourth generation of the farm, and through no fault of their own, through Mother Nature or other circumstances, they are selling out or foreclosed on, and that is why it is important that this takes place. In terms of that, it is a significant step forward. It does open up communications between the bank and the farmer. And now this legislation will include the forestry and the aquaculture sectors, and that certainly is a big assistance in this, that mediation. So it is important that takes place and includes those other two industries within the farming sector.

I will also touch on the Meat Industry Act 1993, focusing on meat being sold in farmers markets. Up in my electorate we have farmers markets and markets in every small town going round. Whether it is Moyhu, whether it is Whitfield or whether it is Katamatite or Tungamah, all the small communities have farmers markets, and it is imperative that we protect them and we do not compromise anything that can compromise these markets going ahead—and also the future of the tourism in those smaller towns, because they do not always get the big holiday-makers and the caravans and everything coming through, but they are great little tourism spots for people who stay in Wangaratta and then go out to the smaller towns of Milawa and Oxley or Yarrawonga and come out to Tungamah and Katamatite et cetera. These changes will make sure that meat is processed through a PrimeSafe-accredited processor. As long as it is cryovacked, that meat can be sold at a farmers market through a stallholder. Again, I think that is a really significant step just to make sure that we have food safety as the number one priority. What we do not need is a major outbreak of food contamination or food poisoning, because that just affects those small markets and that affects the tourism for those communities and people’s trust in those small farmers markets. This is a really significant step in making sure that that takes place.

In the few seconds I have left I just also want to address that the government members here today have been talking about how important agriculture is to Victoria. I understand that and I agree with that; it is important. But even today having a quick look through the budget I see money has also come out of the budget for Agriculture Victoria—I think about $50 million. It surprises me that they understand or they talk about how important agriculture is to Victoria but at the same time they take money out, whether it is from the fruit fly program, whether it is from spraying the blackberries or whatever it might be. They understand how important agriculture is to our economy, but at the same time they are cutting money out of the budget. But without any further ado, most of the changes in this bill are significant and are useful, and I commend the bill to the house.

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (16:41): Thank you, Acting Speaker. It is lovely to see you in the chair this budget day and lovely to see the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs at the table. The minister has had a substantial win in the budget today. I am very proud to stand here after reading in the budget that as well as being the first state to put forward a truth-telling commission and a plan for treaty we are actually backing it up with our budget. It is quite amazing. Although the minister would say we should not be patting ourselves on the back—we are the only commonwealth nation without a treaty, and of course that is a federal issue as well—we are making movements towards repatriation and doing the right thing by our First Nations people, which makes me very proud.

But I am also proud to get up this afternoon and speak on this bill, the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. We have heard from many people who have got farming backgrounds—the member for Buninyong and the member for Ovens Valley just then. They have been quite educational, and they make me want to go out and I guess hitch a caravan on and go to some of these places. Some of the places I do not think I have been to, let alone heard of. We have got so many regional people in this caucus and cabinet that will be right now shaking their fists at the TV going, ‘You can come out anytime. We’ve got a beautiful place’, and this is a bill that makes sure that we look after the people that live in the country and have those businesses.

The bill modifies or makes amendments to 11 acts: the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975 as well.

Two things have jumped out at me as someone who does not live on a farm but was brought up for some of my childhood on a small farm. I guess this debate has brought back many memories of relatives having to deal with weeds and blackberries and things like that, but of the two I guess stand-outs for me in this bill, one is the amendments to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011. This bill goes a long way to strengthening an already effective act and harmonises some provisions with farm debt mediation legislation in other states. The bill will strengthen farmers rights to farm debt mediation by expanding the definition of ‘farming operation’ to include forestry and aquaculture—that retains a farmer’s right to be offered mediation by a creditor if the farmer has previously initiated mediation when not in default—and requiring a creditor to hold an exemption certificate in all instances prior to taking enforcement action under a farm mortgage. The bill will also streamline the administration of the farm debt mediation scheme by transferring all administrative responsibilities to the Victorian Small Business Commission.

As well as those amendments to the Farm Debt Mediation Act we have got amendments to the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016. This bill improves flexibility for an externally appointed member of the rural assistance commissioner to operate part time rather than full time. Accountability and administrative efficiency are improved by requiring only the minister responsible for rural assistance to approve an instrument of delegation as it relates to their portfolio rather than the lead minister of a department. This is really an efficiency measure but does go some way also to improving the lives of our farmers and taking the stress out of the ebb and flow of farming, which we have heard plenty about.

We have heard about droughts, drought indexes, fires and everything that people, regardless of where you live in Victoria, know that our farmers go through. As far as some of those crises go, this bill actually provides amendments to ensure that there are more efficient processes and more humane processes in relation to some of the issues that farmers and people in regional areas deal with as well. Some of the amendments are to the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994. This bill strengthens the existing legislative framework available for the prevention, monitoring and control of animal disease in Victoria by improving compliance and enforcement tools, creating new offences to underpin livestock and bee traceability through the supply chain and extending and clarifying the powers of inspectors. When I was growing up I do not think we really knew the importance of bees, or we were not educated about them in any way. Certainly when I go to primary schools these days—not that they have got bees on their property at the school—there are kids that can probably teach me more about bees than I ever knew and tell me about the importance of those bees in our ecosystem and what our world would be like or how our world would be without bees fertilising and doing the work they do. So it is really important to ensure that certain diseases, which have been mentioned before in this house, do not affect our local populations of bees. Certainly we have heard about the market stalls and small towns, and one of the great things when you drive through Bright and some of the other places is if you go to a servo there will be a couple of jars of their local jam or a honey or something like that there, and it always tastes different wherever you are. It is always pollen collected by bees from different trees and whatnot, and there is something really nice about that, I think.

The other amendment in this omnibus bill is an amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. This is a really important one. Everyone has seen on the news and on social media the fires in the past couple of years. Some of the images that were portrayed and that people had lived experience of were quite full on. One of those that would keep on coming up I think was of animals: how animals suffer through fires and how we treat those animals or how we deal with those animals if we have to end their lives. So this bill ensures that in the event of large-scale natural disasters, such as the 2019–20 bushfires or even biosecurity responses where there might be infections, the health and welfare outcomes for animals, both domestic and wild, are improved. We do this by mirroring the existing human health emergency order to allow broader controlled access to schedule 4 and 8 medicines for animal treatment. The tangible impacts are basically that these medicines can be used to, with the animal’s health and welfare in mind, ensure pain relief and anaesthetics for surgical and medical treatment of wounds, which, as everyone in this house will have seen, can be terribly bad. It is vision that nobody likes to see. When you are out amongst it, it is certainly something that does affect you, and it is good to know that we are part of a government that can look at some of those factors and listen to the people on the land, knowing that we will do something to make that situation better, more efficient and more humane.

As well as those parts and those amendments, the bill removes an ambiguity in the Public Administration Act 2004. Dairy Food Safety Victoria employees are basically clarified as public sector employees and are subject to the values and principles set out in the Public Administration Act as they work for Dairy Food Safety Victoria.

We have heard a range of different stories and tales. I would go as far as to say that everyone who has got up this afternoon, as well as having that experience when they tell their stories about how hard it is to be on the land, has also talked about not the romanticism but why people actually live on the land.

I was really interested to hear the member for Buninyong talking about how she still knows the price of sheep; she has still got her eye on that these days. The member for Buninyong recalled her time on a farm, that decade on a farm. She recalled that with good humour. I think that was time well spent, but also it was hard. And it is hard on a farm. It is hard in agriculture, and most people know that. If you do not, you should go out to a farm. You should go and meet some people on the land, because they will tell you the ups and downs. Certainly this bill goes a long way to ensuring that we can improve the lives of people that use the land, and also it makes things a lot more efficient to ensure that we have biosecurity risks that are measured and managed and make sure that meat products and things like that are packaged properly and there is no fear of contamination or food poisoning. I certainly think that the minister has done a great job with this, and I commend the bill to the house.

Ms COUZENS (Geelong) (16:51): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the debate on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and I am proud to be one of 18 regional members. Of course some have already made contributions today, and I am sure there are a few more to come. The Geelong region has many local producers passionate about quality and what our region has to offer. We know very well that the agricultural industry is vital to our communities, and of course that sits very strongly in Geelong, in our Geelong region. The region is home to diverse agricultural production that includes grain, beef, lamb, wool, dairy, chicken and pork as well as aquaculture, viticulture, floriculture and other horticultural products. We are very lucky to have a major seaport, an international airport and extensive rail and road infrastructure in our Geelong region. The G21 agriculture pillar brings the industry together, providing support and innovation opportunities. They also have a strong focus on the circular economy to help make best use of resources. We have a thriving agricultural industry in Geelong, which we are very proud of, and the diversity of the agricultural industry and the breadth and depth of related sectors in our region are critical to serving the growing population and expanding our visitor economy. We all benefit from a strong and growing agricultural sector and the jobs that it supports. That is why the Andrews Labor government is backing agriculture with an ambitious vision for its future. I am also very pleased with the work we are doing with the Aboriginal community in agriculture and what tourism a treaty might bring, particularly across my region and Wadawurrung country.

We are investing in the strength of our farmers, our food and in turn our regional communities, and in fact we are investing well over four times more than the previous coalition government, which neglected and cut funding to agriculture and regional Victoria. So we continue to support agricultural businesses and provide whatever it is that they need and the resources they need. Victoria does punch well above its weight on a national level when it comes to agriculture. Despite the challenges of the pandemic and global shocks to the supply chain, Victoria remains the nation’s largest agricultural exporter, accounting for a massive 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports. That is $14 billion in exports, and much of that is coming from Geelong as well. For comparison, the next largest exporters are New South Wales at 19 per cent and Queensland at 17 per cent. Overall the total value of the agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion. We are the largest ag producer in the country, and the Geelong region plays a significant role in that. We have over 21 000 farm businesses across the state, supporting 75 000 jobs in the agricultural sector, predominantly located in rural and regional Victoria.

