FEDERAL Treasurer Scott Morrison and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce have continued to extol Australian agriculture’s leading impact spearheading national economic growth, as measured through recently released big picture statistics.
Mr Morrison visited Tamworth at the weekend in the Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture and Water Resources Minister’s farm dominated New England electorate, speaking to local businesses about core economic issues like company tax rates.
His tour foreshadows the May federal budget’s release and was hot on the trail of the recent publication of Australian Bureau of Statistics data, showing the national economy recorded broad-based growth of 1.1 per cent in the December quarter 2016, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.4pc through the year.
ABS said growth was recorded in 15 out of 20 industries with agriculture, forestry and fishing contributing the most with 0.2 percentage points to GDP growth.
Those figures also foreshadowed a flourish of farm sector positivity expressed at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences annual outlook conference in Canberra last week.
In his conference opening speech, Mr Joyce said the “economic nobility” of the agricultural sector was on full display as “economic credibility” with the release of Australia’s National Account figures.
He said the new numbers showed that the industries of regional Australia continued to drive the nation’s economic growth.
The trend growth to December 2016 was 23.7pc - four to five times the economic growth of most other sectors in that analysis, he said.
“Its contribution to the 1.1pc of GDP growth for the Quarter was 0.2pc - no other sector contributed more than agriculture, forestry and fishing,” he said.
“This is an important economic reminder to those who seek to disparage and ridicule our agricultural and resource sectors; an important reminder to those who mock and snobbishly dismiss the concepts of farmer’s property rights, the need to build dams, or the vision of decentralisation.
“We, in agriculture and water resources, are delivering a vision for this nation.”
Mr Joyce said the Coalition had also delivered a $4 billion Agriculture White Paper and were “part of the greatest turn-a-round of agricultural commodity process in the history of our nation”.
“At today’s conference, it doesn't matter whether you're running the federal government, a national industry body, a representative body, or a broadacre farm near Bunbury - you are all part of this incredible outcome,” he said.
“It's important to stop: to celebrate, promote and learn from success; to look at the challenges we have already risen to, and to those that demand more attention; and to look to the challenges that lie on the road in front of us.”
Mr Joyce also said this year - for the first time - ABARES was also forecasting the gross value of farm production to top $60b - coming in at $63.8b in 2016-17 and easing slightly to $61.3b the following year.
He said the real value of agricultural production increased over the three years to 2015-16 at an average rate of 4.5pc.
“This is markedly better than a Term Deposit Rate; and you have the capital growth of the land asset to also add to your overall nett return,” he said.
“Smart wealth is moving into the agricultural sector, because they recognise this.”
Mr Joyce said under the Coalition government, the total value of Australian farm exports had increased by over $10b dollars from $38.2b in 2012-13 to a forecast $48.7b in 2017-18.
He said that was an “incredible” 27pc growth over just five years.
“These are numbers - but my vision is to ensure the Australian ‘mum and dad’ at the kitchen table can avail themselves of the wealth that properly renumerates the efforts of privations that they go through in running a farming enterprise,” he said.
“My philosophy in politics accepts, but is not enthralled by, the corporate farm.
“My passion is for the person: that stoic person who by the sweat of their brow creates wealth from soil and holds in their heart a love for our nation so dear that every town has war memorial reflecting their forbears who either died or served for it.
“So it’s only proper that real net farm cash income is estimated to have been $25.7b in 2015–16, well above the 20-year average to 2014–15, of $15.6b.
“Broadacre farm cash incomes are estimated to be the highest for twenty years, averaging at $216,000 a farm.”
Speaking to media this week, Mr Morrison said the agriculture sector contributed 0.2pc to national growth in both the December quarter and in the September quarter which was a negative one.
“It has been the rural and regional sector, particularly the rural sector, driving that growth in the December quarter, along with many other sectors,” he said.
Mr Morrison said during his talks with Tamworth businesses at the weekend in Mr Joyce’s rural electorate, the topic raised the most “unprompted” was local business support for the government’s position on company taxes.
“These are businesses now in Tamworth which are seeing the benefit of the improvement in the agricultural sector and they are seeing a bit more money flow through the system,” he said.
He said lower company taxes gave those businesses more room to reinvest more.
“It’s one of the really encouraging things I find when I come to regional areas and I particularly talk to small and medium sized businesses,” Mr Morrison said.
“They get it, that when the times improve, that’s the time to invest - it’s not the time to splash the money around on the things that don’t have enduring value.
“Those businesses know that that money was hard to come by and when they get that opportunity they want to invest.
“By taking the tax monkey of businesses’ backs, particularly in places like Tamworth it allows them to invest more back in their business.
“There are great regional economic success stories happening right now and that’s a great thing to be seeing in our economy.”
Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the growth figures were “pretty good” but another consecutive quarter of negative growth would have “put us officially in recession”.
“I note that the greatest contributor was household consumption and that indicates that potentially people are spending their savings, which may in turn reflect very, very sluggish wages growth,” he said on Sky News with no direct mention of agriculture.
“We’d welcome a few more quarters of positive growth.”
National Farmers’ Federation President Fiona Simson said the new economic figures came as no surprise to her and were a validation of the importance of primary production to Australia’s prosperity.
“When agriculture is doing well - Australia is doing well,” she said.
“As these figures indicate it is not just our farmers who benefit from positive terms of trade it is the regional towns they support, businesses along the supporting supply chains and Australians in general.
“The NFF will continue to advocate to ensure the policy and regulatory environment is as good as it possibly can be to ensure farmers are well placed to benefit from the favourable conditions before them and for agriculture to continue to drive national growth.”
Mr Morrison’s visit to New England also included looking at housing affordability issues and potential regional solutions and Mr Joyce’s plans to decentralise government agencies like the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Armidale in his electorate and other locations for farm bodies like the Grains Research Development Corporation.