Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to support the Export Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 and the related legislative package that implements a number of changes to our export legislation. For those watching at home, for the kids up in the gallery and those who are with us today, the legislation before the House is particularly concerned with how we regulate the exports of food in Australia. As you can imagine, the export of food is a rather complex business. We export to lots of different countries and they all have different standards and conditions that we need to comply with. This is particularly in the context of meat exports. The Department of Agriculture plays an incredibly important role in helping our exporters take their produce out to the world. One of the ways it does this is providing certification that the food that is exported from Australia meets certain conditions.

The amendments before the House today have the role of clearing up some technical defects in the way that the exports legislation is drafted—some things around differing definitions from one piece of legislation to another. Another very important impact is facilitating cost recovery. That means the costs associated with exporting which the department bears at the moment will actually now be borne by the exporter. For some, this may sound a little technical and dry, but these are actually very important parts of the broader framework for food exports and for biosecurity protections, which Australia provides and which are so important to the industry.

It is an important part of Australia's economic future. These are not things that just affect us today. Despite the fact that a lot of Australians perceive agriculture to be a declining sector, food exports and agriculture are among the most important parts of our economy today and something that we project will grow significantly into the future. Somewhere over the next 30 years, global demand for food is going to double and a lot of that growth is coming from right within our region. So we will see significant increases in populations around Asia but also changing tastes, which, excitingly for Australia, are leading consumers to value even more products that we grow in our great country.

One of the great things about agriculture for Australia is that it is an area where we have a real competitive advantage. Of course, we have a rich and proud tradition of agriculture, but we also have some logistical comparative advantages in that we are close to areas of significant population growth. We do not want to exaggerate that, but we are close to those Asian countries where food demand is growing so much. A Deloitte report was published in March called Positioning for prosperity? that goes into some of these issues. That report estimates that over the next 20 years Australia is poised to reap significant benefits from growing our food exports and processing industries. Deloitte's estimate that this could add $250 billion to our economy over the next two decades. This is really important stuff. Deloitte's went on to talk about how Australia could become the delicatessen of Asia, offering high-value, high-margin products. So it is an exciting future that we have to look forward to and it is a very important one.

I raise this because the legislative framework that sits around the amendments that we are discussing today are very important to this future for food exports. One of the significant selling points about food exports from Australia is the perception that food grown here is safe food and good for the people to whom we export. The Deloitte report actually said that food safety standards are one of the most important elements that are valued about food exports to Asia. Thinking specifically about incidents that we have seen with baby food, which is one example that is often put forward, nothing really could be more important than the security we place around the food system here in Australia and the food system that protects our exports.

Labor has a pretty good story to tell here. It is one that we are very proud of, one that the second reading amendment speaks to, and one that our shadow minister, the member for Hunter, talked about earlier this morning. While Labor was in government $1.6 billion was invested to try to minimise threats to our primary production sectors. These are sectors that, as you can understand, really underpin our reputation as a reliable exporter of high-quality food around the world.

The most recent review to our biosecurity measures has been the Beale review, that Labor commissioned. The member for Watson was the minister at the time. We really wanted to make sure that Australia was in the best position to take advantage of the significant growth in demand for food, which I have talked about. It was a very wide-ranging assessment and made some very important findings. I will go through some of the highlights. One of the important things about the Beale review regarded the threshold question about the standard of our biosecurity and quarantining regulations in Australia. They are working. They are working well but there are things we need to do to improve them. One of them was about efficiency. I have heard other members talk through that today. This is about targeting resources where we are going to have the greatest return for our primary producers. Another chestnut is encouraging greater cooperation between the Commonwealth, states and territories. That is something that affects all areas of legislation but specifically this area of exports. Another was around improving the transparency and processes in relation to biosecurity operations.

The legislation that is before us today actually does go right into the Beale review and the things that came out of that important review. I want to use this opportunity to urge the coalition, who are now governing this area, to continue the important work that is yet to be done on implementing the remaining recommendations of the Beale review. We introduced the Biosecurity Bill 2012 in November 2012 and the Inspector-General of Biosecurity Bill 2012 in the Senate. These were the first steps to the development of a really comprehensive modernisation of Australia's biosecurity regulatory framework. I note in the second reading amendment the number for Hunter has put forward that he mentions the Quarantine Act 1908 is over a century old. We all know that things have changed profoundly in that time. We really urge the coalition to continue that important work that Labor began in modernising the framework that protects our food exports in Australia.

I make those points simply to make it clear that this legislation is part of a broader framework of protection that is so important to our farmers and farming communities. It is a protection framework that will see Australia continue to be well served, but we do want the reforms to be pushed and for continued pressure to make sure that Australia maintains its reputation as a land of really clean and secure food sources. The more we protect our reputation, the better for our exporters and the better for those communities that depend so much on agriculture. I commend the legislation to the House.

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