Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to speak on this motion and I commend the member for Hindmarsh for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. Australia is not only a net exporter of food products but food and farm produce has to date sustained Australia’s balance of trade position, with a net surplus of $14.2 billion from our food product trade in the year 2009-10. In fact, Australia is the 14th largest food exporter in the world. Without food exports, Australia’s trade deficit would be unsustainable. An unsustainable trade deficit would in turn ultimately be disastrous for the Australian economy. It would also be disastrous for the Australian economy if overseas markets were closed to Australian produce because Australian produce was contaminated.

The farm sector employs and sustains hundreds of regional communities around the country. When farm production in those communities has collapsed because of natural disasters such as floods, droughts and cyclones the impact on those communities has been terrible. A similar demise of rural townships has occurred when the international commodity prices or demand for their produce has plummeted. International prices and demand are beyond our control, as are extreme weather events. Indeed, food production has always been risky. However, one of the most serious risks constantly faced by food producers is the risk associated with disease, pests or any form of contamination. I recall that a couple of years ago I was contacted by an Adelaide kangaroo meat export company that was facing a severe business downturn because its major export country, Russia, had placed a ban on Australian kangaroo meat over an alleged contamination issue.

International demand for Australian food produce has always been underpinned by the food quality standards of Australian products. The reality in recent times is that, in aiming to increase export opportunities by entering into multilateral and bilateral trade agreements with other countries, Australia has simultaneously increased the risks associated with contamination and disease, which in turn threaten those very export opportunities. Trade agreements open up new markets for Australian produce. Agreements in turn require a free two-way flow of produce and while we can ensure that consumer standards are enforced in Australian production we have little control over production standards overseas. Control is effectively limited to Australia’s biosecurity and quarantine system.

It is indeed a huge responsibility that is placed on that sector and it is my view that the agencies associated with Australia’s biosecurity do an excellent job. This was also the view of the 2008 independent review of Australian biosecurity by a panel chaired by Roger Beale AO, which concluded:

… Australia operates a good biosecurity system; indeed, one that is often the envy of other countries, given its comprehensiveness … and scientific rigour.

The panel, however, also acknowledged that the system is far from perfect and went on to make 84 recommendations, all of which I have no doubt would strengthen Australia’s biodiversity security system.

I was also pleased to see that the government has agreed in principle with the Beale panel’s 84 recommendations. The most effective way of minimising risk is to prevent the importation of food products where production standards are less stringent than those applied in Australia or where an outbreak of a disease not present in Australia has been detected. It is my view that the risks to the whole industry associated with importing a product from a country where that product has previously been identified as having a biosecurity risk associated with it justifies the banning of the importation of that product. A decision to do so by the government should not be subject to an appeal to or decision by an external body as was the case with the importation recently of New Zealand apples. Australia should always be the final decision maker in these matters. Australian producers can survive if one country closes to their product. But they cannot survive if the world market is closed to them.

Adelaide radio talkback host Leon Byner regularly raises this matter. From the public discussions that follow, I have no doubt about the widespread level of community concern over this issue. I know that many people in my electorate feel very strongly about this issue and would only buy Australian produce if it was clearly labelled and they could therefore make that choice. With respect to food labelling, I recently wrote to the parliamentary secretary for health urging her to immediately implement recommendation 41 of the recently completed food-labelling inquiry taking oversight of country-of-origin information from the FSANZ process to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

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