House debates Quarantine Amendment (Commission of Inquiry) Bill 2007

Consideration in Detail

Monday, 17 September 2007 House of Representatives

Peter McGauran

Peter McGauran Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House

6:57 pm

With the greatest respect to the member for Corio, I think his paranoia is clouding his judgement. These terms of reference are all-encompassing. They were drafted in consultation with Justice Callinan, and there is a catch-all provision which says:

... any other matters that are incidental to these ...

The member for Corio concedes that there is no prospect of determining the cause of the outbreak in Australia unless you follow the epidemiological trail and discover just how it was transmitted from horse to horse and what handlers were involved. After all, it is possible for people to conclude that there was a human breach of the quarantine facility either at Mascot airport, when the horses first landed from Japan, or at the Eastern Creek facility.

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