Land use, biosecurity, renewables, super tax: Julie Collins on ag's future
Labor may ramp up the domestic production of farm inputs, like fertiliser, and embed agriculture into Australia's national security strategy for the first time as it digests the geopolitical ramifications of the Iran-Israel and Ukrainian conflicts, the COVID-19 hangover and Donald Trump's tariff regime.
In her first major interview since Labor's thumping election win, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Julie Collins also told ACM her primary focus for the 1000-odd days left until the 2028 election will circle around trade, biosecurity, on-farm sustainability, food security and moving levers to ensure "our producers and farmers are getting their fair share when it comes to their investment".
She will also be free to reshape the industry without the small business ministry after juggling the two roles between moving from housing to take over from Murray Watt in the July 2024 cabinet reshuffle and the May 3 election.
Over that time, the average Australian farmer's "resilience when facing adversity" has left an impression on the senior Cabinet minister, a point reinforced in trips to an economic summit in South America and an agricultural ministers' meeting in Berlin.
"Our farmers are renowned across the world for being some of the most productive farmers on the planet," she said in a wide-ranging conversation.
"They're incredibly adaptable and Innovative in a land of flooding rains and drought, while also being some of the lowest emitters in the world when it comes to climate."
This is why she believes the government's highly anticipated agriculture and land sector scheme will not be "scary" for farmers.
Labor first announced plans for six landmark net-zero emissions reduction blueprints to cover the most heavily emitting components of the economy in July 2023, in looking for ways to sharply reduce the nation's carbon footprint.
However, as pressure piles on producers to cut emissions to retain access to markets and finance, the Tasmanian MP for Franklin ruled out caps being placed on land clearing or bans on some farming techniques or inputs, such as fertilisers, like those currently being fought by farmers in the European Union.
"Our net-zero is an economy-wide net-zero. What we don't want to do is the agriculture sector will not be made to do the heavy lifting for other sectors," she said.
"This is about looking across the globe and making sure that we help our farmers remain adaptive and some of the most productive on the globe."
Agriculture in Australia is predominantly managed on large parcels of land that have long management cycles and often coexist with native ecosystems, and so it goes that Ms Collins believes farm management plans must be tailored for Australian conditions and not regulations in foreign lands.
"We know that the climate is changing, we know our farmers want to get a premium price for their products, so it's about making sure we can work with them while obviously meeting net-zero (targets)," she said.
"Helping farmers know their number and reduce their number if there's an issue, and finding the most effective investment for them to make to be able to adapt their on-farm systems."
The release of the sector plan will likely now be pushed into 2027, but strong signals as to how agriculture's environmental credentials will be rated by financiers on the road to net-zero were revealed in the long-awaited sustainable finance taxonomy classifications, developed by Treasury and the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute, released last week.
Renewables
The nature of modern governments is that agriculture policy is increasingly entwined and influenced by decisions made by other ministers and departments, such as former water minister Tanya Plibersek's 2023 call to open a new Murray-Darling Basin buyback regime.
During a pre-election Grain Producers Australia webinar, former New England independent MP Tony Windsor suggested that Labor was not doing a bad job with agriculture, however, if Ms Collins remains true to her intent, the Labor Left member and former Tasmanian ALP state secretary she must also be prepared to step in if the purchases, as feared, impact farming across the basins.
As well as raising a voice around the cabinet table on issues sticking in the claw of farm lobby groups, such as if workforce shortages that continue to dog the industry, as Labor doubles down on filling fields with Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme workers after erasing a requirement for UK backpackers to work in the regions to extend their visas, become further entrenched.
Then there is the increasing red and green tape that farmers say limits production, fluctuating input costs and availability and a plethora of workplace and environmental policies kneecapping business decisions, like those around native vegetation and the current lack of incentives for landholders to protect and enhance biodiversity.
The elephant in the bottom paddock is Labor's unfulfilled ambition to layer cultural heritage provisions across a gamut of government business.
The most in-your-face is Labor's march of renewables across regional Australia, coordinated by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, and the social license and land use issues accompanying the government's sustainability agenda.
