Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question without notice is to the Acting Prime Minister. Is the Acting Prime Minister aware that Biosecurity Australia have endorsed the import risk assessment on bananas that states that there is no substantive risk sufficient to stop Filipino bananas from coming to Australia? Is the Acting Prime Minister also aware that, since Filipino agricultural wages are $4 a day and our award is $17.50 an hour, Biosecurity’s decision will therefore result in 6,000 jobs in the banana industry vanishing, 2,000 jobs in northern New South Wales and Far North Queensland backpacker tourism vanishing, and a loss to the Australian economy of $400 million a year? Further, does the Prime Minister believe that anyone would accept that 20 million cartons of bananas will come into Australia but not a single microspore of the Philippine’s 23 contagious diseases?

Finally, in light of these dangers and the dangers of diseases and pests to our native flora and fauna, which currently occasion all plant material to be confiscated at airports, would the Acting Prime Minister not agree that allowing 300,000 tonnes of plant material in, with at most only 10,000 tonnes being inspected, is a decision that should at least be delayed—

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