Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that:

(a) the Australian banana industry:

(i) is worth $1.3 billion to the Australian economy and is the dominant employer in northern Australia; and

(ii) represents more than 540 growers and employs over 15,000 people;

(b) Australia, being a continent which until the 1800s had no farming, remains free of many of the world's most devastating vegetation diseases, including Moko, Black Sigatoka, and Banana Freckle;

(c) these diseases are found throughout plantations in the Philippines causing widespread crop losses and often producing a flawed, largely inedible product;

(d) these diseases will destroy Australia's banana industry and seriously damage our virgin, natural wonderland and threaten other food production activities;

(e) the US Department of Labor, the Centre for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), and the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) have all found significant instances of poor work conditions in banana plantations across the Philippines, including widespread child labour;

(f) the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is currently considering an application to import bananas from the Philippines, and has advised that it will only consider the risk of disease; and

(g) bad enough in itself, the application does not consider the need for imports, the disparity in environmental conditions, chemical usage, wages and the various other factors that fail to make free trade, fair trade; and

(2) calls on the Government to take immediate and decisive action to protect Australia's banana industry by ensuring that the:

(a) application to import bananas from the Philippines is rejected, due to:

(i) unacceptable biosecurity risks that will create real danger to not only Australia's banana industry but also to Australia's virgin nature wonderland as Philippine banana imports will be the vector of a myriad of diseases including Black Sigatoka, Moko Disease and Banana Freckle;

(ii) the economic impact of decimating Australia's $1.3 billion banana industry, specifically considering the huge social and economic impact on communities where bananas are grown;

(iii) the devastating environmental impacts of bananas grown in the Philippines that have vastly different chemical and pesticide usage and lower overall environmental standards;

(iv) the difference in cost of production including wages and working conditions, for example, the average wage of $50 per week in the Philippines versus $1,153.30 per week in Australia; and

(v) significant evidence of child labour throughout Philippine banana plantations, as reported by the US Department of Labor, CTUHR and EILER, with studies indicating that 22.5 per cent of households in banana growing regions have a child working in banana plantations;

(b) Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry immediately reject the import application as there is no overriding need nor demand for the imported product; and

(c) Government immediately introduce legislation that acknowledges our other international obligations including, but not restricted to, slavery, child labour and other unfair working conditions and wages, and environmental impacts including pesticide and chemical usage.

'The free marketeers have lowered the price of food in Australia by opening our doors to imports'—no, they haven't. The price of Woolworths and Coles has gone up 100 per cent in the last seven or eight years. That's the price of food in Australia. You not only did not succeed; you increased dramatically the price of food in Australia. You opened the doors, and what we have here is a gladiator. Send him into the ring. He says, 'Give me your shield and your helmet.' He says: 'Hey, wait on. The other bloke has got his shield and helmet.' 'Oh, no—it'll make you tougher if you fight without a shield and helmet.' The gladiator says, 'No, it'll make me dead.'

I'll tell you how many dead gladiators are out there. Citrus canker cost this country $427 million. That's from letting products from overseas come into this country. We had citrus canker, white spot, papaya fruit fly, fire ants, varroa mites in honey, hendra virus—people died—and avian flu—people died. What the hell did we get out of it?

You are paid to protect this country. If you saw the bloke in charge of the authority saying whether things can come into this country or can't, you would see an arrogant individual who is enjoying his power, knowing that it is to the detriment and at the expense of this nation—not only in terms of money but in terms of human death, the death of our economy and the death of nature. When you bring that product in from overseas it brings in bacteria and diseases. This was a country that never had farming, so we didn't have any of these diseases.

Just to give you one example, the prickly acacia tree has taken over 25,000 square kilometres of beautiful natural grassland—all gone, all flora gone, all fauna gone—thanks to the likes of the people in this place who keep pressing this free-market syndrome and obsession. What other country has free markets? In sugar, our farmers were getting $270 for 10 to 12 years. America's farmers were getting $700, Europe's were getting $700, Thailand was on $470 and Brazil was on $420—and Australian farmers were getting $270. So, who's free marketing? It isn't Thailand. It isn't Brazil. It isn't the United States. It isn't Europe. Well, who the hell is free marketing out there? I will now turn over to my seconder and very able colleague.

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