Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates

Mr PEARSON (Essendon) (10:08): What a joy it is to be afforded this great opportunity to make a contribution on the Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates. I am pleased and delighted that my colleague, my good friend the member for Mordialloc, who is a member of this outstanding committee, is in the chamber.

I would like to draw the house’s attention to section 9.3, ‘Agriculture portfolio: key issues’, on page 208 of the report. What I find fascinating about this item as well as 9.3.1, ‘Agricultural exports’, is the focus on the work the government is sponsoring and encouraging in supporting food and fibre, because we know that Victoria has got a clear advantage over other states in our nation in relation to food and fibre exports. What is particularly appealing is the rate of growth that is occurring. We had in 2011–12 food and fibre exports at $10 billion. They had grown to $14 billion in 2017–18, and there is now a target of $20 billion per annum by 2030.

Now, looking at the rise of the middle class in the Asia-Pacific region, I remember having a conversation with Andrew Robb—it would have been probably eight or nine years ago. Andrew indicated that if you drew an arm from Indonesia, right through India, around into mainland China and up to Japan, 1 billion people will join the middle class by 2030. I think that the assessment that Andrew Robb indicated back in 2012 has probably broadly been borne out.

When you see the rise of the middle class in the Asia region, you will see that like most middle-class families or communities they are going to want to try different food, different produce. They will be prepared to pay extra, and they will have a more diversified diet as a consequence. I think Victorian companies can play a really key role in terms of helping to provide the ability to satisfy those markets. I am particularly pleased with the fact that our exporters have got a great value offering—whether it be meat, whether it be distilled spirits, whether it be wine—that would appeal to those middle-class communities, so we must try and do more to foster and encourage that level of take-up in those communities and to promote those exports.

That is why issues around trade are so important in terms of looking at, for example, the China International Import Expo, which is an annual event. It is a great way that Victorian companies can showcase their offering to a broader audience. We have got a great brand. Australia has got a great brand. We are seen as producing clean, desirable, quality produce that can look at satisfying those markets. We must try and find ways in which we can play to our strengths as a community and as a society. We are really good at this. Our farmers do fantastic jobs, as do our vignerons and our distilled spirit operators, and it is a way in which we can play to our strengths and look at finding ways in which we can build on those important trade routes.

A concern of mine in more recent times is some of the concerning narrative about trade more broadly and generally, and the fact that some of the rule-based order that we have grown used to under the World Trade Organization has been brought into doubt. If you look at the trade deal between the United States of America and China, it is a concern for the impact it might have on our companies. It is concerning if we end up where we find that our companies are being excluded because the two leviathans have reached some agreement amongst themselves, or that America has decided that it is American first and Victorian producers can go to the back of the queue—Victorian producers can be last. That would be a great pity and would signal a decline in standards, because we must operate within a rules-based framework. It is important that it is not just a case of the bigger players in the market dominating at the expense of all others.

We have got some fantastic companies here in Victoria. We have got some fantastic small businesses which are developing and strengthening their position in the market. We need to try and find a way in which they can get their produce to market quickly and easily, and having a rules-based system enables that. That is what we should all be aspiring to. We are in a global economy, we are in a diversified economy, we are going to be experiencing some real challenges over the coming months with the coronavirus, but I think Victorian producers have got a wonderful opportunity to go in and sell their produce into these markets, and that really should be encouraged.