Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure for me to be here to move this motion tonight that this House acknowledges that we have a strong biosecurity and quarantine system which is critical to Australia’s rural and regional industries, important to our jobs, to our consumers and of course our natural heritage. It is of concern to a lot of Australians. We have good laws in place to protect Australia from pests and diseases that are carried by overseas animals, plants and their products, and of course it is important that the application of Australian law continues to apply rigorously in Australia to defend against the external challenge. These are important issues. They are very important for our strong biosecurity systems and they are widely and deeply supported throughout the Australian community. In fact our need for strong biosecurity is one of the most fundamental and critical issues that people face day by day and it goes to the means by which people sustain their very lives. Last year the clear, unmistakable and very deep fear that people in the community felt in response to hearing—and all of us heard about it in our electorates—about the importation of beef that might have been infected with mad cow disease demonstrated widespread community concerns about such issues.

These issues were debated extensively especially in my electorate. One outlet for such public concern is often through media such as talkback radio. This issue was very prominent. It received great attention on the South Australian radio program of Leon Byner on FIVEaa. Not satisfied with simply airing these concerns about being forced to import these particular products or other similar issues of grave concern to members of the public, Leon Byner helpfully created an interactive website named Don’t sell Australia short and on this site members of the public can express their deeply-held concerns, or advocate for change or conservation depending on the issue. I would advise anyone that is concerned or has an interest in this area to visit Leon Byner’s Facebook page, which is called Don’t sell Australia short, which has had over 4,000 hits. While the issues do vary markedly from foreign acquisition to protectionism to industry deregulation, the concern is consistent in contributors’ calls for Australia as a whole, and government, to take action.

Australian governments have for a century provided the laws used to keep Australia safe from imported diseases and we have been very successful in this matter. But a good quarantine system does not remove all responsibility for quality control from the public. Ultimately, it is every individual who chooses what he or she will consume, be it imported beef product or local beef product, be it imported fruit and vegetables or fruit and vegetables available from local producers. Consumers have the power to choose what they purchase and consumers continue to face risks in consuming available food.

While we have a good system that we are improving all the time, mistakes do happen. For example, the Interim Inspector-General of Biosecurity released a report in November last year into the inadvertent release of two consignments of raw, peeled prawns by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. The consignments had returned positive results on tests for the white spot syndrome virus, a disease affecting prawns but which poses no threat to human health. Test results should have led to the prawns being destroyed or re-exported—and when I say re-exported, I mean sent back to their place of origin. However, human error caused the prawns to be released into the retail supply chain. This is one incident where our good system did not perform as it should have.

Improvements to the system to avoid the potential for human error are being undertaken. The Australian government’s work in this area continues. The government commissioned deep analysis of our biosecurity systems soon after coming to office in 2007. The Commonwealth agreed in principle with all of the review’s 84 recommended reforms and this government has been assisting our biosecurity agencies and helping to improve their systems, bringing them up to date, making them stronger and more thorough in the public interest. This work is ongoing, relentless and ever increasing, as it should be. I would like to acknowledge the huge task in which our biosecurity and quarantine personnel are engaged and on behalf of the Australian public give them every encouragement in the performance of their critical task. (Time expired)

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A strong biosecurity and quarantine system is critical to Australia’s rural and regional industries, jobs, consumers and our natural heritage. The 2008 $1.7 million Beale review into Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity systems found our border defences are significantly under-resourced, putting Australia’s economy, people and environment at significant risk.

It is important that Australian law protects Australia from pests and diseases carried by overseas animals, plants and products. However, the Labor government seems set to bring Australia’s biosecurity into threat. In July last year the ban on imported apples was lifted and the Australian apple industry has been left in jeopardy through flooding local markets with cheap inferior products from overseas that potentially carry diseases and pests as well as spray contaminants used in foreign agriculture. Foreign apples should have never been allowed into our country in the first place, especially as our apple industry is free of fire blight and is self-sustaining. This decision has the potential to devastate areas such as Batlow and Tumut, in my electorate of Riverina, the economies of which rely heavily on apples. That is neither right nor fair from a government that says it has regional Australia’s interests at heart.

