Thursday, 14 August 2025

Gippsland Agricultural Group

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (09:57): Last week I had the privilege of going to the Gippsland Agricultural Group, which was fantastic – to their research and demonstration site down at Bairnsdale near the airport. I want to thank Jen Smith, the chair, for having us all along. We had local farmers, and East Gippsland shire did a lot of work on coordinating a number of visits, including this one, and their ag advisory group were also in attendance. We talked about a lot of issues facing farmers. We talked about getting young locals engaged and excited to work on farms, getting them trained with the appropriate skills; dealing with weeds and pests in the area, particularly African lovegrass; and dealing with pigs. We talked about improved agriculture infrastructure, both on farm sites and across the region, to help the agriculture sector, and we talked particularly about federal and state government avoiding duplication of process or engagement and avoiding inefficiencies.

As Victoria grows, we know the $20 billion of ag production in this state is vitally important to not only our economy but feeding our people. So the focus that the Gippsland ag group has is on productivity, ensuring that farmers are not leaving any money on the table and that Gippsland is being as productive as it can be on farms, ensuring our farms are resilient and ensuring that they can be passed on from generation to generation to generation and keep operating profitably.