Victoria is a leading agricultural producer in milk, where we account for 64 per cent of national production; sheepmeat, where we account for 46 per cent of national production; vegetables, where we are the nation’s largest producer, accounting for 25 per cent of national production; fruits and nuts, where we account for 35 per cent of national production, also more than any other state; and table and dried grapes, where we account for a massive 70 per cent of national production. Victoria is also the number one exporting state in dairy, sheepmeat, wool, horticultural products and poultry. That is why the Andrews Labor government is backing farmers and primary industries with its transformative 10-year agricultural strategy, which will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so it continues to be a cornerstone of our economy.

The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 provides an opportunity to make a number of reforms and amendments across the agricultural portfolio. The bill proposes amendments to 11 acts and seeks to improve the administration and enforcement of these acts, which relate to Victoria’s biosecurity and food safety, veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment and land protection, rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes.

We are committed to working with industry, communities and trading partners to ensure that the agricultural sector is strong, innovative and sustainable. The Victorian agricultural strategy, our 10-year strategy for agriculture in Victoria, provides a road map for action and investment to help the sector respond flexibly to emerging challenges and capture new opportunities. It acknowledges the potential contribution of new and emerging industries, alongside more traditional commodities, to regional economies and communities. This includes supporting emerging industries such as hemp, an industry that has been developed since commercial production was first legalised in 1998.

In Victoria hemp can legally be grown to produce seed for food and seed fibre for industry purposes, including use in construction and textiles. Agriculture Victoria issues licences to authorise the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp and seed for non-therapeutic or non-medical purposes. There are currently 62 industrial hemp licence holders in Victoria, including six authorised for research purposes. This bill will support further development of this emerging industry with amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. Currently inconsistent regulatory arrangements between states and territories are creating trade barriers and inconsistent compliance and business outcomes. Victoria’s THC thresholds are lower than other jurisdictions. This impediment to industry and development will be removed by this bill, which amends the maximum allowable level of the psychoactive compound THC in low-THC cannabis to align with other states. A number of amendments will also be made to hemp licensing to ensure it is appropriately regulated.

In terms of animal health and welfare emergencies, a further amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will ensure that veterinary practitioners can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare needs in emergencies such as bushfires. Unfortunately Victorians know too well how devastating fires are for our communities and also for pets, livestock and wildlife. The Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 highlighted issues that delayed or prevented the urgent provision of veterinary supplies and medicines for the treatment of livestock, companion animals and wildlife caught up in the disasters—and we know how tragic that was.

I just want to note that recently we funded the Cherished Pets program, which is a group of volunteer vets that come together and deal with pets in crisis. Whether pets have been caught up in a natural disaster or they are, I suppose, a victim of family violence or any of those sorts of things, this group of volunteer vets looks after those animals and makes sure they get the treatments they need. We recently funded that program, which I am really proud of, in the Geelong region, because what it means is that with this section of the act that we are talking about here there will be even more supports for those animals that may be impacted by some crisis.

This is a really important piece of legislation. As was said, there are 11 different acts that come under this. It is important work for a community like mine. I suppose there is a little bit of agricultural industry in my electorate, but after the next election Geelong will incorporate Bannockburn, which is a more rural community. So this is really important for me, but it is important for the broader Geelong region because we do have such diversity in the agricultural industry right across our region, right across Wadawurrung country. There are exciting opportunities that are being worked on by the Aboriginal community—or the Wadawurrung community—to look at how they incorporate agriculture.

Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (17:01): I rise to make a contribution to the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and note like many others that this bill that we have before us amends 11 different acts relating to agriculture. Certainly during the bill briefing, that was extremely well attended yesterday by many people from the Liberal and Nationals who have a strong interest in this, it was put to us that pretty well this is a bill aimed at modernising, updating and addressing gaps, and as a result it is an omnibus bill which does capture 11 different acts. This happens from time to time; the government will wait for the right opportunity to roll a whole lot of related issues together.

Agriculture in Victoria is extremely important, as we have heard. The latest figures that I could find were that it contributes $17.8 billion to the Victorian economy. But that was in the 2019–20 financial year, and it is a bit disappointing that we have not been able to have it updated even to 2020–21. I thought the Agriculture Victoria website perhaps could be updated, but I do notice that they have had an enormous slashing of jobs in that sector, as well as budget cuts, so I can only imagine the pain that people working in that area are feeling at the moment.

There are many different elements to this bill, which is accompanied by the longest statement of compatibility that I have seen for a very long time—some 26 pages—and that in itself is quite unusual. I am going to start with the amendments to the Veterinary Practice Act 1997. As you would know, vets have certain legislative requirements. Their practitioners registration board has to look at what each veterinarian does and how they do it. At times there are complaints and there are hearings that are conducted—and investigations—and this bill makes a couple of changes in this area. I think it is quite interesting, because I know there is a shortage of vets, like there is a shortage of many other skills, across the state.

This bill makes a number of changes. One of the changes that I thought was quite interesting is that it improves the efficiency and flexibility of the board in their conduct of investigations. They have an option now to work with the practitioner that there has been a complaint about. Now, it could be that that practitioner was reckless, they made errors. It could be about conduct, misconduct, perhaps misuse of drugs, or there could have been the death of an animal. The death of a cat compared to the death of a racehorse—people feel equally passionate about those. There might be a number of issues that have been caught up with a particular practitioner. One of the things that this bill allows is flexibility. The veterinarian can continue to practise in different ways. They might have restrictions placed on them. Whereas before it was probably a little bit more one size fits all, now there are different things. They may be able to do one aspect of the job, not all aspects of the job, depending on the nature of the complaint. So I think that flexibility is quite good. It also allows that the registration board does not have to have a vet as its president or deputy president. Whilst that may happen a lot of the time, we know that people on the tools may not be the best at running and conducting board meetings, so it also offers that flexibility.

There are amendments to the Wildlife Act 1975 which fix up an administrative error. This in particular refers to duck hunting, and it will improve the safety in that activity. We know that hunters and protesters sometimes have a clash, and what is most important is that no-one comes to harm or is killed. This will make it a little bit clearer around the specified hunting areas during the specified times that dunk hunting is being undertaken.

The farm debt mediation changes, to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, I think, are something that will be well received by many. At the moment, first of all, we are moving to national harmonisation, but this puts forward the right of farmers to mediation before insolvency, before foreclosure and throughout the process. You can imagine that it is extremely stressful when things are tight in times of perhaps drought, which we would be very familiar with. People have to keep paying out for feed and all sorts of things when they do not have revenue coming in because they have lost their herd for whatever reason. This is about helping them through that process and giving a little bit more strength to them before, really, the rotten stuff does happen. Also included here is forestry and aquaculture, which is quite pleasing.

I want to now focus a little bit more on the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 changes. This is about controls for noxious weeds and pest animals and strengthening the related inspection and enforcement powers of authorised officers to regulate their introduction or spread. At the bill briefing there was quite a lot of talk about the notices that are given, because this allows people to come onto properties—entry to a property without a warrant. The officers cannot enter a home, but they can enter a shed and they can certainly go onto properties. They may be able to take a sample, such as a sample of soil if there are, say, dead eagles or something like that, which have been poisoned in the past. There have been some pretty horrific instances of that. So it does allow them to come onto properties. But the issue of how landowners are notified about this is quite important, because very often a landowner does not live on the farm. I think of my own family. When I grew up we had three farms and there was a house on only one of those, so while identifying the landowner should be done, how you notify them that their farm has been entered is something that we want to see a lot of clarity on because it is not just about nailing a notice to the fence to say somebody has been here and visited. I think that landowners, regardless, need to have respect given to them so that if anything goes to further litigation all due process has been followed.

With regard to this section, I want to talk about the priority weeds and pest animals. These are huge issues in my electorate. Again, questions were raised at the bill briefing about controlling the spread of some seeds. For example, in and around the area where I live Paterson’s curse rears its ugly head way too often. But if somebody cut hay and then they sold those bales of hay to an area such as down in the south-west coast where they may not have any Paterson’s curse, quite easily and innocently the seed might be spread. It is really difficult to control those sorts of things. One of the things that the state government have in their remit is managing invasive species—those that are here. The federal government is supposed to try and stop some of these things getting here, but once they are here the state government needs to manage them, and they need to manage that on public land.

In my area you do not have to go too far to see the lack of management on public land. I see streams and rivers that have been fenced off that are choked with blackberries. I have seen roadsides up between Mansfield and Whitfield, over near Tolmie, where the blackberries are 3 and 4 metres high and thick and deep—acres and acres. This has been neglected. What farmers get really cheesed off at—I know that, I am one of those farmers—is when you do your absolute best to manage the invasive weeds, you do everything that you can, and a bird just eats the fruit off another one and then drops it on your property.

We are every year constantly on the lookout for these weeds. Blackberry does remain an issue, and you need to be vigilant every year. Gorse can rear its head when you are not looking, and Paterson’s curse—all of a sudden you may see a number of paddocks in the distance that have got that purple tinge about them. It is very difficult to manage these weeds, and I know farmers do their very best to do so. But equally they get a bit cheesed off if the property next door to them is not managed properly and effectively. It is something that I think has not been looked at near enough, and I think maybe this will strengthen it to allow the department a little bit more strength to go in and to deal with those recalcitrant landowners but more importantly to deal with the public lands that just are not managed. We have seen broom up and down the highways, and certainly in and around my place there are blackberries everywhere. More needs to be done.