But it is not just apples where Labor has weakened the biosecurity and quarantine measures. Now it is stalling on funding the eradication program to kill Asian bees. The Asian bee has threatened the industry over the past 20 years and now threatens to affect everyone—the honey industry, that is, and so many others as well. The Asian bee robs honey from managed hives, possibly causing hives to starve. This could devastate the pollination industry, which is responsible for $4 billion of production per year. Ninety-eight per cent of our fresh fruit and vegetables are locally grown and are now under threat. There is now evidence that the Asian bee displaces native bees from their natural habitats by competing for floral resources. This will do untold damage to our ecological biodiversity. The question is not what it will cost to eradicate the Asian bee; it is how much will it cost Australia if we do not eradicate this pest.

You just have to read the newspapers, watch the television news or glance at the internet to see the effects that weakened biosecurity and quarantine restrictions have on a country. Florida has been devastated by a bacterial plant disease that is destroying the production, appearance and economic value of its citrus fruits. Huanglongbing, HLB, also known as citrus greening disease, was introduced into America by a slip-up at quarantine that allowed an infected plant into the country. The citrus industry based around Griffith, Leeton and Hillston in the electorate I represent, comprising 8,500 hectares, is the largest citrus growing region in Australia. It produces about 200,000 tonnes of fresh oranges and juice every year, exports about one-third of its crop, with a retail value of half a billion dollars. Brazil and Florida have watched their industries dwindle because of this disease. I urge our government not to make the same mistake.

We stand here this evening to honour veterinarians and the wonderful job they do to keep our livestock the best that it is. However, if this government is already letting its guard down with food produce, imagine the damage that will ensue if they also decide to decrease the security within our livestock and animal imports. Already in 2007 we saw the devastating effects that equine influenza had on Australia’s horse racing industry. Veterinary surgeons suggested that the virus must have been transmitted between the two locations by human error. The New South Wales government blamed the Eastern Creek Quarantine Station and demanded that the federal government hold an inquiry into the biosecurity breach. No such conclusion was ever reached. Had it been worse the effects could have been far more detrimental.

The coalition has called on the Labor government to fund the Asian bee eradication program, and we have still not had a response from the minister in relation to it. The government should be protecting industries it is sworn to represent that help to keep the heart of Australia beating. Zebra chip in potatoes, bacterial canker in kiwi fruit and fire blight in apples are just some of the potential biosecurity risks we face in Australia because of the substandard quarantine and biosecurity systems and the lack of specialist scientists in Australia to provide the appropriate rigour in our process. The failure by the Labor government to invest the recommended $260 million per annum into our quarantine and biosecurity agencies and upgrade their antiquated IT systems is crucifying Australia’s border protection efforts. Weakened quarantine and biosecurity measures may not seem much to city slickers but this will ruin the livelihoods of regional and rural Australians. And I can assure you that the people in the city will be up in arms when they can no longer access quality produce from heartland Australia.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to speak on this motion and I commend the member for Hindmarsh for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. Australia is not only a net exporter of food products but food and farm produce has to date sustained Australia’s balance of trade position, with a net surplus of $14.2 billion from our food product trade in the year 2009-10. In fact, Australia is the 14th largest food exporter in the world. Without food exports, Australia’s trade deficit would be unsustainable. An unsustainable trade deficit would in turn ultimately be disastrous for the Australian economy. It would also be disastrous for the Australian economy if overseas markets were closed to Australian produce because Australian produce was contaminated.

The farm sector employs and sustains hundreds of regional communities around the country. When farm production in those communities has collapsed because of natural disasters such as floods, droughts and cyclones the impact on those communities has been terrible. A similar demise of rural townships has occurred when the international commodity prices or demand for their produce has plummeted. International prices and demand are beyond our control, as are extreme weather events. Indeed, food production has always been risky. However, one of the most serious risks constantly faced by food producers is the risk associated with disease, pests or any form of contamination. I recall that a couple of years ago I was contacted by an Adelaide kangaroo meat export company that was facing a severe business downturn because its major export country, Russia, had placed a ban on Australian kangaroo meat over an alleged contamination issue.

