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GOVERNOR'S SPEECH
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28 October 1992
Governor's Speech
BISHOP
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Hon. B. W. BISHOP (North Western) -- Mr President and honourable members: thank you for providing me with the opportunity of making my maiden speech in this important House. Mr President, I congratulate you on your election to the important role of President of this Chamber. I am certain that your ability, experience and capacity will see you discharge your duties in a manner fitting to this House and your own high standards. I recognise our Queen and commend the Governor on his opening Speech yesterday in which he clearly set out the direction of the government and the State. I can only think that he must have been reading my notes! I congratulate all the Ministers who have been appointed and wish them well in the challenging times ahead. I thank my family very much and I thank the members of my campaign committee who worked extremely hard during the long 15 months between my preselection and the election of 3 October. Most importantly, I thank the people of North Western Province for the trust and faith they showed in me on 3 October. I assure them and honourable members that I will do all in my power to discharge that trust. Speakers before me today have referred to the State's debt, to employment, the economy, justice and education. I suppose it is a legacy of being a country person that I should like to walk the House through North Western Province.
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It stretches from Castlemaine in the south to Mildura in the north and with an area of more than 57 000 square kilometres is one of the largest electorates in the State. It covers the Lower House seats of Bendigo East, represented by my colleague, Michael John, who will become the Minister for Community Services; Bendigo West, represented by my colleague, Max Turner; Swan Hill, represented by my colleague, Barry Steggall; and Mildura, represented by my colleague, Craig Bildstien. With such a huge area to cover, teamwork is absolutely essential. I look forward to working closely with my partner in North Western Province, the Honourable Ron Best, who is based in Bendigo, while I am based in Mildura. I might say that our team sees itself as a coalition team that has for the first time in 40 years brought conservative politicians together in Victoria. It will be of no surprise to honourable members that in such a huge electorate my predecessor, the Honourable Ken Wright, often used his wartime flying skills to fly around the electorate and visit his constituents. North Western Province has seen many changes in boundaries as the population base of rural Victoria has been eroded away over time. No doubt the most challenging changes were those made in 1985, when the two Bendigo seats were included in the province. I pay tribute to the Honourable Ken Wright who, with the outstanding support of his wife Valda, has represented the people -- and I emphasis people -- of North Western Province in a wonderful manner for almost 20 years. He had an amazing ability to perform the duties of a local member in a province that is not only huge, but has considerable diversity. His enthusiasm for public life is as strong now as it was 32 years ago when he was elected to the Mildura City Council, where he served three terms as mayor. Although his achievements were many, there can be no doubt that his often single-handed fight against daylight saving should find a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Even today, the Honourable David White referred to him during a debate. I wish Ken and Valda a happy, healthy and long retirement. With my background as a primary producer and through my activities in agropolitics, with a directorship of the Grain Elevators Board and my work over the past 10 years with the Australian Wheat Board, I have been heavily involved in the transport, handling and marketing of agricultural products, both domestically and internationally. The challenge of representing North Western Province is an exciting one, particularly given its highly diverse agricultural base. The provincial city of Bendigo dominates the North Western Province as a population centre, with its strengths and weaknesses being its proximity to Melbourne. Bendigo has a wonderful opportunity to become a thriving service centre for central Victoria with the decentralisation of the Department of Agriculture laying down the principles that many services could follow in the future. It is clear that Bendigo could develop into the educational centre of Victoria as a solid base has already been formed with a campus of La Trobe University moving north. I predict that we are now seeing only the tip of the iceberg in decentralisation of education as we further utilise the modern communications systems now in place. With the gold Bendigo was built on now not viable Bendigo could be not only an education and service centre but also a centre for tourism. What better way to spend a lazy weekend than touring Maldon township and old gold mining sites, and finishing with a ride on the historical trams? Bendigo's ordnance factory now gives us a stark reminder of how resources magically appear during times of war but do not seem able to be maintained during what should be a more productive time of peace. Innovative business is giving it its best shot with a good example being the old Mayfair site, which now has a number of small manufacturing shops making items as diverse as leather belts and high-tech bows and arrows. As we move north from Bendigo the diverse nature of agriculture becomes most apparent. As we leave
