A RECENT conversation with a banking official gave Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce an indicator of how well his party and Coalition government was performing with its delivery of agricultural policy.
“I had one of the major banks in here the other day and I won’t give you their name but they said they had the biggest pay-down and pay-off of rural debt they’ve ever seen in their life,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“That means that our policy, in the most fundamental way, is working”.
Mr Joyce blitzed the media last week - including a media conference at Parliament House in Canberra flanked by his party members - to highlight their joint efforts during his first 12-months as the Nationals’ leader.
He’s also been the minister since the 2013 federal election and says his time in the job, which underpinned the banker’s statement about rural debt pay-down, has coincided with “massive” prices being paid for cattle and sheep, good wool prices and high yields earned for other commodities like grains, even if prices aren’t as high.
Mr Joyce said that high price commodity scenario had allowed farmers to refurbish their properties by purchasing and building infrastructure like fences and grain sheds, which put them in a solid position financially, to manage future seasons.
He said that was also underpinned by the government’s move to increase Farm Management Deposit limits to $800,000 and invoke 100 per cent tax write-offs for fencing, grain and water infrastructure, in the 2015 budget.
Other policy delivery highlights have been maintaining market access for farm product, opening nine new markets for live animal exports and building stronger business ties after signing three Free Trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan, he said.
“I think we’re doing very well and when you take on Agriculture and Water it’s not an easy portfolio - it’s a hard one,” he said.
“The problem with the National party is so often we don’t sell our successes so I’m going to sell a few.
“Even in the past our leader Warren Truss didn’t think we’d achieve Country of Origin Labelling – but we did.”
Mr Joyce said the Nationals were also taking on the “sacred cow” policy issue of decentralisation, in moving government agencies from Canberra to rural locations, like the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, to Armidale in his New England electorate.
While citing delivery in other core policy areas, like regional health and communications, he said his party was also “driving the inland rail forward” by putting money on the table to take the project from “dream to delivery”.
“Other people talked about it but we’re actually doing it,” he said.
Mr Joyce said other political challenges, like the backpacker tax, dairy crisis and the latest one involving an ongoing disagreement between sugar cane farmers and Wilmar over marketing arrangements, were managed as they presented.
“All in all people say, ‘Well it would have happened without you’ but I don’t know about that,” he said.
“I’ve seen other governments that have managed to make awful stuff-ups and we’re not and we’re doing it in our own political style.
“As the National party, we do it in a very sort of easy going way and we don’t get carried away with ourselves.
“We do the job, we work closely and we get ourselves in a position where we can actually make decisions that will make a difference.”
Mr Joyce said the National party always prided itself on not holding the office of Prime Minister within the Coalition government but they had “a huge say in the direction that the government goes”.
“The alternative is you could be a philosopher on a log and vent on every issue you like knowing full well you couldn’t deliver on any of them and the best you could get is a meeting with the minister,” he said.
“But we don’t do that.
“We put ourselves in a position where in the crucial portfolios, we are the minister.”
Mr Joyce also pointed to the Coalition government’s policy delivery via the $4 billion Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, handed down in mid-2015.
That paper led to improvements like the establishment of a dedicated Agricultural Commissioner and enforcement unit, at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is looking into competition and transparency issues concerning dairy and beef markets.
Mr Joyce said his government’s approach to Australian agriculture was “in stark contrast” to the Labor Party “which is to not have an approach”.
“It was disappointing but not surprising to see agriculture completely forgotten when Labor launched its list of 100 policies in 2016,” he said.
Mr Joyce was also buoyed by interest rates dropping for government support loans to farmers facing issues with drought and viability and those hit by the dairy crisis, in mid-2016.
He also talked-up the government’s $2 billion National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility, that will fund priority water projects throughout the country and fast track construction, with farm generated national revenue a core goal.
“The loans are designed to help our agriculture sector reach its full potential and foster economic growth and prosperity in our rural and regional communities,” he said.
“The loan facility will complement the $500m National Water Infrastructure Development Fund.
“Under the fund we have allocated $60m to 39 feasibility studies across the country and three water resources assessments across northern Australia.
“We’ve committed $130m to Rookwood Weir in Queensland, $75m to Dungowan Dam in New South Wales and $20m each to the Macalister Irrigation District and the South West Loddon Pipeline in Victoria.
“We are currently accepting expressions of interest from state governments for the remaining $192.5m of funding.
“I want to see dirt moving as soon as possible.”
National’s deputy-leader Fiona Nash said Mr Joyce was, “more than just a great leader and minister”.
“Last year, under pressure from an attack on his own seat, Barnaby Joyce led the Nationals to an historic election result against the swing, bringing the Nationals to 22 members and senators in Parliament,” she said.
“Led by Barnaby, we won that result door by door, street by street, town by town and it delivered us five cabinet ministers.
“Our communities know Barnaby does not back down – not on getting a fair price for farmers at the farm gate, not on building dams, not on decentralisation and moving jobs to regional areas, and not on delivering a golden age for agriculture including record national agricultural production exceeding $60 billion in value this year, for the first time.
“In 2009 long before he was leader, who could forget Barnaby Joyce almost single-handedly turned the carbon tax debate in Australia.
“Barnaby Joyce fights for the little guy and never backs down.”
Mr Joyce also paid tribute to Senator Nash for being a “fiercely loyal deputy, excellent minister, good friend and confidant who fights hard to deliver for rural, regional and remote Australia”.
In a statement released in response, Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said “One year on and the National Party Leader Barnaby Joyce has little to hang his hat on”.
“The Nationals sell themselves as a Party for the bush, but time and time again they fail to genuinely stand up for the people they claim to represent,” he said.
“Labor continues to hold Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce to account by developing strong policy for rural and regional Australia and is committed to standing up for everyday Australians.
“The truth is that twelve months under Barnaby Joyce’s leadership has been anything but a happy experience for rural and regional Australia.”