AU: Growcom welcomes new Cabinet
Growcom Chief Executive Officer Pat Hannan said it was pleasing to see that Barnaby Joyce had retained the agriculture portfolio and would drive the implementation of the Agriculture White Paper released in July.
“The new Cabinet has an interesting mix of old and new faces which will hopefully balance new ideas with experience,” said Mr Hannan.
“Whilst the horticulture industry is currently reliant on manual labour, we need innovation across the board to ensure that our industry remains viable into the future. The appointment of Sunshine Coast MP, Wyatt Roy, as Assistant Minister for Innovation is encouraging as he comes from a horticulture background and represents a key growing region.
“We also welcome the new assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Senator Anne Ruston, who has always taken a keen interest in horticultural affairs.
We congratulate newly appointed Minister for Small Business, Kelly O’Dwyer, and hope she will continue the reform process initiated by her predecessor, Bruce Billson. We thank him for his efforts in this area.
“Most horticultural producers are essentially small businesses and we need a strong advocate in Cabinet to ensure that our growers’ interests are not compromised in favour of the big end of town. We were very pleased that the Nationals pushed for a favourable consideration of the so-called effects test as part of the Coalition Agreement and we hope that the new Cabinet implements the clear recommendations of the Competition Policy Review (the Harper Review) released in March this year.
“We would like to thank the outgoing Minister for Industry, Ian MacFarlane, for taking on the difficult issue of Country of Origin labelling and look forward to working with the newly appointed Christopher Pyne in this important area.
“We are also pleased to see Josh Frydenberg has been appointed Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia and look forward to working with him in ensuring that the potential for horticulture in northern Australia is realised.”
Mr Hannan said that horticulture growers were affected by policies implemented across the range of portfolios and Growcom would continue to work with the new Cabinet to ensure that Australia’s third largest Agricultural industry could continue to support regional and rural communities and provide our population with the highest quality fruit, nuts and vegetables in the world.
For more information:
Pat Hannan
Growcom
Tel: +61 07 3620 3844
Fax: +61 07 3620 3880
www.growcom.com.au