Below is the opening statement by National Farmers’ Federation’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Guerin, who attended the Australia-New Zealand Leaders’ Forum (ANZLF) – Business Dialogue in Queensland today. The ANZLF is the only high-level bilateral leadership forum that engages closely with government and business to discuss areas of strategic importance for the mutual benefit of both countries.
Opening Statement
Prime Ministers, thank you.
I think one of the big lessons agriculture has learned over the past decade is that volatility is no longer something that occasionally interrupts the system – it is increasingly the operating environment itself.
Across both Australia and New Zealand, producers are dealing with a pretty confronting mix of geopolitical uncertainty, trade fragmentation, energy pressures, climate variability, labour shortages and supply chain disruption.
And yet despite all of that, our sectors have continued to produce food, earn export income and support regional communities.
What recent years have really reinforced for us is just how interconnected everything has become.
- Fuel security affects fertiliser and freight.
- Energy reliability affects food processing and cold chains.
- Shipping disruption affects export competitiveness.
- And pressure on regional communities ultimately becomes pressure on national productivity.
Agriculture sits right at the intersection of all of those issues.
I also think both our countries are recognising something important – efficiency on its own is no longer enough.
We need systems that are productive and competitive, but also resilient.
That obviously means continuing to invest in innovation, technology and productivity growth, because long-term prosperity becomes very difficult without productivity growth.
But it also means investing in trusted trade relationships, regional infrastructure, workforce capability, energy reliability and the long-term strength of our food and fibre systems.
And I think there is a real opportunity here for Australia and New Zealand.
- We are both trusted producers.
- We are both outward-looking trading nations.
- We both operate with strong institutions and high standards.
And increasingly, in a less certain world, those things matter. So I think there is a genuine opportunity over the next decade for our two countries to work even more closely together – not just as agricultural exporters, but as trusted partners contributing to regional food security, economic resilience and stability across our part of the world.
