Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

from the Australian Racing Board, Minister; they wrote to the government and warned about this in 2004. If you had been listening intently before, you would know that I gave the specific quote. They were prophetic words; they talked about the disastrous consequences of the closing down of the racing industry, and it has happened. It has happened because you ignored the warnings. That is what this inquiry has to get to the bottom of—how it is that such a significant warning was ignored and, more importantly, what procedures were in place that allowed the outbreak to occur.

Was there only one warning? That is what we would have liked the Prime Minister to have told us. I would have thought that now that that letter is in the public domain the Prime Minister would have said: ‘Yes, we did get a warning from there. That is why we have set up a royal commission.’ Did he have any other warnings? I do not know. But we are entitled to have him tell this House. We are entitled to an answer.

I also asked the agriculture minister—not just the Prime Minister—about reports that horse handlers at the Eastern Creek quarantine facility regularly go from that facility to a nearby tavern for dinner without removing their gear or showering. That is a circumstance in breach of one of the most fundamental quarantine requirements. The minister still has not answered that question. What has the government got to hide? We are entitled to ask in the parliament about this very vital area. Why can the minister not answer?

We know that the government moved to tighten quarantine arrangements and procedures at Eastern Creek 10 days ago, so obviously the procedures were deficient. But why can he not tell us the answer to a simple question? This was a full month after a batch of horses arrived from Japan. It was more than two weeks after equine influenza was reported in Japan and a fortnight after 17 August, the day that a number of horses from Eastern Creek fell ill and testing for equine influenza was done. Given all of those facts, I find it disturbing that the minister was unable or unwilling to answer. I see him in the chamber now and I hope that he is—

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