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tourism at Maldon, apples at Harcourt, and travel north, we find the Murray Valley irrigation system that produces some of Victoria's best fat lambs, beef, dairy products and wool. To complement this highly productive area we have an excellent infrastructure of saleyards and transport systems for effective sale and delivery of our stock. Unfortunately Victorians do not enjoy the same highly effective domestic and export abattoirs which, for example, New South Wales and Queensland can readily accommodate. I sincerely hope that Victoria, in a sensible and cooperative manner, can achieve that missing link in our production chain to allow us to add value to our stock on a regional basis and not see the premiums and employment opportunities offered there being transported to other States. Further opportunities abound, for example, to add value to wool in preparation for its journey to our international end users. This area of Victoria is perfectly placed geographically with its proximity to the Riverina to partly process wool before it departs our shores. This area, as with the rest of Victoria, is highly dependent on secure and viable water delivery and services. The restructuring of the Rural Water Corporation following the McDonald inquiry into water delivery in Victoria has seen sweeping changes to water management in Victoria. Decentralisation is occurring with regional management boards being established with the intent of their taking full responsibility for water delivery servicing and pricing in their regions in the near future. Such regional boards must be given the financial and operational opportunity to succeed, to create a sense of ownership and regional responsibility, and to follow through the philosophy of placing the decision-making process as close as possible to where the particular services are delivered. Had this type of system been in place many years ago, the lack of understanding and lack of suitable research that has created a high water table and, therefore, salinity in these highly productive areas may not have occurred. However, it has occurred and although regions can assist it is a far wider problem. We must continue to work with a national perspective towards better management of our river systems. The best example of this approach is the Murray-Darling Commission where the Commonwealth and the relevant States are working together to solve the problems for the future. A support committee for the establishment of a mid-river laboratory unit of the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre has recently been formed, with the first meeting having been held at Mildura in August this year. With well-directed research a vision for the future could see large areas of harvestable forests thriving on saline water, for example, in the Tragowel Plains area. Such research will also produce highly productive pastures that will thrive on saline water. In some ways dry land salinity is more difficult to manage although public awareness is now high. The response from landowners in relation to dry land salinity control has been excellent, with land care groups leading the way in many areas. Tree planting on farms is now part of the program and with well-planned interception belts of sustainable trees, in time the problem will come under control. We should note that the present and future piping of stock and domestic water in the Mallee has had and will continue to have a two-fold benefit for the State. Firstly, it has reduced salinity by removing open channel seepage. Secondly, and more importantly, it has achieved a real saving of Victorian water, which will become a scarce commodity in the future as city, recreational, and environmental usage continues to rise. Successful piping schemes have been established at Millewa and Eureka, with schemes at Annuello, Piangil and Carwarp under way. Recognition of high on-farm costs such as water reticulation systems borne by the farmers plus the substantial saving of State water must be taken into consideration as projects proceed in the future. As we look to the north and west, we enter the broad acres farming area recognised for its ability to produce quality grain crops which once had a family on each square mile, or a block of 640 acres. With the struggle to survive and the need to mechanise to gain the benefits of economy of scale, most families now manage at least four to five times that area. The point cannot be made strongly enough that the family farm is without doubt the world's best in creating efficiency and viability out of sometimes seemingly impossible situations. No-one would or should forget the part rural women play in the infrastructure and survival of regional Victoria. During the difficult times suffered by agriculture, and where most areas are still suffering, rural communities and families would not have survived without the strength and plain commonsense of our rural women. They not only share the operational work and planning but also run the home. They take the children to the school bus -- if they are lucky enough to have one -- and rush into town to buy parts for machinery that always manages to break down during the busy seasons; they are quite often the bookkeepers -- the financial centre of any farm.
