With the Government’s focus on a sensible, ‘kitchen table budget’ while building Australia’s economic capacity and resilience, it is more important than ever the upcoming budget allocates targeted funding to the powerhouse that is our grains sector.
GrainGrowers believes that as a first principle, all government policy and funding initiatives must ensure an increasingly favourable operating environment for Australian grain growers.
Ongoing investment should focus on funding that ensures grain growers are able to adapt to current challenges and opportunities, both immediate and long term, to reliably provide high quality grains, oilseeds and pulses to Australia and the world.
The headline asks below are directed to the Department of the Treasury for consideration in the upcoming budget process. These requests will contribute to the Australian economy, regional communities and deliver tangible benefits to Australian grain growers.
Farm Inputs
- Diversify supply of critical farm inputs by increasing opportunities for domestic manufacturing of fertiliser, chemical, fuel, and other components such as spare parts through the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF).
- Investigate ways to improve price transparency in fertiliser markets.
Infrastructure and Freight
- Invest $1 billion over 4 years in a targeted Regional Infrastructure Recovery Program to assist local government to repair flood impacted rural roads.
- Invest $300 million over 4 years to fix first and last mile freight access issues and streamline road access processes.
- Increase the Roads to Recovery Program to $800 million per year to support ongoing maintenance of the nation’s local road infrastructure.
- Increase the Roads of Strategic Importance Program to $900 million per year to improve the long-term resilience of freight networks.
- Increase the Bridge Renewal Program to $400 million over 4 years to rebuild critical aging bridge infrastructure.
Trade and Market Access
- Invest $85.9 million for the continuation of the Agri-Business Expansion Initiative to ensure sustainable growth and market expansion for Australian agribusiness exports including: o $7.5 million for expansion of the Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation funding
o $3.5 million for additional short-term agriculture counsellors.
Workforce
- Allocate funds to Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) to centralise workforce-related data to provide clear reporting of trends, shortages and opportunities within a grain industry workforce context.
- Consult and engage with industry to better inform fit-for-purpose visa arrangements, inclusive of the skills requirements of the grains sector.Invest in programs and infrastructure associated with better safety outcomes in the grains sector.
- Establish an Employer of Choice program as recommended by the National Agricultural Labour Advisory Committee.
Sustainability, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management
- Support investment in education and awareness programs to assist growers’ understanding of carbon emissions, sequestration, offsets and markets.
- Partner with industry to introduce initiatives which lower on-farm emissions and transition to low emissions inputs which are manufactured in Australia through funding from sources which may include the Powering the Regions Fund.
- Expand the Regional Investment Corporation (RIC) program to include a loan to assist farmers adopt emission reduction practices and activities.
- Allocate funding within the Powering the Regions Fund to assess and scale up low emissions fertiliser coating domestically.
- Invest $10 million to collect, collate and publish sustainability data on all agricultural sectors to underpin grains sustainability credentials and identify opportunities for improvement and transformation.
Telecommunications
- Implement and fully fund the recommendation of the 2021 RTIRC Report and ensure that Australian grain farmers and the wider rural community can access improved mobile and internet connectivity.
Taxation, Farm Business and Economics
- Commission the appropriate entity to investigate the end-to-end operations of the Australian grains industry and supply chain.
- Commit to the continuation of the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme.
- Commit to the continuation of the instant asset write off beyond 30 June 2023.
- Maintain the Farm Management Deposit Scheme with any proposed changes fully vetted by industry.
Research, Development and Innovation
- Ensure ongoing Commonwealth contribution to agricultural R&D that matches the R&D levies paid by growers.
Biosecurity
- Implement the National Biosecurity Strategy and establish an appropriate sustainable funding model to secure the operation of Australia’s biosecurity system into the future.
Right to Repair
- Adopt the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s review into Right to Repair frameworks, especially Recommendation 8.2, for the repair suppliers’ obligation for agricultural machinery to be introduced.