John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Food Security, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I add my congratulations to our competitors in Vancouver, both those who have been successful and those who are simply competing.

As a beef producer myself, and—probably in common with many members of the House, particularly my colleagues—somebody who probably consumes more than their fair share of beef, I am aware, as I know that Australians in general are, that without doubt we have the best and the safest beef in the world. In large measure that is due to the fact that we have not only the best and the most efficient producers in the world but also the best and safest regulatory system in the world.

It was therefore with some surprise that we read in a joint media release on 20 October last year that, without any consultation or any forewarning, Ministers Burke, Crean and Roxon stated that they were scrapping the ban on imported beef from countries which have had BSE outbreaks, and that beef would be allowed in from BSE infected countries from 1 March, on certain conditions. There has been widespread concern about this decision not only from our beef producers and retailers but also from our consumers. I have got to repeat at this point that our beef is as good as any beef in the world to eat but also, without doubt, it is the safest. I have to concede that there are other people who produce good beef, but it is not better than ours and it certainly is not as safe.

It has to be made very clear, as I said, that our beef is the safest in the world. The coalition is committed to ensuring that that remains the case, and so we have given notice that we will introduce the Food Importation (Bovine Meat Standards) Bill 2010 to ensure equivalence to Australian production standards, requiring the government to undertake import risk analysis and requiring country of origin labelling for the importation of beef and beef products into Australia.

It will be asked by some, ‘Why would you have country of origin labelling?’ Quite obviously the US features highly in this debate, for wrong or right reasons, but I can assure you that the USA already has country of origin labelling issues; so I do not think they can complain about that. I do believe that Australians have a right to know if we are going to start allowing beef into Australia, under whatever conditions. Consumers have a right to know if they are eating Australian beef or foreign produced beef—wherever it might be from.

The coalition believe that the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry must, at the very least, demand equivalency with current Australian standards, which would mean that any country which has a BSE outbreak must have an equivalent to Australia’s National Livestock Identification System, the NLIS, in place before they can import beef into Australia. Under the Rudd government, Australian beef producers will have to produce beef to a higher standard than imported beef from countries which have had a BSE outbreak.

Our industry requires an NLIS to sell beef to Australian consumers and to sell beef outside of Australia. It is ridiculous to suggest that we should lower the bar and allow beef in from countries which have lower food safety and quarantine standards than we have for our own products. I am a beef producer myself, and I was in agripolitics back when NLIS first happened. I supported it then and I support it now. There has been a lot of grief along the way. Producers did not like it because it is onerous. It requires a lot of book work, it requires expense, it requires a levy, and it is not something you do lightly. Producers have in the main, over a decade, accepted the need for it and accepted the success of it. Why then would we not require a safety standard to sell not just in Australia but in the very countries that might require to sell to us?

A farmer in my electorate who owns a 7,000-head cow herd, in conjunction with his family, is extraordinarily angry that his business cannot sell beef without radio frequency tags in their ears. Yet we are talking about allowing beef imports which are not required to have the same standard that he has. NLIS satisfies the requirements of all our customers. In the case of the EU, audits have to be done. That is something that the farmer with 7,000 head of cattle mentioned: he has to be audited from time to time to keep selling into the EU, one of our good markets, even though it is quota. In the case of the best paying markets in the world, Korea and Japan—which everybody wants to be able to sell beef to—they are satisfied with our NLIS standard. In fact, our customers like it and our competitors are envious of it.

In speaking recently to marketers, beef processors, exporters and producers of beef in the US and South America—particularly Brazil, which, like ourselves, has a high percentage of exports—they were all totally envious of something they did not have and probably do not think they can do. In the case of Brazil, I really do not think they can do it. In the case of the United States, they have recently said they are not going to have the equivalent to NLIS. They are going to do it in a far different way, and I will get to that later. Our competitors are envious of us, because they know that that gives us entree into the best markets in the world and it gives us total confidence. It gives our consumers total confidence, I can assure you of that.

The United States recently abandoned the central plank in its BSE control measures, which it was calling the National Animal Identification System—the names are so close that obviously they were intended to be virtually the same. On 5 February the United States Secretary of Agriculture announced that the US had scrapped its national identification scheme in favour of a state based scheme which will, the United States Department of Agriculture website says:

• Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce;
• Be administered by the States and Tribal Nations to provide more flexibility;

I need to expand on this a little. There are 50 states in the USA, or 51 I think—

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