Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I asked the minister a very genuine question about the Awassi Express investigation. I think it's reasonable to ask why the Western Australian government doesn't have access to that information. I acknowledge there may have been a legal barrier. I gave the minister that courtesy and he chose to give a highly politically charged answer. He can't have it both ways. First, he says he's issued an order and then, only through prompting from my intervention, he told us that the order doesn't take effect until 1 July. I thought he might want to answer why it doesn't take effect until 1 July. There might be a perfectly reasonable legal answer to that. He could have taken the opportunity to explain that.

Obviously, the Western Australian government has community expectations too. They want to exercise their right to investigate the matter themselves. The minister now says he's happy to put in place an order so that they can, having just argued that they shouldn't, but he's not going to give them access until 1 July. He said he was never asked and then he said he responded by saying, 'You've got to take action under Freedom of Information.' You can't respond to correspondence you never received! He can't have it both ways. He can't say they didn't write to him and then say he responded in certain terms. Unbelievable. I give him the opportunity to explain why the order does not take effect until 1 July.

I'm pleased to hear the minister talk about biosecurity—probably his most critical responsibility as the minister. I note that he's crowing about a vision for the sector, but they've been in government for five years. After five years, he's going to spend $20 million and have another forestry plan. We've already had a number of them in five years, and we're supposed to be thankful that now we're going to spend $20 million creating another plan. I want to ask him a serious and genuine question about biosecurity. As he knows the Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity is coming to its expiry date. I think we had an excellent review of the intergovernmental agreement. It's almost compulsory reading, I think, for anyone who is interested in agriculture and biosecurity in particular. There are 42 recommendations. I could ask the minister whether he's going to embrace the recommendations, but he'll flick it back off to an AGMIN process, no doubt, but I'll give him the opportunity. What I really want to know is when he's going to take this matter back to the state ministers. When will we have a response to the IGAB review? It was, I remind him, due in mid-2018. We're pretty much in mid-2018. The habit of the last minister—and I know that the minister, on a daily basis, is striving to do better—was to have AGMIN meetings, as they called them. They're no replacement whatsoever for the SCoPI process, which this government abolished. It's unbelievable. They abolished the COAG progress.

You can't have a proper and adequate biosecurity framework in this country if you're not working hand in hand with the states. The first act of this government? They abolish the COAG committee that was in charge of these things, the Standing Council on Primary Industries. I can see the minister frowning. I don't think he's ever heard of it, by the expression on his face. We now have this AGMIN process. The former minister had the habit of having it meet once a year. I'm concerned that it was supposed to be renewed in the middle of this year, and AGMIN might not be meeting until the middle of next year. I want to know when that agreement will be reached so that we can get on with consolidating our biosecurity framework.

See this speech in context