(On net-zero) ,,, the agriculture sector will not be made to do the heavy lifting for other sectors." - Agriculture Minister Julie Collins
Ms Collins said the appointment of former National Farmers' Federation chief executive Tony Mahar as the national energy infrastructure commissioner will help ensure warring parties receive a fair hearing amid a clean energy transition continuing to divide communities over wind, solar and transmission projects and a threat against productive land and fraught community benefits.
"Some of those land use tensions, whether it be for housing, whether it be for minerals, or renewal infrastructure, those land use tensions have always been there," she said.
"But we do know that those land tensions exist, and so we've been working with industry and with the sector in terms of the Ag and land sector plan about how we better look at land use and making sure our land is utilised and farmers understand and have the tools available to them to make the best possible decisions that they can."
Mr Mahar has previously told ACM that things were still "not going well" between renewable companies, rural communities and producers and sequestering farmland from the clean energy transition must be prioritised to help reduce local angst and protect long-term food security.
When asked if prime agriculture land should be protected where possible, Ms Collins said, "making sure that Australia can continue to produce... is really, really important".
"Whether it be our fruit and veg, meat or dairy supply, right across the food supply system, we need to make sure that Australia can continue to produce great Australian produce, and that's certainly important to all tiers of government," she said.
Food security and inputs
A former minister for community services in the Rudd and Gillard governments, Ms Collins sees the roll-out of Labor's national food security strategy, Feeding Australia, as pivotal to the success of her tenure.
The plan will put the entire agriculture supply chain under the microscope in looking for ways to build resilience, placing downward pressure on prices for consumers and ensuring farmers are "getting their fair share".
Part of that process will investigate ways to offset or cushion producers from fluctuating and spiralling input costs, including the cost-value proposition of increasing the currently low level of domestic fertiliser manufacturing and sovereign fuel reserves.
"We did see some hiccups during and post-COVID, we're seeing them with outbreaks in overseas conflicts, we've seen them with droughts and floods," she said.
"We are going to look right across the supply chain, and that will include things like investing in an alternative fuels strategy for Australia in terms of renewable fuels and a biofeedstock strategy to see whether or not there's capacity here in Australia.
"Certainly, we're looking at it in terms of the national reconstruction fund, in terms of the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry portfolio, about how do we do more manufacturing and more value-adding in terms of our supply chain, but importantly, of our raw product here in Australia."
A case study of that cost-value decision-making process is Labor's $100m investment to help shield Australia against a spread of the notorious H5N1 bird flu that has devastated chicken industries in other continents.
"When we see things like the H7 flu virus, and the impact that it's had on our egg supply, we asked 'what are the mitigations and is it worth investing in those weaknesses?'" she said.
"Some countries are investing billions of dollars to try to deal with that impact, the US has been struggling with the H5 strain for years. We made a decision to invest upfront so we can work with states and territories in terms of if it comes to Australia, which we can't stop because it's migratory birds, but about how we might get on top of that quickly.
"What that actually meant was that we found a second H7 Infection really early, and we're in the process of eradicating that.
"We need to do everything we can to keep Australians safe and, importantly, ensure that our food security is safe and that we're able to get a premium price for our product overseas because we are indeed pest-free."
Trading places
Science-based climate projections used by most governments, including Australia, with net-zero plans, suggest that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C by 2050 is reliant on stopping the clearing of high-carbon land ecosystems for agricultural production and a significant increase in restoration of degraded land, reforestation and carbon sequestration in land.
The nation currently exports 70 per cent of the value of its agricultural, fisheries and forestry production to around 169 markets globally, last year the government recorded 83 technical market access achievements, including opening 11 new markets, like the United Arab Emirates, and reopening seven, including China after trade impediments slapped on several imports in 2022 were negotiated away.
It also finalised deals to expand trade with the United Kingdom, Indonesia and the European Union, with Ms Collins also holding high-level discussions with counterparts before EU free trade pact talks officially reopened last month.
We did see some hiccups during and post-COVID, we're seeing them with outbreaks in overseas conflicts, we've seen them with droughts and floods - Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on farm input disruptions
But Australia's grazing and broadacre farmers need lots of land to feed the world, and it is big business for the government.