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While talking about finance there is no doubt that during these difficult times it is essential that agriculture has responsive and adequate financial systems to provide the underpinning structure necessary during tough times. I note the role the Rural Finance Corporation of Victoria (RFC) has played during these difficult times as being the financial institution that really sets the capital base structure of Victorian agriculture. The RFC, which administers Commonwealth and State funds, has proven itself to be a flexible and well-run financial institution which has been good for this State and agriculture; it has constantly restructured its operations to meet the ever-changing needs of the future. The changes are still occurring. This is the case today across all sections of agriculture. However, without any doubt broad acres farming has seen more innovation than our forefathers would have dreamed possible. In one day huge machines can now cultivate, plant or harvest a paddock which would have kept our forefathers busy for a week. Changes have also occurred in our production base as international trade wars have forced down the prices of our products in many cases to unsustainable levels. During the past few months Australia has seen an escalation of subsidies, particularly from the United States of America, which uses its overkill method in its export enhancement programs to force its wheat into markets that are vital to Australia. If the democratic candidate, Mr Bill Clinton, becomes the President of the United States of America that country may adopt a more protectionist attitude because the Democratic Party is historically more protectionist than the Republican Party. Australia will need to move swiftly to stem any further damage from the continued madness of international trade laws. This is a major problem for Australia because with its small population base of 17 million people most of its agricultural products are dependent on world markets. For example, Australia exports 80 per cent of its wheat crop. Because they are versatile, adaptable and have a burning desire to survive by their own efforts, Australia's primary producers have diversified into other crops and products. For example, they have reduced the area sown to traditional products such as wheat and have turned to innovative crops such as field peas, chickpeas, faba beans, canola and the new imaginative crop, vetch. Not only does this require a change in agronomic methods, it produces a real need for market-driven research to produce the results and channel the information back to the farm producer so that production can respond accordingly. The traditional marketing, storage and handling systems of the past are being tested by the influx of new products and in today's discerning world where the customer is more selective our producers must deliver the right product on time and in mint condition. This demands flexibility of the transport, handling and storage systems which were designed to cope with just a few commodities but now find anything up to 60 segregations are required as marketeers value add by segregation to finely tune a market's requirements. Victoria must address the total transport task and not adopt the bandaid treatments of the past. It must take a long-term corporate view of requirements and have a sensible mix of road and rail transport as we move into the 21st century. In a world market sense the exposed end of the transport chain is our ports. International competitors are loading larger ships faster to save expensive turnaround time. In a nation and a State that is so dependent on world markets to generate export dollars -- I remind honourable members that agriculture produces 45 per cent of Victoria's export earnings -- we cannot swerve off the path of reforms that can transform our ports not up to, but past, world standards. Port employees have the abilities and capacities, given the appropriate opportunities, to lead the world in a sector that is so critical to Australia's world competitiveness. Moving north through the Mallee through towns with wonderful names such as Waitchie, Chillingollah, Chinkapook, and perhaps the most famous of all, Manangatang, we come to Mildura and the Sunraysia district.
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This area is renowned for its wonderful Mediterranean climate and its horticulture, particularly its dry fruits and citrus production, which are both suffering through subsidisation in the world markets. A few weeks ago oranges were dumped in a tip. Similarly, tomatoes were left to rot and potatoes were ploughed into the ground; that is a ridiculous situation for such a productive sector of our economy. State and Federal governments face many challenges, but Australia must win in the General Agreement on Tariff and Trades (GATT) talks if agriculture is to survive in this great country of ours. A resolution of the international trade corruption is essential because Australia cannot continue to compete against the vast resources of the United States of America and the European Community. Australia must retain the market power it has built up over many years. The best example is the Australian Wheat Board's single desk export marketing powers, which have been under attack from a group of multinational traders masquerading as Australian companies, and which are trying to feather their own nests at the expense of Australian producers and Australia as a whole. As this is a Federal issue I commend both sides of Federal politics for their commitment to continue those export marketing powers into the future. The rapidly growing economies of the Asian region will continue to increase their manufacturing industries with the result that less land and resources will be available for food production. This will produce market opportunities for Sunraysia, Robinvale and Swan Hill, whose climates and agronomic suitability for horticultural production is virtually unlimited. Victoria must create a sense of ownership in these regional areas so they can produce a brand name that promotes clean fresh products with faultless quality controls. Regional development in the North Western Province will also require a viable efficient supply of power and good water, coupled with a responsive transport system. Regional development will depend on our ability to construct a processing capacity that will not only provide employment opportunities, but retain in that region the premiums from farm soil to end user. The Sunraysia district can be a leader in world food production. It can take a lead from the Jordan Valley, which has thousands of hectares of hot houses producing fresh vegetables and fruit for world markets. With my tongue slightly in my cheek, I forecast that when the Mildura international airport is opened tourists will flood down to Robinvale and Swan Hill to enjoy the Swan Hill pioneer village and other district historical areas. Every day fresh agricultural products will be air-freighted into Asian markets because their manufacturing base will give them the hard currency to buy our products. There is a lot to do. Victoria must do what it does best, as must all countries of the world, so we can be a recognised, required trading partner with our near neighbours. Victoria is in for an exciting time with its agriculture, its latent manufacturing capacity, its water and energy and, most importantly, from our people who are ready to go. As the Governor said, the doors are now open for business. I thank the House for the opportunity of making a contribution today and I conclude my remarks by saying that I am unashamedly optimistic about our future and I look forward to working within the Parliament of Victoria for the advancement of Victoria and our nation in the future.