8 October 2009

TONY BURKE: It's great to be out here with Jim Turnour out at the Hesp property having a look at some of the outcomes of the Reef Rescue program. Reef Rescue has been one of those great situations where a whole lot of threads can come together in terms of government helping drive investment on farm which provides more profits for farmers and at the same time helps reduce run off of sediment and chemical onto the Great Barrier Reef.

Yesterday I had the chance to go out and have a look at some of the parts of the reef that have been damaged through sediment over time, and talk to some of the scientists about the challenges that are being faced out there. A big part of the solution to the challenge that we face in the water is how we deal with things on land.

As some of you would know, I've said on a number of occasions that I get sick to death of farmers being described as environmental vandals. Australia's farmers are good land managers, and what we see today is another example of farmers taking up the opportunity to not just shift to a reasonable standard of practice, but to move further and further to best-practice farming which creates a win for them, a better business opportunity for them, and it's also doing the right thing for that great icon of the Great Barrier Reef.

The state government made an election promise that they are now delivering on. We made an election promise through Reef Rescue which we are now delivering on. Our approach is very much an incentive-based approach. Our approach is to put the money on the table, and we believe that on that basis farmers, in their roles as good land managers, would be keen to take up the opportunity, and that's exactly what's happened.

JOURNALIST: Is it something that could be rolled out across Australia - the state government legislation?

TONY: As I say, that's a decision for the Queensland government. It's something that they promised to deliver on, and they've now put that legislation through. Our approach is very much an incentive-based approach of putting money on the table and saying to farmers 'let's work together on this' - that's exactly what farmers are doing.

The work that we see here today is work that the Hesp family would've got to at some point in time. What Reef Rescue has done is said, well, the reef's in a critical situation in many ways. If the government puts the money on the table, let's see if we can bring that work forward and that's exactly what's been happening.

JIM TURNOUR: We're out here on the Hesp farm, we're just talking to Richard and Jim, his father. Richard was born on the property here, you know, he really enjoys the environment and he wants to do what he can to protect it - they've kept the trees along the riparian area. The government is working in partnership with farmers at a federal level to provide them incentives to reduce the amount of fertilizer they're putting on their crops, are beginning to look to them how they can reduce their tillage. It's not only about protecting the environment, but it's also about making them more profitable in the longer term. So a whole lot of benefits can flow to the farmer and to the broader community, and that's what the government's role is to represent from our partnership that we're building with the agriculture sector in places like Far North Queensland.

TONY: Some of the work I've seen over the last couple of days across North Queensland has been some of the best work that I have seen anywhere in the nation. It's a combination of innovation, of technology, and the resilience of our farmers being smarter than farmers around the world. The work that we do is second to none, and it deserves full credit - both for the business sense that's there, but also for the environmental responsibility that farmers are showing.