Mr HAMER (Box Hill) (17:11): It is a delight to rise this evening to talk about the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 on a very significant day in the Victorian Parliament, being budget day. I want to pay credit to the minister for bringing this very important bill to the Parliament, and I note the admirable aims of these amendments to better protect public safety, animal health and welfare, biosecurity and the economic contribution made by Victoria’s food producers. The bill before the house is a broad one and covers amendments to 11 different primary acts. The focus of most of my contribution will be on the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994.

The value of protecting our state’s agriculture from pests and diseases cannot be overstated. Biosecurity is fundamental to growing the state’s $17.8 billion food and fibre sector, which is a sector that relies upon safe, traceable goods for export to both the domestic and international markets. A strengthened biosecurity framework helps create and protect jobs and helps manage the risks to the economy, the environment and most importantly to the communities where pests and diseases are entering, growing or spreading and pose a threat to the agricultural sector. The amendments to the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 will strengthen the current legislative foundation for preventing, monitoring and controlling animal diseases in Victoria; improving compliance and enforcement; and improving measures for livestock through the supply chain.

The particular reason that I wanted to focus on this section of the amendment relates to the increased provision in relation to bees and bee traceability, including the registration of beekeepers. Obviously being in a suburban seat fairly close to the CBD we do not have a lot of agriculture, but we do have very strong apiculture. We have a number of local apiarists. The member for Frankston was talking about going on the country roads and finding particular bottles of honey or jam along the road, which is always a highlight whenever I go into regional Victoria, but in Box Hill we also have our own local honeys. You can get Box Hill honey, Blackburn honey, Balwyn honey, Burwood honey, Surrey Hills honey, all with their distinct flavours and locally collected from local hives. The whole pollination process afflicts me terribly given my allergy to pollen, but it is fantastic for the environment, and there is an enormous wealth of flowers in the Box Hill electorate for which bees are needed to pollinate and obviously create their wonderful, aromatic flavours of honey.

I do want to call out to a couple of particular individuals who are in this business and local people, and one is Ben Moore. Ben is a passionate apiarist. He is an urban farmer and environmentalist who runs Ben’s Bees. He often attends schools to educate kids about the vital role that honey bees play in our lives and livelihoods, with bee pollination necessary for 33 per cent of our food production, with some crops such as almonds, blueberries and cotton—obviously not in Box Hill—heavily reliant on bee pollination. The economic value created by bee pollination services in Victoria is estimated to be over $8 billion, with beehives transported far and wide across the state.

If anyone has an opportunity, they should check out Ben’s Facebook page. He is quite the comedian as well as being a fine honey producer. At the start of the federal election campaign he put out a big sign, and it said: ‘Ben Moore: he’s not running for anything, he just deserves a sign’. I think that was just perfect in the context of this current election campaign. I think he may have hit the nail right on the head. But he does produce terrific high-quality honey and honey products. He also offers safe beehive removal services, trains keen budding apiarists and, as I said, works hard to educate about bees and urban farming. One of his disciples is a 16-year-old resident in the Box Hill electorate who also has his own hives. He has been beekeeping for about two or three years, and he now markets his own honey under the title ‘Swarm Boy’. He is quite fortunate; his parents run a fantastic chocolate and lolly shop in Box Hill South, so he has got a ready-made shop. If you want sugar and treats, you can go there and you can buy the real deal that is raw honey.

I also want to give a shout-out to some other very keen apiarists in our local area—that is, Peter and Jane Dyer. They started a business, Backyard Honey. It recently has been sold into I guess a larger enterprise, but they began their business to help others learn how to keep healthy beehives and pollinate local gardens, and they make delicious raw unheated and untreated honey from their own hives and from hives collected around the local neighbourhood. It just I guess goes to demonstrate how important this industry is, even in local suburbia, making sure that those flowers continue to get pollinated and actually then being able to utilise the product from having healthy bees and healthy hives.

Strengthening biosecurity does help protect our beekeeping industry. It keeps our local beehives from many of the pests that other countries must contend with from overseas and protects the safety and the purity of our honey products. Freedom from exotic pests and better management of endemic ones helps protect the unique products, profitability and sustainability of our Victorian beekeeping industry.

Just on the other legislation that is being amended as part of this bill, the amendment to the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 will provide a benefit for all farmers in both urban and rural contexts through improved controls of noxious weeds and pest animals to help control the incursion and spread of weeds and pests that further threaten our community and food safety. The previous speaker, the member for Eildon, did mention Paterson’s curse, and that is a weed that is toxic to many farm animals—although it is attractive to bees due to the high pollen count. In strengthening measures to control noxious weeds, this bill does support our agricultural producers across the state and protects the safety of our food from noxious weeds, pests and diseases.

The bill also contains amendments to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992. This will improve labelling so that the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority approved label is the new applicable standard, instead of the label that is affixed to the chemical product itself. This change will help protect both the animals and the environment by ensuring a uniform standard which governs how to use pesticides or veterinary products safely and legally and will bring our laws into line with other jurisdictions, thereby improving efficiency and enforcement.

Finally, I just want to touch on the changes to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, which makes sure that the health and welfare outcomes for animals are improved in the aftermath of natural disasters. I think we all recall the images going back to the 2009 bushfires but also in more recent times, in the 2019–20 bushfires, and how much land was burnt and then how both the native animals but also the domestic animals, the farm animals, were affected. The bill will change the regulations with regard to access to schedule 4 and 8 medicines for animal treatment so that pain relief and anaesthetic can be provided quickly. For all those reasons it is a terrific bill, and I commend the bill to the house.

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (17:21): It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to make some comments on this Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, which is not only physically a fairly substantial bill, but it does introduce a range of changes. It is effectively an omnibus bill in the context of the agriculture area. True, I think most of the changes that are proposed are in fact related directly to agriculture; with some the link is perhaps a little more tenuous. Certainly with the proposed amendments to the low-THC definition, I think the link is non-existent, but ultimately they are, I guess, related in some way.

I think one of the issues, though, with a bill of this nature is that the changes are so many that, frankly, with the speaking limits we have we do not actually get to talk about all of them in any case—and I will not labour this point because I will obviously be burning time—and we do not get the opportunity to really address the whole bill, let alone particularly contentious clauses. I guess the comments from the member for Box Hill bear that out; he needed to focus on one particular area. There are many changes. Most of them are administrative—or many are administrative, I should say—but some are in fact reasonably significant. I will comment briefly on the less contentious or less complex matters covered by the bill and then, hopefully, spend a bit more time on the bigger changes and where I see more issues.

The changes proposed to the Meat Industry Act 1993 and the Dairy Act 2000 are relatively straightforward. They are about ensuring that the Public Administration Act 2004 applies to both PrimeSafe employees and Dairy Food Safety Victoria employees. There is an unambiguous exclusion in the current legislation. When we sought an explanation as to why that was in fact the case, apparently the reasoning was lost in the mists of time. No-one seems to know why the exclusion was put there—it is not obvious—so I certainly do not object to it being removed, but hopefully it will not come back to bite us.

The changes with regard to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011 extend the application of that act to forestry and agriculture and require that an exemption certificate is in place at all times before further measures are taken. From my perspective any measures that serve to keep people on the land to keep them producing food and fibre are worthwhile measures. This bill will certainly assist in that way but it also does in fact streamline the processes associated with it, hopefully for the beneficiaries as well as the people seeking to enforce their entitlements.

The changes to the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010 appear to expand the role of inspectors but also to clarify their powers, so while some of it may be controversial, I think again it is largely acceptable. With the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, it is streamlining again. Essentially providing flexibility for a member appointed to the rural assistance commission to operate part-time makes sense.

With the Wildlife Act 1975, a couple are very small, but I think certainly one of them is an important change. The first one is changing the words ‘game birds’ to ‘game that is waterfowl’, a distinction that is apparently important, and the second one of course is substituting a full stop for a semicolon, so we are dealing with another matter of substance there. The first one, though, relates to the measures to protect non-shooters and shooters under section 58C of the act—that is, during the 2 hours before sunset through to 10.00 am the following morning, the exclusion of non-shooters through that period. I think it is important that that measure continues to work.

Changes to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992—changes to the labelling requirements—are potentially controversial but, provided they are enforced the right way, are not a big issue.

With the Veterinary Practice Act 1997, there are a couple of concerns there from my perspective. There are some changes to the way the board can negotiate with those under investigation for professional misconduct. The changes proposed there, I think, are welcome. There is a more nuanced approach to penalties; again, that is welcome. There is a change to remove the entitlement of Melbourne University to nominate a member of the board and replace that with a person experienced in veterinary education or veterinary professional development, and I think that makes sense as well. But then there is the curious decision to remove the requirement that the chair and deputy chair of the board are in fact veterinary practitioners. That one I am not so enthusiastic about. The justification given during the briefing yesterday was that there are sets of skills required to chair a board. I agree, absolutely there are, but those skills are not mutually exclusive from being a veterinary practitioner, and I think if you remove that requirement and then move away from having practising vets on the board, it does change the way the organisation operates.

With the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, there are significant changes to the noxious weed provisions. I will not go through the details; there are many pages of them. I think the most significant thing is that the number of penalty units that will apply for breaches with regard to state prohibited weeds will move from 120 penalty units to 480 and for regionally prohibited weeds it will move from 120 to 240, but on the other side of the coin, regionally controlled and restricted weeds both drop down to 60 penalty units—so there are some winners and some losers. I think the key point though is the potential for damage to be done to the livelihood of a primary producer through the spread of noxious weeds is significant. These are serious issues and they do require serious penalties, so I think that is a reasonable change, and the sliding scale is an improvement.

