Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Then, after failing to answer the questions I called upon him to answer, he tried to confuse those listening either in the galleries or at home by suggesting that his original bill somehow backed the independence and tenure of the inspector-general. What he did not properly explain is that, when he realised that my bill and my amendment made sense and were sound, and had the support of the Senate, he went out to the doors—half backflip, no pike—and said, 'Oh well, you know, we'll do something about this.'

I want to pay credit to Senator Colbeck because, when Senator Colbeck made his second reading contribution in the Senate, he very sincerely said mea culpa and gave me certain guarantees because I was still concerned about the unseen regulations which will back this bill and the position of inspector-general. He made a very sincere and, I thought, believable commitment to the Senate that the inspector-general, under the amendments the government has now produced, would have all the independence, tenure and authority we would hope he had. Senator Colbeck introduced the amendments into the Senate just before budget day, of course—because this is a very embarrassed minister now; this is a very big backflip. They brought the bill back to the Senate the day before the budget so that it disappeared under the cover of all the budget news. But he only brought his amendment to the Senate because he knew my amendment was going to succeed—and it was going to succeed because it was true that the position of inspector-general had been undermined, and my amendment properly restored that position and all of its authority. I did the responsible thing, as you would expect her Majesty's opposition to do, and when I was satisfied that the minister's backflip and backdown was complete, I withdrew my amendment and we happily allowed the government amendment to go through.

This morning we are here dealing with the Senate message which effectively and completely restores the Inspector-General of Biosecurity, which means we now have the best quarantine and biosecurity system in the world and one that is befitting this country. It will only work if we properly resource our quarantine people and, rather than go out to the doors on Boo and Pistol and blame someone else, the minister should— (Time expired)

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