WITH a new government comes a change in cabinet. One of those changes following last November's election included the introduction of new Victorian Agriculture Minister, Jaala Pulford. Stock & Land journalist ANDREW MILLER sat down with the new minister to discuss her vision for agriculture.
What did you know of agriculture, before you took up this position?
I have been a member of parliament for eight years, I have represented a really large and diverse set of regional and rural communities, over that period of time.
I have also worked as Labor's Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and Regional Development.
A lot of the issues I am encountering in my new responsibilities are not new to me, there are some areas where I have had less direct experience with, in terms of policy development, but I led Labor's campaign to save the National Centre for Farmer Health. If we had not won the election, that centre would be shutting its doors in June.
I worked closely with Jacinta Allan in developing the policies. I have not grown up on a farm and would not describe myself, as some politicians do, as a farmer, however I grew up in a country town and live in a regional centre, where agriculture is important.
I worked for the National Union of Workers for 12 years, 30-40 per cent of those members work in food processing, so I have spent a lot of time in poultry factories, I have spent a lot of time in dairy factories and we will bring an approach to agriculture that recognises the whole journey from paddock to plate.
Creating those opportunities for value adding, job creation in the food sector are very important priorities for government, I would suggest my years in the union have held me in good stead to understand food production and the food industry, albeit from a different point in the supply chain.
National Centre for Farmer Health – when are they going to get the money?
Our election commitment is for four years funding, the budget deliberations are well underway, at this point in the cycle, it would be my expectation, we would see that commitment in the Budget in May.
How do you respond and say, 'Labor can represent the graziers, and govern for all Victorians?'
There is probably 90 or so people I had a chat to in Donald, who might be better able to tell you how they found talking to me, than I could, but I will work hard, I will be approachable and responsive.
I don't think any government can get away with saying they are only representing and governing for the people who voted for them, that's certainly not the way the Premier intends to proceed, and certainly not the way I intend to proceed.
I wouldn't make bold assumptions about the way stakeholders or people with a particular interest in food production or agriculture, or regional development have voted.
Frankly, it doesn't matter, our responsibility is to grow productivity and profitability, in agriculture, to grow jobs in the food industry, to revitalise regional communities and I am happy to be judged by that in four years time.
The end of mountain cattle grazing was announced in a rather unfortunate manner. Was part of getting out to Donald last week part of rebuilding the bridges, particularly with the VFF and the grazing community?
No, I saw reports about building bridges, they puzzled me, it was a strange description.
I would have thought any Ag Minister, who is not out talking to farmers, is not doing their job, and I would have thought any Regional Development Minister, who spends too much time on a red maps in Melbourne is not doing their job.
Anyone who has observed my work over the last eight years would know, that is not my style, I think of it as less of building bridges, and more of just another day at work.
They were great conversations, I don't accept that bridges are in need of rebuilding, relationships with key stakeholders in these portfolios have been good throughout our period in opposition and were very good when we were in government.
Keen to understand we know they are doing it hard, closely.
It was a Labor Government which delivered the Wimmera Mallee pipeline to those communities, which is why they are not water carting, at the moment, so Labor has got some pretty good form, in recent, and more historically in supporting farming communities.
Could the policy announcement have been done a little better?
I think anyone who had an interest in that issue would have absolutely expected us to deliver on our election commitment.
In that regard, this was a topic of some debate, during the life of the last parliament, and there could be no-one in Victoria who was interested in this issue, in any way be surprised, by Minister Neville's quick, decisive, deliver of the election commitment.
Similarly, I know there were some people who expressed surprise, at the machinery of government changes, but these were in Labor's platform, which was publicly circulated more than six months before the election, so perhaps what people are surprised about is the Andrew's Government is going full throttle from day one, and that is perhaps something they are entitled to be surprised about, after the last four years.
The Greens have a fair bit of power, how are we going to know the Green tail is not going to wag the Labor dog, in terms of policies which affect agriculture?
The Greens would probably ask how we would demonstrate that this was not the case in the reverse.
I would suggest what we have is a diverse and eclectic group of views in the Upper House, the Greens are one part of that.
If people look closely at the composition of the Upper House, for the government, or for any proponent of legislation, are going to need to convince a cross section of other members – so there is no prospect of any tail wagging any dog, it's much more complex than that.
We have two representatives of the Shooters and Fishers, there are as many Shooter and Fisher people in the Upper House as there are National Party people, two apiece, the Sex Party, the DLP and James Purcell, from Vote One local jobs, who was previously a councillor in Western Victoria, who I have had some dealings with in recent years.
Greens don't have the capacity to determine what happens in the Upper House, and more or less than any of the other component parts.
I would make the point we have, unlike our predecessors, have a strong and stable majority position in the lower house.
What prompted you to get into politics?
Yes, I joined the Labor Party when I turned 16, so I was bitten by the politics bug pretty early, there was certainly a point where community, or political activism, in my mind was limited and there was a good example.
(At the union, I was involved in helping people who had been injured at work, after the removal of common law rights)
It struck me as incredibly unfair, and incredibly arbitrary, that the parliament could just determine a group of people would have no right to damages, if they had been seriously injured in negligent circumstances.
That stinks, and there were 100,000 people who gathered on the steps of Parliament to express their dismay and the Kennett government was utterly dismissive of the community view on that issue.
That was a particularly salient example, I think, of the limits of what can be achieved outside of parliament, you really need to be inside of parliament, with a workable majority, to fix something like that.
What would you like to see have happened, by the end of this government's four year term?
I would like to see greater profitability as a result of having better access to export markets, to have Victorian producers supported with the best research development and extension, that we can create, and renewed optimism and energy around Victorian regional economies.