With regard to the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, there are changes to the Apicultural Industry Advisory Committee, the Cattle Compensation Advisory Committee, the Sheep and Goat Compensation Advisory Committee and the Swine Industry Projects Advisory Committee. Changes to the composition and changes to the way that the funds that these bodies administer are spent are largely to allow the cost of recruitment and so on to be defrayed and administrative costs to be defrayed. Surely that is something the government should be doing. Secondly, there are big changes in terms of the membership. Each of those committees currently is constituted differently with different numbers and so on. This bill will increase the numbers to nine members. In each case—except the agricultural industry one—the members are often industry body nominees, and they have specific requirements related directly to that industry.

The bill that we have before us provides just basically a link in the first prerequisite and then provides a whole lot of others that require the board members to have no connection with the industry at all. Certainly the last prerequisite listed is basically whoever the minister thinks is appropriate, which gives, in my view, far more flexibility than is desirable. It would be far more appropriate, I think, to keep those industries engaged, because—not that I am suggesting this minister will—a minister could in the future appoint a whole committee which would have absolutely no connection to the industry whatsoever under this legislation.

I want to finish on the changes through part 5 to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. There are two distinct changes to schedule 4 and schedule 8, prescription drugs and controlled drugs, with regard to catastrophic natural events to assist the treatment of animals. That is a change that is very welcome. Changes around cannabis, particularly the provisions relating to the authority to cultivate and process low-THC cannabis, are I think a big improvement as well—and beefed up. Where I have a problem is the increase in the definition of ‘low THC’ from 0.35 to 1.0. We are tripling that number, and we have had no real commentary from the government, no explanation during the briefing. I am concerned about that particular measure.

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (17:31): What a treat it is to make a contribution on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and especially following the member for Mornington, whose eye for detail sits somewhere in the range between outstanding and terrifying. We were alerted there to one of the amendments in this bill being to change a semicolon to a full stop, and I will express again to the member for Mornington that I wish his recent preselection had been but a semicolon in his political career and not a full stop, because we will miss him in this place. We surely, surely will.

On beautiful Bridgewater Bay down in Western Victoria there is the most magnificent white sand. There are the waves of the great Southern Ocean barrelling in, and behind those dunes lies some of the best winter grazing country in the nation. Extending all the way down indeed east of there through to Warrnambool there is some great dairy country, but my formative farming experiences were down near Portland, near Bridgewater Bay.

A member interjected.

Mr FOWLES: Yes, fantastic grazing country for magnificent Black Angus. My great-aunt, who is still farming at age 90—good Scottish stock—grows magnificent Black Angus down there. And with my late great-uncle, it was there that I learned to ride a motorbike, drive a truck and drive manual vehicles generally, learned about the dangers of bull pits in otherwise flat paddocks and learned a bit about all the ins and outs—that is not an insemination joke—of farming and in particular raising cattle down in that part of the world. It is just a magnificent thing. There is no doubt that giving kids the opportunity to spend some time in those farming environments is just such an important part of their development and upbringing, and I hope that as many kids as possible have that opportunity.

It is the same farm that my father had his formative farming experiences on, although he did more horseriding than motorbike riding back when he was helping out—and just loved it. He loved every minute of it, and when he decided to exit commercial life he decided to become a farmer, so my family for the last 20 years has been a farming family. We grow fat lambs—so sheepmeat—as well as wool in central Victoria near Euroa, in the seat of Euroa, and we grow wine near Avenel, which is also in the seat of Euroa. As a farming family we know how important Australia’s trade relationships are and we know how important it is to diversify those relationships.

Now, plenty of winemakers have had different experiences about which markets they have gone to and how they have diversified their business, but we know that the relationship Australia has with China has impacted substantially on a bunch of our agricultural export markets, including wine, including wool and including a bunch of our agricultural commodities.

It is so important to get that relationship right. I have been fascinated by some of the discourse in this election campaign because it seems to be focused entirely on the validly held security matters and there does not seem to be enough focus, to my view anyway, on the importance of getting the trading part of that relationship right. Before people jump up and down and start saying ‘It’s very important—security things are important. We shouldn’t be trading with jurisdictions that don’t have particularly good human rights records’ or the like, I will just remind everyone that all of our oil comes from Russia and Saudi Arabia, hardly beacons of good global citizenry. I think it is important to bear in mind that these trade relationships can sometimes sit to one side a little bit, separate from some of the diplomatic relationships. But I digress, Deputy Speaker, as I know you are almost certainly about to tell me.

I do want to in the context of this agricultural legislation omnibus bill talk a little bit about some of the really innovative agricultural exports that we are now growing. I was reading a great little article in the Good Food Guide the other day about some terrific organic garlic which has been grown in the Keilor Valley, just 20 kilometres away from where we stand. It has been utilised by the former chef from Bar Saracen, and he has been making this fantastic hummus and harissa using this brilliant garlic to that end. There have also been some fantastic innovations from people like Beechworth Bitters, who have been using a bunch of native botanicals and growing their own rare citrus and rhubarb and making fantastic bitters. These all become ultimately brilliant exports for us. And it is even more exotic things. I think many people in this chamber would now be familiar with yuzu, one of the Japanese citrus fruits. It has a sour relative called sudachi. There have been plenty of local growers of sudachi, and we are developing a market for that product as well. These are the opportunities that a well-supported agricultural industry in Victoria has. These are the opportunities that Victoria as the powerhouse agricultural jurisdiction of the nation has to exploit the diversification and the change in the Australian palate and indeed in the global palate.

It is interesting to note that we have 21 000 farm businesses right across the state, employing 75 000 people. I think people have a sense that there is a lot of farming that happens in Australia, but I do not think they necessarily have a sense about just how important Victoria is in the context of the national agricultural industry. I do not think if you were to ask a bunch of people out the front that people would necessarily know that we are the largest agricultural exporter, accounting for 27 per cent of food and fibre exports—$14 billion grown here and sold overseas. That is the sort of outstanding activity. We have got high-value markets overseas. We have got efficient and innovative producers in Victoria exporting to those markets, and it is absolutely fantastic to see. Indeed we account for about two-thirds of the nation’s milk and nearly half of the nation’s sheepmeat. There is lots, lots, lots happening in Victorian agriculture, and it is absolutely fantastic to see agriculture being supported by this government, by our outstanding Minister for Agriculture and by her predecessor, also an outstanding ag minister, making sure that we do everything we can to support these industries, because as someone who comes from a farming family and, like everyone else in this chamber, someone who enjoys some of the great fine dining that Melbourne has to offer, so often that is derived from our brilliant local produce. That is something we all ought always to protect, preserve and continue to grow and support.

I did want to come to the issue of some of the animal health and welfare emergency amendments that are part of this omnibus bill. We all know that the Black Summer bushfires highlighted the issue with the delay of providing veterinary treatment and the ability for vets to transfer medications from one another. There is a whole bunch of legislation that for entirely valid public policy reasons restricts the ability of vets to move a bunch of those medications around, particularly in stressed and short-term circumstances, so we had a situation where it was illegal, for example, for vets to donate medicines, and this was in circumstances where the animal welfare issues were acute during some of those bushfires. This bill makes amendments that will allow animal health emergency orders to be made to allow that emergency to be declared, just like a public health emergency is declared, and that will give effect to a whole bunch of powers that will make it easier for vets to provide the important care and treatment they need to in circumstances where animals are, very sadly, injured as a result of bushfires. It is one of those little changes that could potentially make a big, big difference.

Finally I do want to talk briefly about the small-scale producers of packaged meats. Again, as someone who is fortunate enough to eat meat that is grown and processed on farm, it is a fantastic product, and there are certain benefits to that that you simply cannot replicate in the supermarket experience. The amendments that support these small innovative and niche businesses to sell direct to consumers either at the farm gate or at farmers markets are very, very good amendments, very important amendments, and I am very glad that they have been introduced into this bill, which is a terrific bill which I take great pleasure in commending to the house.

Dr READ (Brunswick) (17:41): Today I simply wish to make a brief comment on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I will refer members to the more substantive speech from the member for Melbourne about our position on the bill, which contains many useful and necessary and quite diverse changes to agricultural and wildlife legislation. I just comment briefly on the fact that deer remain a protected species in Victoria when there are a million of these at least roaming Victoria, some of them coming as far as Fitzroy but more often around the outer suburbs, and they are very prevalent in eastern Victoria. In fact I saw one just as I was driving into the entrance to Wilsons Promontory National Park recently. I understand there is a fence plan to keep them out, which is certainly a very good initiative, but we need to do way more than we are currently doing for the control of deer in Victoria. The government has been ineffectual in its efforts to control deer, and the measures have thus far been ineffective as their numbers are exploding across the state.

The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill also amends the Wildlife Act 1975 to clarify an exception for the offence against entering or remaining in a specified hunting area during certain times, and it ensures that duck shooters must have a licence which requires them to have passed the waterfowl identification test. But we know a waterfowl identification test is insufficient to save protected native species from duck hunters, because every duck-shooting season we find shot dead protected native birds. Bird numbers, birds of all sorts, have been in steady decline in Victoria over the decades, and this has been worsened by climate change, particularly when we have periods of drought and particularly when we have the big fires that we have really become used to this century. Habitat for ducks and other waterfowl is disappearing as farmland reclaims swamps and as rainfall steadily declines due to climate change. In fact there has been a steady decline in rainfall across Victoria ever since about 1950. No part of Victoria has been spared but eastern Victoria has been hit particularly hard. The average rainfall now is significantly lower than it was, and that is reflected in waterbird numbers.

