Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

A strong biosecurity and quarantine system is critical to Australia’s rural and regional industries, jobs, consumers and our natural heritage. The 2008 $1.7 million Beale review into Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity systems found our border defences are significantly under-resourced, putting Australia’s economy, people and environment at significant risk.

It is important that Australian law protects Australia from pests and diseases carried by overseas animals, plants and products. However, the Labor government seems set to bring Australia’s biosecurity into threat. In July last year the ban on imported apples was lifted and the Australian apple industry has been left in jeopardy through flooding local markets with cheap inferior products from overseas that potentially carry diseases and pests as well as spray contaminants used in foreign agriculture. Foreign apples should have never been allowed into our country in the first place, especially as our apple industry is free of fire blight and is self-sustaining. This decision has the potential to devastate areas such as Batlow and Tumut, in my electorate of Riverina, the economies of which rely heavily on apples. That is neither right nor fair from a government that says it has regional Australia’s interests at heart.

But it is not just apples where Labor has weakened the biosecurity and quarantine measures. Now it is stalling on funding the eradication program to kill Asian bees. The Asian bee has threatened the industry over the past 20 years and now threatens to affect everyone—the honey industry, that is, and so many others as well. The Asian bee robs honey from managed hives, possibly causing hives to starve. This could devastate the pollination industry, which is responsible for $4 billion of production per year. Ninety-eight per cent of our fresh fruit and vegetables are locally grown and are now under threat. There is now evidence that the Asian bee displaces native bees from their natural habitats by competing for floral resources. This will do untold damage to our ecological biodiversity. The question is not what it will cost to eradicate the Asian bee; it is how much will it cost Australia if we do not eradicate this pest.

You just have to read the newspapers, watch the television news or glance at the internet to see the effects that weakened biosecurity and quarantine restrictions have on a country. Florida has been devastated by a bacterial plant disease that is destroying the production, appearance and economic value of its citrus fruits. Huanglongbing, HLB, also known as citrus greening disease, was introduced into America by a slip-up at quarantine that allowed an infected plant into the country. The citrus industry based around Griffith, Leeton and Hillston in the electorate I represent, comprising 8,500 hectares, is the largest citrus growing region in Australia. It produces about 200,000 tonnes of fresh oranges and juice every year, exports about one-third of its crop, with a retail value of half a billion dollars. Brazil and Florida have watched their industries dwindle because of this disease. I urge our government not to make the same mistake.

We stand here this evening to honour veterinarians and the wonderful job they do to keep our livestock the best that it is. However, if this government is already letting its guard down with food produce, imagine the damage that will ensue if they also decide to decrease the security within our livestock and animal imports. Already in 2007 we saw the devastating effects that equine influenza had on Australia’s horse racing industry. Veterinary surgeons suggested that the virus must have been transmitted between the two locations by human error. The New South Wales government blamed the Eastern Creek Quarantine Station and demanded that the federal government hold an inquiry into the biosecurity breach. No such conclusion was ever reached. Had it been worse the effects could have been far more detrimental.

The coalition has called on the Labor government to fund the Asian bee eradication program, and we have still not had a response from the minister in relation to it. The government should be protecting industries it is sworn to represent that help to keep the heart of Australia beating. Zebra chip in potatoes, bacterial canker in kiwi fruit and fire blight in apples are just some of the potential biosecurity risks we face in Australia because of the substandard quarantine and biosecurity systems and the lack of specialist scientists in Australia to provide the appropriate rigour in our process. The failure by the Labor government to invest the recommended $260 million per annum into our quarantine and biosecurity agencies and upgrade their antiquated IT systems is crucifying Australia’s border protection efforts. Weakened quarantine and biosecurity measures may not seem much to city slickers but this will ruin the livelihoods of regional and rural Australians. And I can assure you that the people in the city will be up in arms when they can no longer access quality produce from heartland Australia.

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