Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection: perhaps you are, but we could do with some more of those. The Turnbull government has made a considered choice to prioritise parliamentary business ahead of our farmers and agricultural industries. It seems to find all the time and press releases and media opportunities in the world to promote the corporate tax cuts for big business, yet this parliament is headed for a six-week-long break at the end of this sitting, and critical legislation will need to wait until August to be even considered—such as the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Operational Efficiency) Bill, also known as agvet chemicals legislation.

This innocuous-sounding piece of legislation is actually tied up with the infamous APVMA, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, where we saw the member for New England relocate a government authority to his own electorate in a case of blatant pork-barrelling. The agvet bill involves minor amendments, mostly technical, that should assist with streamlining APVMA operations. But it should be no surprise that, after the debacle of its forced relocation, APVMA is now on life support—its current financial position is reportedly untenable, as is its technological infrastructure. So not only are industry stakeholders waiting to have the agvet bill passed; the Prime Minister has decided that APVMA is in need of a governance board, which, of course, will require an amendment to the bill in the Senate. What does that mean for our constituents? It actually means more waiting, because a former minister of the Turnbull government put his own interests ahead of the country's.

There are a number of other examples of this government prioritising its political game-playing ahead of our farmers and the agricultural industry. There was the decision to pull the Export Legislation Amendment (Live-stock) Bill, and the Export Control Bill has been lost in transit since it was briefly debated in the Senate earlier this year. And, in a matter very much in the interests of my constituents in Paterson, there is the Biosecurity Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018.

I first met Sue and Rob Hamilton when their family prawning operation was shut down in 2015 when the RAAF Base Williamtown PFAS scandal broke out. That's right: we had professional prawners whose businesses were closed. The Hamiltons and other commercial fishers working Tilligerry Creek and Fullerton Cove were stripped of their livelihoods when it was discovered that firefighting chemicals PFOS and PFOA had leeched from the base into the waterways of our community. This is an absolute reality. Fishing bans lasted 12 months. This took a toll on many families like the Hamiltons and other fishers in Paterson. The Hamiltons battled through, however, and returned to the water and their industry.

Sue contacted me again in October last year to raise her concerns about the prevalence of white spot syndrome, a virus that is imported in green prawns. Importation of the prawns had been suspended following an outbreak of the virus in commercial prawn farms in Queensland and then around the wild prawns in Logan River and Moreton Bay. It had spread. Sue reached out to me after the then Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, the member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, lifted the suspension on the importation of green prawns into Australia. Sue was concerned because white spot is a massive deal. It leads to a highly lethal and contagious viral infection. Outbreaks have been known to wipe out the entire populations of prawn farms in days. The virus is not dangerous to humans and it is killed when the prawn is cooked, but the Aussie tradition of putting a green prawn on a hook and throwing a line in puts our waterways and our seafood industry at risk. Sue and her husband, Rob, still reeling from the year-long PFAS shutdown of their family business, were incensed by the biosecurity issues that remained in play even after the importation ban was lifted. And it's no wonder: the situation was and is nonsensical.

As a matter of fact, the failings highlighted by Sue and Rob were exposed in 2016, two years ago, and legislation to shore up those biosecurity failings and breaches is still yet to pass this parliament. We have a precedent where imported prawns infected Australian wild prawns and prawn farms. The Australian wild prawning areas and prawn farms were slapped with a ban. Meanwhile, the ban on the very source of white spot, the imported green prawns, was lifted. In what universe does that make sense?

We must have a system that is able to respond quickly to biosecurity failings and breaches. This is why the government must prioritise legislation that will strengthen our biosecurity system. This bill was introduced into the House in March this year and received Labor's support. That was three months ago, and that's a lot of water under the bridge—metaphorically and literally.

Three months, however, pales in comparison to the length of time our farming families have waited for the government to take any meaningful action towards long-term drought reform. More than four years ago, Labor supported the government's Farm Household Support Bill. This was the product of a 2013 Standing Committee on Primary Industries—otherwise known as SCoPI—meeting which continued to commit to the previous Labor government's commitment to provide a new, nationally agreed approach to drought. It's now 2018. The intergovernmental agreement on drought reform, of which farm household support is part, will expire on 1 July this year. That is literally days away, yet our farming families wait for a plan that is fit for the future. The Prime Minister and his colleagues must park their self-interests and put the ordinary folk of Australia ahead of the select few at the top end of town. We must insist that this government that seems increasingly out of touch put the interests of ordinary Australians front and centre.

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