Overview

The Australian Government welcomes the recomendations of the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group in its report, Creating our Future: Agriculture and Food Policy for the Next Generation (the Corish Report).

The Corish Report is a landmark document examining the responsibilities of governments and industry in taking future action to enhance the sustainability, competitiveness and profitability of the agriculture and food sector.

Our agriculture and food sector contributes enormously to Australia's economic and social prosperity, particularly in our rural and regional communities. Agriculture and food account for a significant share of Australia's merchandise exports (averaging around 20 per cent of the total over the past five years), and have long maintained a significant trade surplus. In 2005, eight of Australia's top twenty merchandise exports were from the agriculture and food sector (beef and veal, wheat, wine, wool, other meat, dairy, sugar and cotton), each of them worth over $1 billion. Australia's exports of agrifood in 2005 were worth close to $24 billion. In addition, the productivity growth of rural industries is impressive, with agricultural productivity increases, on average, of 2.3 per cent, each year for the past 30 years. Rural industries are also significant employers, with 386,000 employees in agriculture and 187,000 food processing employees, most located in rural and regional Australia.

While there are numerous reasons to be optimistic about the future of the agriculture and food sector, industries also need to grow and adapt in a challenging and changing environment. Increased competition in domestic and international markets has already driven productivity improvements and encouraged further innovation. This must continue. Climatic and environmental factors will remain key business risks, so our industries must be adaptable, diverse and resilient. Governments and industries must adopt the genuinely cooperative and consistent approach recomended in the Corish Report if we are to prolong the success of our industries into the future.

The Corish Report outlined a number of foundations for success for agricultural and food industries.

• A stronger emphasis on innovation in production and marketing, underpinned by leading edge research and development is fundamental to longer term business success.
• Sound macroeconomic and microeconomic policies, supported by substantial ongoing investment in infrastructure, will be vital to a low cost, globally competitive sector.
• A whole of chain, paddock to plate approach is needed to service consumer requirements efficiently and effectively.
• Policies must focus on achieving greater self reliance of business operators.
• The regulatory burden facing businesses must be reduced.
• Relevant information must be communicated in a clearer, more timely, accessible and accurate manner.
• A partnership approach between businesses and governments will bring the best longer term improvements in the sector s viability and sustainability.
• A genuinely cooperative and consistent approach by governments ?X Australian, state and territory ?X is essential for policies and programs affecting the sector.

The Government agrees that these are fundamental to the future prosperity of the agriculture and food sector. In response, the Government will:

• continue to provide sound macroeconomic and microeconomic policies and be fiscally responsible;
• value the role of the agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food sector in the economy, and in particular its strong contribution to the economic, social and environmental health of rural and regional communities;
• seek to promote the profitability and competitiveness of the farming, fishing, forestry and food sector by reducing unnecessary regulatory impediments along the supply chain and enabling the sector to capture opportunities for growth;
• aim to facilitate self reliance by helping to equip the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector with knowledge, skills and opportunities;
• continue working to reduce international trade distortions and improve market access for Australian exporters;
• work in partnership with industries to continue to encourage innovation, research and development and ongoing productivity improvements that underpin success;
• with industries and the community, work cooperatively to maintain the sustainable natural resource base that is critical to the future of all Australians;
• continue to work with other governments and industries to maintain Australia s favourable pest and disease status; and
• provide help for primary producers and industries, in partnership, to manage change, and, consistent with broader community obligations, in times of genuine crisis, provide a welfare safety net.

These principles will underpin the Government s consideration of policies and programes for rural and food industries and primary producers.

The Government's response to the individual recomendations in the Corish Report is detailed in the following pages.

A Comprehensive Statement in 2007

The Government intends to release a statement in 2007 to build on this initial response to the Corish Report. The 2007 Statement will cover the Government s policy and programe directions in a holistic way. It will include an examination of issues within and beyond the scope of the Corish Report affecting the agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food sector. Importantly, the statement will also include outcomes of current evaluations of key portfolio funding programes.

Immediate Actions

As a demonstration of its intention to act on Corish Report recomendations, the Government will:

• evaluate the portfolio s cornerstone rural policy package Agriculture Advancing Australia;
• build on the success of the Natural Heritage Trust and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality through continuing support beyond 2008; and
• conduct a review into aspects of food regulation, with a view to reducing unnecessary red tape for agriculture and food businesses.

The Government expects to make further announcements on these and other policies and programes as part of the 2007 Statement.

Agriculture Advancing Australia

The Corish Report made a number of recomendations relevant to the Government s cornerstone rural policy package, Agriculture Advancing Australia (AAA), many of which are noted in the Government s response. The Corish Report indicates that, in general terms, the AAA has been successful in achieving its objectives but refinements are necessary. 

The Government is currently evaluating the AAA package to make sure that AAA programes remain relevant and continue to help rural industries and producers adapt to changing circumstances. 

Natural resource management programes

The Corish Report made a number of recomendations relating to the future directions of the Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP). 

The Government will continue its commitment, currently delivered through the NHT and NAP, to conserve and restore biodiversity, increase land managers capacity to maintain and improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of the resource base and to support community capacity to deal with natural resource management matters.

The ongoing success of these important programes will depend on state and territory governments also making significant investments.

Food regulation

The Corish Report made a number of recomendations about the food regulatory system. The Government considers these issues are particularly important given their impacts on the competitiveness of rural industries, and the need to balance them with human health and safety concerns. 

The Government is undertaking public review of the food regulatory system. This review will address the Corish Report recomendations by examining food regulation governance arrangements, inconsistent implementation and enforcement of standards and outstanding recomendations from the Blair review, including those relating to the Trade Practices Act 1974. It is intended that the findings of the independent public review would be reported to COAG. 

Rethinking Regulation: Report of the Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business (the Banks Report), released on 7 April 2006, contains seven recomendations relating to potential reduction in red tape in food regulation. In its response to the Banks Report, the Australian Government announced it would implement Recomendation 4.49, which states that the Australian Government should commission an independent public review to examine:

• implementing outstanding recomendations from the Blair Review on the consistent application of food laws;
• aligning levels of enforcement (including penalties) across jurisdictions; and
• the role of the Australian Government in the food regulatory system, including whether it could play a greater role in enforcing standards.

Background

The Government commissioned the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group (chaired by then National Farmers Federation President, Peter Corish) to report on future directions in Government policies and programes affecting the agriculture and food sector. The Group was tasked with developing broad recomendations to improve the profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of the Australian food and agriculture sector.

The report of the Agriculture and Food Policy Reference Group was released on 16 February 2006.