Tony Perrett debuts blueprint to grow Qld primary industry by $7billion

Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett debuted an ambitious blueprint to grow primary industry in Qld by another $7billion on Friday, but not everyone in the Gympie audience was impressed.

The Gympie Showgrounds was the location of the first leg of a public consultation tour for the state’s 25-year blueprint to boost primary industry to $30billion on Friday, and was met with a mixed response.

The session was introduced by Primary Industries Minister and Gympie MP Tony Perrett, who said the state government wanted to boost Queensland’s agricultural output to $30 billion by 2030, a nearly $7 billion increase.

A small crowd of up to 40 farmers and stakeholders attended the event, which detailed the promise to shore up support for agribusiness and natural resource industries.

“This is not a plan by and for the government, it is co-delivered,” Mr Perrett said.

Primary Industries Minister Tony Perrett peruses the 25-year blueprint for boosting Queensland's primary industry sector at a public consultation in Gympie on Friday.

“We know that primary industries is one of the key economic drivers in the region. We’ve heard from forestry, fisheries, both commercial and recreational, and of course agriculture, which underpins what we do in this region,” he said.

The session encouraged feedback for the blueprint’s ‘action plans’, where attendees could rate the importance of each plan, and later comment.

“I don’t see anything here that is going to alter anything to better support small to medium businesses,” said Brett, a farmer experiencing extreme financial difficulties, before leaving the meeting early.

“It sounds like it’s written by someone at the top,” he said.

In response to a plan to increase the sector’s productivity, another attendee said “the target could be $100 billion, it’s not going to matter… profitability and productivity aren’t the same thing. We need more profit.”

Attendees at the Gympie public consultation on Friday, which introduced the 25-year blueprint for boosting Queensland's primary industries.

Others were more constructive, emphasising that the blueprint’s “vision should be bold and audacious”.

Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig said “people need to understand the (sector’s) value in day-to-day living”.

Despite the varied responses, all feedback seemed to be taken in stride.

“(The regions surrounding Gympie) have been built on primary industry for so long,” Mr Perrett said.

“We need to deal with the government to make certain that we can meet this ambitious target.

“This is a (blueprint) that won’t just sit on the shelf, it’s going to be the five-year action plans that link to it, and that will be a whole government approach.

Minister for Primary Industries and Member for Gympie Tony Perrett debuts the 25-year blueprint for boosting Queensland's primary industry sector at a public consultation in Gympie on Friday.

“It’s not just primary industry, but portfolio responsibilities like water, energy, safe planning, environment, natural resources, and transport of main roads, all linking to primary production.”

Before the tour, the blueprint was shown to 300 stakeholders, mostly from agricultural industries, but also from sectors as far-reaching as education.

“The region is really well poised to be able to capitalise on the opportunities that exist, and I’m seeing that, I’m hearing that from industries,” Mr Perrett said.

“We need to be in a position to be able to back it in, and if that’s looking at red and green tape, in a lot of cases just getting it out of the road and doing business that’s important.”

The Queensland-wide tour will continue over the coming weeks, with Cairns next on May 6.

Originally published as Tony Perrett debuts blueprint to grow Qld primary industry by $7billion