Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Hindmarsh and I give some credit to the member, who has for some time been raising in this place and in other places such significant issues as food security, particularly in relation to protecting Australia’s food from biosecurity risks arising from the importation of food from other places. I start by making the simple point that I am a supporter of a country that engages in free trade with other countries. I think it has had and continues to have enormous benefits not just for consumers but also for farmers in our country. If we stop trading and start putting tariffs back on or putting restrictions on our products, the great losers will be our farmers and Australian consumers. However, it also has to be said that we need to ensure that we have a proper and strong biosecurity and quarantine system in Australia to protect our own domestic food supply and the great export opportunities provided by our rural sector producers. We have a very strong and great rural sector in our country and we should be very proud of it. In my electorate we have some wonderful areas of rural production with exports of wine, grains, canola and the famous Adelaide Hills apples, which the member for Makin was talking about just a moment ago. They are the best apples in Australia.

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