House debates

Thursday, 20 September 2018

Bills

Criminal Code Amendment (Food Contamination) Bill 2018; Second Reading

9:55 am

Photo of Andrew WallaceAndrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The seat of Fisher is home to around 20 strawberry growers. Horticulture and agriculture are very, very important to the Sunshine Coast. It is an extremely unfortunate set of circumstances that has arisen to require this government, our federal government, to act in the way that it has done today. Our federal government is acting to protect our agricultural sector across Australia, but, in particular, from my own perspective, in my own patch of Fisher. It is looking to protect strawberry growers and all of our farmers as a result of what can only be described as reckless and heinous offences which are being committed by people who think that this is some sort of a joke.

I call upon all Australians to remind each other that these are people's livelihoods that we are talking about. Strawberry growers like Rick Twist in my electorate have already really faced the economic pinch. It's tough enough to be a strawberry grower now in Australia without idiots going and putting pins and needles in strawberries to intentionally sabotage their livelihoods. These are mums and dads, brothers and sisters. They employ many people on the Sunshine Coast. For example, Suncoast Harvest strawberry growers in Beerwah have had to lay off 100 people as a result of this incident. It's not just the strawberry growers; it's the pickers and everybody else that relies upon those farms. If you think that this is funny, if you think this is some sort of a joke, law enforcement across Australia, the federal government, and the state and territories, will stop at nothing to hunt you down and to prosecute you to the full extent of the law.

The Criminal Code Amendment (Food Contamination Bill) 2018 increases the penalties for these sorts of offences from 10 years to 15 years. This government, our government, is sending a very, very strong message that it will not tolerate this sort of recklessness, this sort of criminal activity. I want to pay my respects and thanks to all those hardworking farmers in my electorate, like those at Braetop Berries, Strawberry Fields, Oakland Farms, Roy's Farm, and, as I said, Suncoast Harvest at Beerwah, and over a dozen other farmers in my electorate, who are now, as we speak, having to destroy their crops. So, if you have been guilty of this sort of damage, I'd urge you to turn yourself in, because we will find you and we will prosecute you. You are better off turning yourself in now.

I can't let this moment pass without identifying the cheap political points that the member for Isaacs tried to raise. At a time when we should be coming together on both sides of the House on this issue, he couldn't help raising cheap political points. Of course we are acting very, very quickly to look at and resolve this issue. Of course this government will undertake any reasonable reviews, given the speed at which we are rushing this legislation through. Of course we will do that. Now is not the time to be scoring cheap political points, and I'd urge those members opposite—for instance, the member for Longman, who I know will want to speak on this because this issue impacts upon her electorate as much as it does mine—not to be scoring cheap political points.

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