Victorians value our wildlife and the forests and the marshes that sustain it even more now as we realise how little remains and how little of this habitat is unaltered by colonial settlement, by farming and by urban sprawl. And yet every year, including this year, the Victorian Labor government disappoints us by declaring another duck-shooting season to appease a small number of shooters who want to drive into the country and blaze away at native birds. Duck shooting really has had its day now in this era. We do not allow dog fighting and cockfighting and other so-called sports based on animal cruelty. So this bill really is an opportunity to do more than ensure that duck shooters have a licence. We should use this bill as an opportunity to abolish duck shooting.

Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (17:45): I am also rising to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It has been really good to hear from the Labor members that have been in the chamber speaking on this bill and to see the really strong connections many Labor MPs do have to the land, whether it is their agricultural background or ancestry on farms, and of course we also have Labor MPs that currently have farms or have recently worked on farms. For me, I am afraid that is not my history, although my father did live in the country, in Donald—talking about duck shooting. But my family were not on the land. They were actually probably often in tension with the farming community because they were railway workers, so it was a railway family in Donald, especially my grandfather, during the big industrial disputes on the railways many years ago. And also they were goldminers.

But in saying that, the agricultural industry in Victoria, in Australia, is very, very important and one that we need to support, as well as supporting those that are involved in the agricultural industry. Of course some people may be surprised to know that the Thomastown electorate was actually dairy farming country many, many years ago. Where the new suburbs are being built now you can still see the remnants and some of the history of those dairy farms from the past, as we now see that land being subdivided. So when the dairy farms went, then there was sheep grazing and there were chickens. But of course now most of that has moved completely away as new estates really are being built up all over the outer northern suburbs.

This legislation, the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, makes changes and amendments to a number of acts—in fact 11 in total. The bill we are talking about today again shows how when community changes and as requirements change, pieces of legislation are fluid. They are sort of living, in a way, because they are here to order society. Of course as things change in society the legislation also needs to change with them to ensure that it continues to maintain its purpose as time goes on.

The Andrews Labor government is investing in the strengths of our farmers, our food and in turn our regional communities. In fact we have invested well over four times more than the previous coalition government, which neglected and cut funding to agriculture and regional Victoria. Despite the challenges of the pandemic and global shocks to the supply chain Victoria remains the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for a massive 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports—that is $14 billion in exports.

I am going to talk a little bit about the amendments to the Meat Industry Act 1993 and some other amendments, because it is very difficult to address all that is contained in this legislation. As the previous speaker, the member for Burwood, said, Victoria is home to many small-scale producers, and they are the highlight of many country towns and farmers markets, whether it is going to the farm gate or whether it is farmers markets taking their produce around to various areas and people buying direct from producers. The government is supporting these small-scale producers of packaged meats by simplifying regulations with an amendment to the Meat Industry Act 1993, because currently under the Meat Industry Act 1993 all meat-processing facilities in Victoria require a licence issued by PrimeSafe in order to operate. The PrimeSafe licence conditions require facilities to comply with relevant Australian and Victorian standards that apply to each licence category, and these include scheduled audits and food safety programs based on the principles of hazard analysis critical control point, which consist of components like cleaning, maintenance and training—all things, of course, that we need to protect the population.

The amendments proposed in this bill will reduce the regulatory burden for packaged meats, which are low risk for food safety. So we are talking about not the processing or manufacturing of that meat but meat that is already packaged, and rather than being required to meet the PrimeSafe standards just for that meat that is already enclosed and packaged—so it is sort of a double regulatory burden—these amendments will ensure that while it is of course important that food safety is maintained, this additional burden really is not required for that maintenance of food safety. This will also lessen the confusion for businesses about how the existing regulatory arrangements for the handling of packaged meat apply, including which activities need to be licensed by PrimeSafe or other regulators, such as local government, and again also ensure that local government can in fact oversee the packaged meat sellers at local markets and so on.

An amendment to the Meat Industry Act 1993 would more clearly describe the delineation between businesses that should be licensed by PrimeSafe and those that should be registered with their local council. These businesses of course would no longer need licensing from PrimeSafe. The same legislation would apply through PrimeSafe where animals need to be slaughtered and their meat processed, packaged and labelled, so there will be no watering down of legislative requirements around those areas—another area where this amendment will provide clarity for all businesses involved in this complex supply chain and make these small enterprises more viable by saving thousands of dollars, all through the government’s continued support of Victoria’s powerhouse agricultural industry.

While we are talking about the meat industry, I would also like to take a moment to recognise the many thousands of workers in the meat industry who work tirelessly in these high-risk and difficult environments to keep the wheels turning and keep the food on our tables, particularly during the pandemic with the additional risk that we know has occurred in terms of the virus, and also of course all the health and safety representatives in the meat industry, union delegates and the meat industry union itself, who advocate for safer and healthier systems of work. Just in terms of the meat industry I would like to give a special shout-out to Gwynnyth Evans. I recently attended the WorkSafe Awards, where a special commendation was made to Gwynnyth Evans. She received an outstanding leadership and contribution to health and safety award for her decades-long career dedicated to improving workplace health and safety, especially for workers in the meat industry, and I would like to congratulate her on her very, very well-deserved achievement, one that recognises the really selfless commitment and passion with which she pursued the rights of workers in the meat industry and in fact workers everywhere in Victoria.

I will also talk quickly about the amendment to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, and this is about again the bill modernising authorised officer powers and clarifying requirements for giving notices, making requests and recovery of debts. At the moment an authorised officer, in order to attend or enter a premises, needs to have the owner there. But when we are talking about the agricultural business there may be many paddocks and a long area without any sort of residence or building, and this allows an authorised officer to enter a premises—or enter a paddock, I guess—obviously in relation to the control of use of agricultural and veterinary chemicals, without having the owner or operator present. Of course there are a lot of restrictions and safeguards around that, so it cannot just be that an authorised officer walks into anywhere—they cannot go into a person’s home or residence—and there have to be very strict, particular purposes and reasons for them doing so. So I commend this bill to the house.

Mr MAAS (Narre Warren South) (17:55): It is great to rise and to be able to speak to the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As many of my colleagues have previously noted, this is an omnibus bill, and there are changes to some 11 different acts as part of this bill. It will make discrete amendments to those 11 acts, including the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975 too. But as we know, all Victorians of course do benefit from a strong and growing agricultural sector and the jobs that that supports, and that is why our government is backing agriculture with a very ambitious vision for the future. We are investing in the strengths of all of our farmers, the food that they produce and, in turn, our regional communities as well. As has been well noted in this house today, we have invested well over four times more than the previous coalition government.

We also note that Victoria punches well above its weight on a national level when it comes to agriculture in this state. Of course the pandemic provided many challenges to agriculture, in particular throughout the supply chain, and the delay that it has created is very well documented. But Victoria remains the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for some 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports; that equates to something like $14 billion in exports. For comparison, the next largest exporters are New South Wales at some 19 per cent and Queensland at 17 per cent.

Overall, the total value of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion, and we are the largest ag producer in the country. There are some 21 000 farm businesses across the state that support 75 000 jobs in the sector, predominantly located in rural and regional Victoria. We produce agricultural products in various sectors, including our dairy sector, which is well known, where we account for some 64 per cent of national production; cheap meat, where we account for 46 per cent of national production; vegetables, where we are also the nation’s largest producer, accounting for some 25 per cent of national production; fruit and nuts, where we account for 35 per cent of national production, which is more than any other state; and table and dried grapes, where we account for a massive 70 per cent of national production. Victoria is also the number one exporting state in dairy, sheepmeat, wool, horticultural products and poultry. So when it comes to agricultural production throughout the nation, we really have this sense and this notion of being a very important state and a powerhouse of the nation. The government is continuing to back farmers and primary industries through that transformative 10-year agricultural strategy, which will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so it continues to be a cornerstone of the economy.

This bill provides an opportunity to make many reforms and amendments across the agriculture portfolio which will ultimately help Victoria keep that coveted spot and continue to be the powerhouse of the nation. As I mentioned, it proposes amendments to some 11 acts and seeks to improve the administration and enforcement of those acts, which relate to Victoria’s biosecurity and food safety, its veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment, land protection, rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes.

We have mentioned the hemp industry. In terms of that the Victorian government is committed to working with industry, communities and trading partners to ensure that the sector is strong, innovative and sustainable. The Victorian agriculture strategy, our 10-year strategy in Victoria, provides a road map for action and investment to help the sector respond flexibly to emerging challenges and to capture new opportunities as well. It acknowledges the potential contribution of new and emerging industries alongside more traditional commodities to regional economies and to communities too. This includes supporting emerging industries such as hemp, an industry which has been developing since commercial production was first legalised in 1998. Hemp may be grown in Australia for food or industrial purposes. The plant’s broad adaptability makes it suitable for cultivation in several growing regions of Australia. It is a high-yielding, hardy and fast-growing annual crop which can be sown from early spring through to late summer and early autumn. Commercial or trial hemp crops are grown in all states of Australia, but most commercial production currently occurs in Tasmania, the first state which has permitted hemp cultivation. In Victoria hemp can legally be grown to produce seed for food or fibre for industrial purposes, including use in construction and textiles. Agriculture Victoria issues licences to authorise the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp and seed for non-therapeutic and non-medicinal purposes. There are some 62 industrial hemp licence-holders in Victoria, including six authorised for research purposes.

