Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Securing the Victorian Food Supply

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:29): I follow on from the member for Lara and the member for Wendouree to talk about our agricultural sector. That is a really terrific thing. Of course I am continuing to speak on the Securing the Victorian Food Supply inquiry report, which was delivered in November 2024.

I just want to start off a little bit beyond where I left off in talking about one of the wonderful farmers in the community that I represent, John Saad and his team down there at Fresh Select. We saw Fresh Select before the election, and we were able to deliver a $500,000 grant. That was by the minister at that time, the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, Lily D’Ambrosio. One of the wonderful things is that those farmers are not just great farmers in the area of Werribee South but they are also innovative farmers, and as such, Fresh Select, John and the team were awarded by the Weekly Times, in the Farmer of the Year Awards, Innovative Farmer of the Year. I just want to give a big shout-out for his efforts and his team’s efforts. What they are producing is Nutri V. Some of you might have seen this at Coles. It is one of the natural supplements. It comes from broccoli and other vegetables that would otherwise have gone to waste. This is what our wonderful innovative farmers are doing. They are taking a product that otherwise would have been tilled back into the soil and making an economic benefit for the organisation but also avoiding food waste. We have $2.4 million tonnes of food waste in Victoria every year, and we know that sometimes it is tilled into the soil.

For those of you who do not know, the sweetest part of broccoli is the stem. Those of you who have young children know they eat the stem first because that is the sweetest part. And for those of you who are not engaged with young children: shave back the hard parts of the stem, cut it up with a little bit of chilli and a little bit of lemon and flash-fry it. I know the member for Melton is all about this. I look forward to sharing a meal with him soon. They are doing really great stuff in Werribee South, and Fresh Select is just one of those farms that are doing it. But they do have challenges, which this report outlines. The report goes to the fundamentals. We need farming in our peri-urban areas. It is essential. As I said last time, 10 per cent of Victoria’s vegetables come from the community of Werribee South, and that is something we need to protect and preserve.

Recommendation 8, which is a really important recommendation in this report, is:

That the Department of Transport and Planning develop a Planning Practice Note to guide the development of tourism in conjunction with agriculture.

Just a few moments ago I was talking about some of the wonderful tourism in the community that I represent in Werribee with the introduction of the elephants at Werribee zoo. But we know that that increased tourism, with the extra 200,000 people every year arriving in a great farming community like Werribee South, puts some challenges there. This report goes to those fundamental challenges of tourism. The beautiful beaches of Werribee South, the beautiful farmland and Wyndham Harbour – all those places – bring challenges with tourism. At Werribee mansion, whose roof is being repaired at the moment, the Sikh community pull out silverbeet – not by the kilo; they do not count it in kilos, they count it in tonnes – and prepare meals for charity.

There is a real challenge with how we make sure that these peri-urban communities in our great and productive farmland 30 kilometres from Melbourne – amazingly, some of the closest real productive farmland to Melbourne – can continue the great effort and do the work they are already doing. I really want to commend the farmers in the community that I represent and thank them for their efforts. I also want to thank the committee for their efforts in bringing together this report. It is a report that was not opposed. There was not an additional report alongside it; it was a single report.

I have invited the member for Narracan to the community of Werribee South. He has not yet taken up invite. I do look forward to the member for Narracan being able to join me in a great farming community. I would really like to see him there to experience that wonderful farmland close to Melbourne. The Labor government is committed to protecting and preserving that land. We have made a green wedge. We will continue to protect it for the wonderful farmers in our community and the food security of this state.