Ms Collins, who has repeatedly said Labor has no plans to ban live cattle exports after it scuppered the live sheep by sea industry, a move she supports, rates successfully arguing for the European Union to change its methodology around defining deforestation in forming its deforestation rules, for their implementation to be delayed and ensuring Australia was placed in the low-risk category, as one of the biggest wins in a challenging year.
"We've argued the point, said let's be relevant about it," she said.
"The original maps the EU was using were incorrect, and so we managed to get that corrected. And then, of course, some of the historical stuff and the way that they were going to implement their decisions would've been a problem for Australia, and we've said that we don't think it's fair, and we were listened to and heard in terms of their methodology and about how it was going to apply.
"The priorities for me as Ag Minister are around trade and about making sure, within the current geopolitical context, that we have the most diversified trade we can, that we continue to open up opportunities for Australian producers."
Biosecurity
Ms Collins nominates the almost $2b invested in biosecurity by Labor since coming to office as one of its key achievements, despite the failure of the $48.5m biosecurity protection levy to pass the Senate.
However, she revealed the government remains hopeful of extracting the money from farmers.
"There is still a small gap in terms of the sustainable funding of biosecurity," she said.
"We're still continuing to have discussions with industry, we're at early discussions, about making sure that we have a model going forward that is sustainable.
"We did talk about a biosecurity levy, but... we were unable to get that through the parliament.
"And, given where we're getting more cost recovery from importers and Australia Post, we decided that we wouldn't go forward with that, but we do still have a gap that we'll continue to discuss with industry."
However, she reiterated that a container levy is not on Labor's revenue-raising radar.
"That is the Coalition's policy. We have, obviously, since we've come to office, moved to a more sustainable model," she said.
"We're getting more cost recovery from importers than ever before. And, importantly, we're also getting more cost recovery from Australia Post, from the number of parcels that are coming into the country."
She also ruled out answering stakeholder calls to increase federal funding, including matching a recent Queensland government funding boost of $24m towards suppression tactics, to fight the growing threat posed by Red Imported Fire Ants.
"We are already investing significant amounts when it comes to the imported fire ants, and indeed, the federal government pays half the costs of the eradication," she said.
"Our investment is around $300m from the federal government. It's very significant indeed (and) we have been working with the states and territories when it comes to the impacts.
SA Dairyfarmers' Association president Robert Brokenshire meets with federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins at Mount Compass, SA, on May 28, 2025, during her tour of drought-parched areas of the state. Picture by Alisha Fogden.
Super tax
Treasurer Jim Chalmers' plans to increase taxation on super balances over $3m from 15 to 30pc, including on unrealised capital gains, is one of Labor's most divisive policies.
As it stands, the revenue-raising measure will not be indexed to inflation or wage growth and will pour about $8b a year into Treasury coffers within a decade if it becomes operational, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
But, in its current form, the tax plan promises to be particularly painful for farmers and small business operators whose property assets are held in the funds but not intended to be sold outside their family's multigenerational enterprises.
It is believed that about 3000 farmers and landholders will be affected initially, but that could grow to 10,000 within a few years.
NSW Farmers warned on Monday that the super tax could also shut young farmers out of the industry, while country accountants are fielding a surge of inquiries from farmers asking if, or how, they should withdraw property from superannuation accounts.
However, Ms Collins toes the party line when asked whether there is a case for farmers to be carved out from the changes.
"What we're talking about here is a superannuation system that's been in play for some time, and we're talking specifically about changes that were announced some time ago, and obviously, our government has been returned with a majority," she said.
"But, essentially, we're talking around 80,000 people, and it needs to be people who have a large sum in their self-managed super fund, so there are very few people who'll get caught up in that. In fact, 99.5pc of Australians will not be affected by this decision.
"It is obviously a financial decision that some people may or may not have taken, and I'm not going to be able to have discussions with you about financial advice, that's not my job."
It is that day job, however, that Ms Collins says will see her bouncing out of bed every morning as she plays what promises to be a major role in reshaping the agriculture industry around Labor policy and for modern times.
"It has been a real privilege since I was sworn in last year as Ag Minister, farmers have been incredibly generous and very supportive," she said.
"I've really enjoyed it, and I'm really looking forward to the next three years.
"My job is essentially to listen and advocate for farmers, and you can rest assured, I do that. And I'll continue to do that."