This bill will support further development of this emerging industry with the amendments that are being made, in this instance, to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. Currently inconsistent regulatory arrangements between states and territories are creating trade barriers and inconsistent compliance and business outcomes. Victoria’s tetrahydrocannabinol—or THC—thresholds are lower than in other jurisdictions. In future emergencies this provision will allow for specific requirements in the act to be suspended or altered temporarily to ensure an efficient response to animal welfare needs. We are lucky to have outstanding and caring veterinarians and wildlife carers in Victoria who do not hesitate to get out and respond when there is an emergency, so we are grateful for their contribution and this important amendment will help them to get on with their job and to do their amazing work.

In terms of supporting our vets the amendment bill also contains amendments to the Veterinary Practice Act 1997, and I would like to take a moment and this opportunity to again acknowledge the outstanding work of our vets. On Saturday, 30 April, we marked World Veterinary Day, a day to celebrate the outstanding work of our vets and to promote the profession. Indeed there is a shortage of vets in Victoria at the moment. I would like to acknowledge that it has been a very difficult year for them on the back end of the bushfires and then straight into that pandemic, which has seen a surge in pet ownership and a subsequent surge in the demand on our vets.

There has been an incredible workload that they have had to endure. But on the upside, the impediments to industry development will be removed to ensure that our vets have what they need and can carry out the very important work that they do for not only our pets but all animals. Those impediments will be removed by this bill, which amends the maximum allowable level of the psychoactive compound THC in low-THC cannabis in line with other states. I might leave my contribution there, and I commend this bill to the house.

Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (18:05): 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.

Mr BRAYNE (Nepean) (18:15): Acting Speaker, it is good to see you in the chair this evening. I also join with my colleagues to rise and speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. Obviously all Victorians benefit from our agricultural sector and the jobs it supports, and that is why it is so important that we do back our agricultural sector with an ambitious plan for its future. That is exactly what this government is doing. Whether it is our farmers, our food or our regional communities, this government is investing in our agricultural sector to secure this important industry for Victoria’s future.

The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 provides an opportunity to make various reforms and amendments across the agricultural sector. The bill proposes amendments to 11 acts and seeks to improve the administration and enforcement of these acts, which relate to Victoria’s biosecurity and food safety, veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment and land protection, rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes. These reforms all come from a commitment to strengthen and grow our agricultural sector so that Victoria’s position as the agricultural powerhouse of Australia is secured for future generations.

As part of this commitment this government is working with industry, communities and trading partners to make our agricultural sector as innovative and sustainable as it can be. The Victorian agricultural strategy provides a road map to help our agricultural sector respond to emerging challenges and capture new opportunities. It acknowledges the potential contribution of new and emerging industries alongside more traditional commodities to regional economies and communities. Of course, as noted by multiple previous speakers on this bill, one of these emergent industries is the hemp industry, which has been developing since commercial production was first legalised in 1998. In Victoria, hemp can be legally grown to produce seed for food and seed or fibre for industrial purposes, including use in construction and textiles. As such, to support the further development of this emerging industry this bill will make amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. The key change will be to remove inconsistent regulatory arrangements that are impeding industry development. In particular the maximum allowable level of the psychoactive compound THC in low-THC cannabis will be aligned with other states.

A further amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will ensure that veterinary practitioners can rapidly respond to animal health and welfare needs in emergencies such as—obviously—a bushfire. All Victorians remember the horrors of the Black Summer bushfires not only on our communities but on our pets and livestock and the tremendous loss of animal wildlife. These bushfires highlighted issues that delayed or prevented the urgent provision of veterinary supplies and medicines for the treatment of these animals. As such this bill will make amendments to allow for an animal health emergency to be declared, mirroring current provisions for public health emergency orders.

I would like to take this moment to acknowledge the outstanding work of our caring veterinarians and wildlife carers, who commit themselves to protecting our pets, livestock and wildlife, including my friend Brenda, who lives in Rye. I know that all Victorians are so grateful for their contribution. I personally am, and I know this bill will help them to continue the incredible work they do day after day. On this note, the bill also contains amendments to the Veterinary Practice Act 1997. In recognition of the staff shortages and capacity constraints faced by the veterinary industry, the government has recently added certificate IV in veterinary nursing to the free TAFE list in 2022. Through this investment more Victorians will be encouraged to participate in education and training and broaden their employment opportunities within the veterinary sector.

Other amendments in this bill include improving information-sharing provisions, providing additional investigation and enforcement options for complaints and allowing more flexibility in registrations. While Victoria is home to many nation-leading agricultural businesses, many small-scale producers make their homes amongst our towns and farmers markets. This bill supports those small-scale producers of packaged meat by simplifying regulation with an amendment to the Meat Industry Act 1993. This amendment will reduce the regulatory burden for packaged meats and allow producers to operate under local government regulations and the Food Act 1984. By streamlining regulation of our agricultural sector we can help our agricultural businesses to thrive. That is exactly what this bill does.

Other reforms include streamlining the administration of the farm debt mediation scheme with changes to the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011. In particular, arrangements with schemes in New South Wales and Queensland will be harmonised to be in line with national agreements. The Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016 will also be amended to enable external members appointed under the act to be employed on a part-time basis and also to clarify ministerial delegation responsibilities. It really is an omnibus bill, because amendments are also being made to improve the functioning of the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 and there are amendments to the Wildlife Act 1975, the Dairy Act 2000, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992 and the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994.

As I said, all of these amendments are being made with the aim of improving the administration and enforcement of these acts so that the sector itself can thrive. Whatever the industry, agricultural businesses and workers form an integral part of Victoria’s economy. It is so important that we are protecting and enhancing the sector. That is why the Andrews government is backing farmers and primary industries with a 10-year agricultural strategy which will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so that it continues to be a cornerstone of our economy.

It is of course important to note my own electorate of Nepean with this bill, given that agriculture is a really important sector of the electorate. There are many workers in the agricultural sector on the southern Mornington Peninsula. People in my community understand the value of agriculture and tourism as well to our region. Agriculture on the Mornington Peninsula produces a diverse range of wine, food, fibre and fodder—all of which support local jobs for local workers. The southern peninsula is in particular home to a variety of agricultural businesses—obviously the beloved Hawkes Farm in Boneo that provides the community with incredible fruit and veg, or one of the many Red Hill and Main Ridge wineries that see visitors from across Victoria flock to our region.

The southern peninsula really is a hub of agricultural activity, and much of this activity occurs in our sacred green wedge that covers approximately 70 per cent of the Mornington Peninsula. Without the green wedge the Mornington Peninsula would be at risk of becoming unrecognisable—an overdeveloped suburbia with less green spaces, less livability and less character, and that is not to mention the risk that losing our green wedge would have on our local agricultural sector, which provides not only jobs and business opportunities but so much of the Mornington Peninsula’s identity. There really is no room for movement when it comes to our green wedge—not with the green spaces it protects nor the jobs it provides. That is why it is so important on the southern peninsula for us to have a government that is committed to protecting our green spaces and strengthening our agricultural sector. That is what this government delivers.

Whether it is on the southern peninsula or across Victoria, this government has a track record of growing jobs in the agricultural sector. Obviously despite the challenges of the pandemic and global shocks to the supply chain, Victoria does remain the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports, which I am told accounts for $14 billion in exports. The overall total value of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion. This means we are the largest agricultural producer in the country. It is no surprise, as we have over 21 000 farm businesses across the state, many of them on the Mornington Peninsula, supporting 75 000 jobs in the agricultural sector. Whether it is in milk or sheepmeat or vegetables, fruit and nuts or table and dried grapes, we account for a significant proportion of Australia’s agricultural production. In short, Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse of the nation. That is what this government understands. That is what this bill will enhance and protect. The bill is another example of this government’s commitment to our farmers, our food and our regional communities. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms KILKENNY (Carrum) (18:25): I am delighted to rise this evening to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This is a bill, as we have heard, that proposes amendments to 11 acts right across the agriculture portfolio. At the outset I would like to really acknowledge the tireless work of our Minister for Agriculture, who is also the Minister for Regional Development. I know she works hard every single day to support our farmers and the agricultural sector to really innovate and to grow and to support the many thousands of jobs across the industry as well as the communities that rely on those jobs.

Since coming to government in 2014 we have seen investment in regional Victoria like never before. The investments that we have made have been four times that of those made under previous Liberal governments. We have seen communities transformed with infrastructure projects and development. We have seen investments in education, and of course I cannot miss the opportunity to talk about our investment in three-year-old kinder, because it was in regional Victoria that we rolled out funded three-year-old kinder first. It was regional Victoria that led us on that terrific rollout of this program and this investment in funded three-year-old kindergarten. We know it is absolutely transforming and changing lives, and as I said, I was so proud to be able to see that roll out in regional Victoria first.

Just on that, it was a great opportunity to visit those regions and to meet with the early childhood educators and teachers as well as local councils and communities.

Mr Riordan: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member’s contribution is not particularly relevant—

A member: What is your point of order?

Mr Riordan: On relevance, Acting Speaker. Unless the government is planning to plant kinders, I am not sure about talking about early childhood development and kindergarten on an agricultural bill, because agriculture, as I know only too well, is a very important industry—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Morris): Thank you, I have heard enough. I do not uphold the point of order, but I do ask the member to link what she is saying more closely to the bill.

Ms KILKENNY: Thank you, Acting Speaker. I was speaking about the communities that the agriculture sector supports and those communities that are represented, including our early childhood educators and teachers who work in those communities as well.

