Chief Executive Officer, Pat Hannan, said he was pleased to see a Member of Parliament from such an important horticultural region as Bundaberg elevated to the Cabinet. “The Bundaberg region is an important food bowl growing a wide range of fruit, vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices with a farm gate value of more than $500 million a year grown on some 16,500 ha. The industry is worth more than $1 billion to the local economy and is an important employer.

“Growcom is excited that Ms Donaldson, who has had the experience of representing such a major horticultural region in Parliament, will now have the opportunity to promote to Government the importance of the entire industry here in Queensland which is worth more than $2.75 billion farm gate value annually to the Queensland economy.

“We look forward to meeting Ms Donaldson at the earliest opportunity and discussing the major issues in our industry, including labour access, the rising input costs for labour, packaging, transportation and power; the challenges posed by biosecurity threats such as Panama disease and Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus; and the opportunities for managing farm business risk better in the face of recurrent natural disasters.

“We would take the time to remind the Queensland Government that the ALP in its Food and Fibre policy document released in the run-up to the election indicated that the new government would form a Queensland Productivity Commission to look into electricity pricing, investigating short and long-term options to respond to the significant price increases over recent years.

“Growcom has long argued that the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) should be required to publish windows for transitional tariff increases for at least three to five years to enable investment decisions to be made with confidence.

“Growcom also supports the current review of Queensland’s biosecurity capability and urges that increased resources be applied to plant biosecurity in order to be able to better manage disease and pest outbreaks in our industry.

“We would also welcome a continued examination of multi-peril crop insurance schemes to assist farmers to cope with natural disasters and the complimentary development of a suite of measures to assist farmers to improve their climate risk management and drought preparedness strategies.

“We look forward to working with the new Agriculture Minister and briefing her on Growcom’s very important and proactive role in production horticulture in helping to address best management practice and environmental issues through such self-regulatory programs as Hort360; delivering needed business training through our Women in Horticulture program; and promoting agricultural careers to young people through our Ag Inspiration program.”

Hannan thanked outgoing Minister, the Hon. Bill Byrne, for his engagement and support during his term and wished him well in his new portfolio as Police Minister. “We are thankful for the Minister’s commitment to bringing about a biosecurity review and expect that it will bring about genuine reform in this critical area, highlighting the current disparity in funding levels between plant and animal biosecurity and the need for increased resources across the board.

“Production horticulture has experienced a perfect storm of biosecurity threats this year including Panama Tropical Race 4, Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus and the expansion of fire ant infestations. We were pleased that the Minister recognised that targeted investment in the biosecurity workforce was urgently needed.

“We welcomed the sum of nearly $10 million allocated in the State Budget to the response to Panama and more than $52 million to drought relief for farmers and their communities.

“We also commend Mr Byrne for his efforts in consulting with industry, extending the workforce development funding and working to identify the best way forward to help agribusinesses address labour and skill shortages.

“Our last meeting with Mr Byrne was at the Queensland Horticulture Council meeting last month and we were grateful for his briefing on industry issues and the remarks he made about the QHC’s development as a positive step forward for our industry.”