6 May 2009
DAFF09/110T
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke
Subject: Interview with Amy Phillips, ABC Capricornia Beef Australia 2009, Rockhampton
(E&OE)
AMY PHILLIPS: Good morning Mr Burke. Well what do you think of Beef Week?
TONY BURKE: It’s terrific. You’re looking at something in the order of what they’re describing as sixty thousand head of visitors finding their way through. And there’s an energy, an enthusiasm, and a real optimism through the sector as you walk around. It’s the centre of world beef at the moment.
AMY PHILLIPS: And we also heard yesterday that 10,000 kg of dung has to be transported out by the end of the week too. So there’s another perspective for you. Look Mr Burke, climate change is the number one ticket that’s on your Government’s agenda at the moment. What’s your response to people who say that climate change is just part of life and not really a reality in life, in this part of the world too?
TONY BURKE: Well if you look at what the projections say will happen into the future – more major weather events, longer and deeper droughts, higher temperatures, increased prevalence of weeds, pests and disease – all of those issues have one thing in common, and that’s they bring a hit on agriculture. Agriculture takes its toll from these sorts of impacts. So if there’s any sector of the economy where the smart thing for the Government to do is to be taking action on climate change, it’s actually for agriculture.
AMY PHILLIPS: Well talking about agriculture, the beef industry is Australia’s biggest agricultural industry. You’ve delayed the introduction of the emissions trading scheme. But beef processing and the beef industry will still be highly impacted eventually. What offsets have you got in mind for the beef industry?
TONY BURKE: Well the process that’s in place there is all discussed and explained through the White Paper and now through legislation. For the beef industry, as for every sector of the economy, it’s a case of making sure that we’ve got as many tools available as possible for people to find a lower emissions path.
The concept of putting a price on carbon isn’t designed to try to take revenue from one sector of the economy and then hand it back through to households or hand it back through to elsewhere. The idea is to put mechanisms in place that lead to a lower emissions pathway. That’s why we’ve been investing in research and development. That’s why we’ve been trying to help industry through on finding a lower emission pathway. There’s no sector of the economy, as I say, that’s got more at stake, or more to gain, from Australia being part of the global solution.
AMY PHILLIPS: Can you guarantee, though, that the beef industry isn’t going to be hurt financially and isn’t going lose its stability now with this scheme?
TONY BURKE: There is no pathway forward on climate change that is zero cost. And it’s silly for someone to pretend otherwise. But the highest cost is to do nothing. The highest cost is just to accept the projections, to simply say, “We’ll cop longer and deeper droughts, we’ll cop more major weather events, we’ll take all the pain that comes from the world doing nothing on climate change.” That’s the most expensive option of all.
AMY PHILLIPS: You’ve delayed the emissions trading scheme for a year. Could we see that again and see it potentially not even come in?
TONY BURKE: The year delay, and then for the following year we’ve given certainty as to the price of carbon - at $10 a tonne - which also means you get a softer introduction into the system than what otherwise would have been there. We believe we’ve got that balance right. That now goes to the Parliament to work its way through. And certainly we hope that finally the Opposition will move away from the position they’ve been in of saying, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to do something, but anyone who suggests something, well that’s not what we’ll do.” But that we actually get the Opposition to the table now, to say, “Let’s be part of the global solution. Let’s be in a strong negotiating position as a nation when we get to Copenhagen.”
AMY PHILLIPS: So you think that 2015 for the agriculture industry’s still on track?
TONY BURKE: Well 2015 is the earliest agriculture itself could come in. We’ll make a decision about that in 2013. And there’s a work program that we’re working through with industry to make sure that we can make a well-informed decision at that point.
AMY PHILLIPS: And very quickly, your favourite breed of cattle?
TONY BURKE: It’s the Brahmans. You walk into a paddock of Brahmans and they look straight back at you. Too many of the other breeds just wander away.
AMY PHILLIPS: There you go, you heard it from Tony Burke himself, who’s here at Beef Week for 2009. So obviously you’ve got the Brahman breeders onside. That’s rural news for this morning.
ENDS