But when it comes to agriculture, we are absolutely backing our farmers, the local communities and the primary industries. We have introduced our transformative 10-year agriculture strategy, which we know is going to strengthen and grow the sector and also protect the sector going forward. It will support, I think quite importantly, our sector to innovate, to adapt and to show flexibility, which is something we know coming out of the pandemic has been absolutely critical.

We are investing like this, like never before, because the Andrews Labor government understands just how important the agriculture sector is to this state’s economy. We have heard from many speakers about that contribution and about the way that the agriculture and food production sector is an absolute powerhouse and a cornerstone of Victoria’s economy. It is important, as I said, for the communities that rely on those jobs, those businesses and that production. They are an integral part of the way we live, and I think for many people in Victoria, perhaps those who do not live in regional Victoria, the strength and the contribution of Victoria’s agriculture sector may not be fully appreciated, but a powerhouse it certainly is. We recognise that, and that is why the Andrews Labor government will continue to support our regional communities, will continue to make record investments in our regional communities and will continue to support Victoria’s agriculture sector to grow and to prosper.

We are going to be doing this, as I said, through the 10-year strategy, which will help to modernise Victorian agriculture and will continue to protect and enhance the future viability of our agriculture sector to ensure that it is best placed to deal with future challenges, including of course climate change and the introduction of pests and noxious weeds but also things like pandemics. We are doing this because at the very heart of it all of Victoria benefits from a strong agriculture sector and a sector that is diversified and growing and is able to adapt and innovate. As I said, this is something the Minister for Agriculture works on every single day, supporting over 21 000 farm businesses across Victoria and supporting more than 75 000 jobs in the agriculture sector, and the bill before us is a really important part of this agenda.

As I have said, the bill before us is an opportunity to make a number of reforms and amendments across the agriculture sector, proposing amendments to 11 acts covering Victoria’s biosecurity, food and safety, veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment and land protection, rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes. With, for example, amendments to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the bill will modernise powers of authorised officers to better protect the health of users and the public, animal health and welfare, the environment and trade. We have heard about amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, and these will help veterinary practitioners better respond to animal health and welfare needs in emergencies such as bushfires.

The bill also proposes some amendments to the Meat Industry Act 1993 to better support small-scale producers of packaged meats, and we know that there is a real growing market in the industry for niche products from small and innovative businesses, including those that sell direct to the public or through farmers markets. I have got a terrific farmers market in my electorate, the Bonbeach Farmers Market, which operates out of the Bonbeach Primary School, and this has been such a success story. Through the coronavirus pandemic it managed to continue to operate; in fact it grew and it attracted even more stallholders. I want to particularly acknowledge one of the operators of that market, Amy Dowling, who is a constituent of mine who has done a really extraordinary job to support that farmers market and the stallholders and those producers who are selling direct to the public from the Bonbeach Farmers Market. There are amendments in this bill that will impact that farmers market—my farmers market—and will impact other local farmers markets as well, and by doing that it obviously attracts more stallholders, including, as I said, those niche businesses who sell direct to consumers. On packaged meats, these amendments will simplify regulations and the regulatory burden on these producers by allowing them to operate under local government regulations and the Food Act 1984. I have to say, these are really sensible amendments. They will make life a lot simpler and make these small enterprises and businesses much more viable, and that is a great thing. So even in a small way that is contributing to Victoria’s economy. It is contributing to a number of local communities just by ensuring that those producers have an easier way to sell their very niche product to the public.

There are a number of other amendments, as I have said. The bill will also further support the development of the emerging hemp industry, and these changes will bring Victoria’s regulatory arrangements in line with other states to remove some of those inconsistencies that might be creating a barrier to some of our producers here.

In essence I want to thank the minister for bringing in these reforms, and of course I want to acknowledge and thank Victoria’s agricultural sector. We are leading the nation in so many ways, and this bill will contribute to support them further.

Mr McGHIE (Melton) (18:35): I rise today to contribute to the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and what a pleasure today to be in this house to contribute to this legislation. It is a great day to be the member for Melton. I have had to drag myself away from re-reading the budget and pinching myself to check that I was not dreaming.

Mr Riordan: No, you were dreaming.

Mr McGHIE: No, no, no. That will be later. I am proud to be one of the 18 regional members of the Andrews Labor government, and it is a pleasure when we have our regional caucus meetings to talk about regional issues, which would include agriculture and farming of course, and being the member for Melton, this includes the gateways to our regions such as Moorabool. I am excited to see a number of reforms included in this legislation, and the regional communities in Victoria know that this Andrews Labor government and its members support and invest in the regions.

Bacchus Marsh is a major food producing area, producing fruit and vegetables for Victoria and across Australia. We have invested into the Parwan employment precinct, which will deliver up to 1500 jobs through agribusiness and companies moving into that area in the Moorabool shire, creating those agribusinesses. My colleague the member for Buninyong referred to the mushroom farm out at Parwan, and what a fantastic agricultural business that is. They provide mushrooms not only across Victoria but right across Australia. Of course in one of the other areas of agriculture in the Bacchus Marsh area we have a strawberries and cherries festival each year. Unfortunately over the last couple of years due to COVID that festival has not been able to be conducted, but we are very happy that that festival will be back on later this year.

All Victorians benefit from a strong and growing agricultural sector and the jobs that it supports, and that is why the Andrews Labor government is backing agriculture with an ambitious vision for its future. We are investing in the strengths of our farmers, our food and in turn our regional communities, and in fact we have invested well over four times more than the previous coalition government, which neglected and cut funding to agriculture and regional Victoria.

Victoria punches well above its weight on a national level when it comes to agriculture, and despite the challenges of the pandemic and the global shocks to the supply chain, Victoria remains the nation’s largest agriculture exporter, accounting for a massive 27 per cent of national food and fibre exports, and that is $14 billion in exports. By comparison, the next largest exporter is New South Wales at 19 per cent, which is $9.6 billion, and then there is Queensland at 17 per cent at $8.6 billion. Overall, the total value of agricultural production in Victoria is $17.8 billion, and we are the largest ag producer in the country. We have over 21 000 farm businesses across the state, supporting 75 000 jobs in the agriculture sector, predominately located, obviously, in rural and regional Victoria. We know how difficult it has been trying to fill some of those jobs in recent times due to the pandemic.

As the leading agricultural producer, Victoria is producing things such as milk, where we account for 64 per cent of the national production; sheepmeat, 46 per cent of the national production; vegetables, 25 per cent of the national production; fruit and nuts, 35 per cent; and table and dried grapes, where we account for a massive 70 per cent. And then of course there is the production of wine, which is a thing that comes to my favourite pleasures outside of Parliament, let me tell you. So we are the number one exporter state in dairy, sheepmeat, wool, horticultural products and poultry, and in short Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse of this nation. That is why the Andrews Labor government is backing farmers and primary industries with its transformative 10-year agricultural strategy, which will strengthen, grow and protect the sector so it continues to be a cornerstone of our economy.

This legislation provides an opportunity to make a number of reforms and amendments across the agricultural portfolio. It proposes amendments to 11 acts and seeks to improve the administration and enforcement of these acts which relate to Victoria’s biosecurity and food safety, veterinary practice, agricultural chemical use, the hemp industry, catchment and land protection, and rural assistance and farm debt mediation schemes.

One of the things that I am pleased to see in this legislation is measures to support the hemp industry. There is potential for a new industry in Victoria to have huge possibilities, and it is something that could have a positive impact on our rural and regional communities. As the world changes and we need to transition from previous ways of operating, industries like hemp can help create new jobs and opportunities in agriculture and manufacturing. Of course the potential is massive. I would like to see if there is the ability to develop a hemp pulp industry and explore possibilities of developing niche paper industries for hemp. This could potentially capitalise on skills and expertise already available in Victoria. But exploring any new idea is difficult if there is not the right support in place. That is why I am proud that this legislation includes support for the hemp industry in Victoria.

The Victorian government is committed to working with industry, communities and trading partners to ensure that the agriculture sector is strong, innovative and sustainable. The Victorian agricultural strategy, our 10-year strategy for agriculture in Victoria, provides a road map for action and investment to help the sector respond flexibly to emerging challenges, and it captures new opportunities. It certainly acknowledges the potential contribution of new and emerging industries alongside more traditional commodities to regional economies.

It includes supporting those emerging industries, such as, as I said before, hemp, an industry that has been developing since commercial production. I think it dates back to 1998. It can be grown in Australia for food or industrial purposes. The plant’s broad adaptability makes it suitable for cultivation in several growing regions of Australia. It is a high-yielding, hardy and fast-growing annual crop which can be sown from early spring to late summer or early autumn. Commercial or trial hemp crops are being grown in all states of Australia, but most commercial production currently occurs in Tasmania, the first state to permit hemp cultivation. In Victoria hemp can legally be grown to produce seed for food or seed or fibre for industrial purposes, including its use in construction and textiles. There are currently 62 industrial hemp licence holders in Victoria, including six authorised for research purposes. This bill will support further development of this emerging industry with amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981.

I suppose it is also known that I am a bit of an animal lover. I have many animals at my place, and I am passionate about the health and welfare of animals.

Ms Connolly interjected.

Mr McGHIE: Yes, I know. My wife and I rescue horses. We have one rescue horse at home at the moment with another horse that is a pet of mine that I bred. I get more love from my horses than I do on Facebook sometimes, but that is okay, I can live with that. One of my horses is a bit of a feisty beast, but she is a gentle giant around my wife. At times she tries to take it out on me, I think.

It is important to know that the government that I am a member of has systems in place to respond to animal health and welfare, especially in emergencies. I want to thank our vets, our animal welfare workers and our volunteers who look after and support our animals in need. I specifically want to thank my vet, Wei, who comes out from the Ballarat Veterinary Practice equine clinic. He was out at our property today tending to one of my horses because she had facial palsy, which is a bit unusual for a horse. She is recovering, and he had to come out today to check one of her eyes because she has been unable to blink and they were a bit worried about her eye being affected. He was out there today tending to that horse, and I await his bill obviously in the mail. But they are fantastic, the vets that attend to our animals; the work that they do is just absolutely amazing.

This bill will make amendments to allow for an animal health emergency to be declared, mirroring current provisions for public health emergency orders. So in future emergencies this provision will allow for specific requirements in the act to be suspended or altered temporarily to ensure an efficient response to animal welfare needs and to reduce animals’ suffering. That is the most important thing—making sure that our animals are being well looked after. I commend this bill to the house, and I want to thank the minister for all the work that she has done. I support this bill.

Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (18:45): I too rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and it is lovely to follow my colleague and great friend and fellow westie the member for Melton talking about his love of animals, and most certainly he has a huge heart there in Melton. It is lovely to hear him speak so passionately about looking after his animals, including his horses.

My colleagues on this side of the house have talked at great length about the important changes that this bill makes, and it does make some really important changes to a wide variety of laws governing Victoria’s animal industry in terms of both animal products and animal care. It was actually really surprising for me to learn that Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse in Australia. As someone who grew up in New South Wales and has spent time up in Queensland, I can wholeheartedly understand what big states both New South Wales and Queensland are, and Queensland, being a resources state, I thought would be leading in this space. But let me say it again: Victoria is the agricultural powerhouse of this nation, with $14 billion worth of agricultural exports and 27 per cent of national exports. That is a really big deal. That is something we should all feel very, very proud of. Top that off with another $3.8 billion in local consumption and we are the largest producer overall.

The sector alone employs 75 000 Victorians right across our regions over 21 000 farm businesses—that is a lot of farms. But I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of interaction I have had with this sector over the past couple of months in somewhere where you would not really think there is a lot of agriculture going on. Tarneit and Melbourne’s western suburbs are not really what come front of mind and first to mind when one thinks of agriculture. Nevertheless it was an absolute pleasure to have the Minister for Agriculture with me as recently as last week out at Purearth Foods in Truganina. This business specialises in dairy products and was fortunate enough to receive a $485 000 grant from our government’s $15 million Food to Market program. This grant from our government will help this great local up-and-coming business purchase and install new processing equipment to increase efficiency and reduce allergen risk between dairy and the many, many plant-based products it is producing there at the site in Truganina. What they do down there is really impressive, and it is important too, because Victoria accounts for 64 per cent of our national milk production. I love talking about milk, as the daughter of a milkman who has only just retired at age 70. My whole life has been around the milk industry, and I even remember back in the day holding I think it must have been half a dozen milk bottles. If we were too naughty, we would be punished in having to go out with my dad on the milk run to deliver the milk, and I remember carrying the milk there in the glass bottles like that.

One of the smaller things that this bill actually does is amend the Dairy Act 2000 to clarify that employees of Dairy Food Safety Victoria, the public body that regulates the quality of dairy products, like those produced at Purearth Foods in my electorate, are held to the same standards as any other public sector employee under the Public Administration Act 2004.

Another area where this bill makes changes is when it comes to our vets. Victorians love their pets. Particularly after the last two years of being confined to the four walls of our homes, pets have made being at home maybe for many families just that little bit easier, and most certainly people like me really value our hardworking vets, who take care of our pets when they need assistance. I have spoken in this chamber before about my love of pets and the dogs that we have had in the Connolly household I think over the past 17 years, and they are Ulysses, Penelope and Isolde. Well, this coming weekend—on Mother’s Day, in fact—there will be a brand new family member to the Connolly household. I am very, very pleased and proud to announce that we are getting a new arrival, a new baby beagle named Ringo Starr. You can tell from that name what else we do and listen to in my household. Again quite recently I was very fortunate to join the Minister for Agriculture out at Westside Community Desexing clinic in Sunshine, along with my great friend and fellow westie the member for St Albans, where our government had just invested $150 000 to go ahead and help manage and tackle the cat population problem that is arising in Melbourne’s western suburbs. I think it was quoted at this visit that there are around 300 000 cats that are officially registered, but that is just a drop in the ocean compared to how many cats are actually in homes and on our streets. In order to help manage that cat population and prevent it from ever increasing and rising and getting out of control, desexing is such an important part. I remember at that visit with the minister and the member for St Albans I took my daughter along with me, and she was very keen to investigate what a desexing clinic does and is. Funnily enough we had to have a conversation on the way there about what the desexing of an animal actually is and what it stops it from doing. Really there is never a dull moment in the life of an 11-year-old girl.

We have a number of vets across Melbourne’s west that do perform those important procedures like desexing animals, and what this bill does is it helps provide more flexibility and empowers the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria in regard to their actual abilities. The board, yes, is responsible for registering vets. It can investigate and conduct hearings for alleged misconduct. The bill is also going to allow for certain offences under the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 to be enforced by issuing a fine, so where minor mistakes are made—and I say minor—mistakes that are recognised and not likely to be repeated, a fine is probably the best measure of enforcement, as opposed to more serious disciplining. To that end the bill also allows the board to engage in an agreement with a practitioner accused of professional misconduct which may impose conditions or restrictions on their actual practice. So this way vets who do the wrong thing and it is minor are not suddenly without a job and we do not have less vets in the community, and they can continue to operate safely. This may include being required to report to the board every so often or not being able to perform specific operations while still being allowed to perform others.

In addition to this the bill is going to make changes to the way in which the board is composed. Under the current arrangements the president and the deputy president must be registered vets and there will be a position reserved solely for an employee from the University of Melbourne, which I thought was pretty interesting, because I understand that that university has a very long tradition of excelling in veterinary sciences. In fact they have a vet school based right in the heart of my community in Wyndham, right on the Princes Freeway in Werribee. I am sure in coming years or coming decades I will be taking a keen interest in the University of Melbourne and vet sciences, because my son not only wants to be a soccer player and a footy player but does not like a lot of blood, he told me quite recently, so he wants to be a vet. So I will be checking out the University of Melbourne, it looks like. But of course there are a wide range of possible candidates for these types of positions, with a wealth of skills and a wealth of experience, that could do a wonderful job on the board, and they also deserve to seek an opportunity on a level playing field.

Another change I am really pleased to see is that the bill will allow for vets to respond quickly and appropriately to animal health and welfare needs in emergency instances like bushfires. We all know how much pets and animals suffered during the bushfires of 2019–20. We know how devastating it can be not just for pets but for livestock and for wildlife as well. I could go on and on about the great things that this bill does. Some of them seem quite minor, but they actually make important changes that go towards the welfare of our pets and the people that look after them, also giving confidence to people like me that when Ringo Starr gets sick or needs desexing it is done by a vet who is qualified to do so and he is not just going off to someone who does not really know what they are doing.

I have to say that the minister attending in the western suburbs two very different but equally important sites in Sunshine and Truganina was a fantastic experience for me, hearing some of the wonderful things she is doing in the sector. I commend the bill to the house.

Ms RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (18:55): I am really very pleased to make a short contribution on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and so very pleased to be in a caucus with so many regional members, although, as you have just heard in the contributions from the last two members—and I think I will also be supporting this view—there are many of us who are living in interface areas, and whilst I think of Cranbourne as very much a place where people live, there are still quite a few farms, particularly flower growers and other really important industries, that are not just in Cranbourne but also around the edge, especially going into Bass. So I was very pleased earlier today to listen to the contribution from my neighbour the member for Bass.

This is a reformist bill. It is an omnibus bill, and it is a great example of making sure that we are getting ahead and making the changes that need to be made. This bill will make amendments to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, the Dairy Act 2000, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, the Farm Debt Mediation Act 2011, the Livestock Disease Control Act 1994, the Meat Industry Act 1993, the Plant Biosecurity Act 2010, the Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016, the Veterinary Practice Act 1997 and the Wildlife Act 1975.

I do want to in the very short time I have just touch on, as others have, the role of industrial hemp and make sure I do record that the Victorian government did establish the industrial hemp task force in 2019 to explore the challenges and opportunities facing the industrial hemp industry. It does engage directly with industry stakeholders. In Victoria hemp can be grown legally to produce seeds for food and seed or fibre for industrial purposes, including use in construction and textiles. A licence is required in Victoria to authorise the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp and seed for non-therapeutic, non-medicinal purposes. And it is really important for us to recognise the role that industrial hemp has. This idea that there is any psychoactive effect that comes from industrial hemp needs to be debunked; like so many other things in this place, we need to debunk myths. To apply for a licence, applicants are required to provide national police history checks for themselves and their associates, credit reports, business research plans and information about the proposed growing site, and the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill does propose to amend the allowable threshold of THC in low-THC cannabis hemp.

It is a really important industry, and if we do not harmonise and make sure that we are providing some congruence with other states, we will lose the competitive advantage that Victoria has in industrial hemp. If we do not harmonise, then Victoria will be behind Tasmania and South Australia, potentially, as the places with a climate that can grow industrial hemp. I keep on using the term and maybe emphasising ‘industrial hemp’ because it is indeed hemp that has no psychoactive effects on people. This has been very well researched. It has been used extensively for a long time in other states. We are absolutely making sure that we keep ahead of any potential to lose this really important industry in this state. Several people have identified that Victoria is the powerhouse, and I think that that phrase has been rightly used frequently.

But also I will acknowledge, in the last seconds I have, the extraordinary work of our vets and particularly thank the vets of Cranbourne, who have been providing care especially during difficult times for our animals and particularly beloved setters.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.