International demand for Australian food produce has always been underpinned by the food quality standards of Australian products. The reality in recent times is that, in aiming to increase export opportunities by entering into multilateral and bilateral trade agreements with other countries, Australia has simultaneously increased the risks associated with contamination and disease, which in turn threaten those very export opportunities. Trade agreements open up new markets for Australian produce. Agreements in turn require a free two-way flow of produce and while we can ensure that consumer standards are enforced in Australian production we have little control over production standards overseas. Control is effectively limited to Australia’s biosecurity and quarantine system.

It is indeed a huge responsibility that is placed on that sector and it is my view that the agencies associated with Australia’s biosecurity do an excellent job. This was also the view of the 2008 independent review of Australian biosecurity by a panel chaired by Roger Beale AO, which concluded:

… Australia operates a good biosecurity system; indeed, one that is often the envy of other countries, given its comprehensiveness … and scientific rigour.

The panel, however, also acknowledged that the system is far from perfect and went on to make 84 recommendations, all of which I have no doubt would strengthen Australia’s biodiversity security system.

I was also pleased to see that the government has agreed in principle with the Beale panel’s 84 recommendations. The most effective way of minimising risk is to prevent the importation of food products where production standards are less stringent than those applied in Australia or where an outbreak of a disease not present in Australia has been detected. It is my view that the risks to the whole industry associated with importing a product from a country where that product has previously been identified as having a biosecurity risk associated with it justifies the banning of the importation of that product. A decision to do so by the government should not be subject to an appeal to or decision by an external body as was the case with the importation recently of New Zealand apples. Australia should always be the final decision maker in these matters. Australian producers can survive if one country closes to their product. But they cannot survive if the world market is closed to them.

Adelaide radio talkback host Leon Byner regularly raises this matter. From the public discussions that follow, I have no doubt about the widespread level of community concern over this issue. I know that many people in my electorate feel very strongly about this issue and would only buy Australian produce if it was clearly labelled and they could therefore make that choice. With respect to food labelling, I recently wrote to the parliamentary secretary for health urging her to immediately implement recommendation 41 of the recently completed food-labelling inquiry taking oversight of country-of-origin information from the FSANZ process to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Hindmarsh and I give some credit to the member, who has for some time been raising in this place and in other places such significant issues as food security, particularly in relation to protecting Australia’s food from biosecurity risks arising from the importation of food from other places. I start by making the simple point that I am a supporter of a country that engages in free trade with other countries. I think it has had and continues to have enormous benefits not just for consumers but also for farmers in our country. If we stop trading and start putting tariffs back on or putting restrictions on our products, the great losers will be our farmers and Australian consumers. However, it also has to be said that we need to ensure that we have a proper and strong biosecurity and quarantine system in Australia to protect our own domestic food supply and the great export opportunities provided by our rural sector producers. We have a very strong and great rural sector in our country and we should be very proud of it. In my electorate we have some wonderful areas of rural production with exports of wine, grains, canola and the famous Adelaide Hills apples, which the member for Makin was talking about just a moment ago. They are the best apples in Australia.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don’t know about that!

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Riverina might dispute this but, of course, we have the famous Adelaide Hills pink ladies, which are by far and away, according to my children at least, the best apples ever produced. We also produce beautiful honey in the Adelaide Hills, and on Kangaroo Island too. We are very proud of the export-quality food that we produce.

Honey has been a topic that we have debated in this parliament in the last couple of weeks. In particular, we had ‘honey meets parliament’, which highlighted a national disgrace at the moment, that the government would not commit a small amount of money—I think it was $10 million—to ensure action against the Asian honey bee, which is such a risk not only to our honey production in this country but also to the pollination aspect given the importance of pollination in Australia. Not many would know that in the early part of Australian settlement we had to import bees from Europe to pollinate crops. We were running out of fresh food in Australia in the early 19th century because we did not have pollinating bees so we imported them from England to ensure that we had fresh food. Now we have this huge risk of Asian honey bees exposing Australia to enormous risk because they do not pollinate crops. The risk for our export industries as well as for our domestic food production is significant and for just $10 million we could prevent that from happening. I think it is a disgrace that the government is not investing that money today to ensure that happens.

The member for Makin referred to issues in relation to apple importation from New Zealand and China. Many in the apple and pear industry have great concerns about importation from both countries because of the disease risk. My view is that if we are confident that they are clear of disease it is fine because I am very confident that my producers in the Adelaide Hills will walk all over any competition from international competitors and from domestic competitors as well. But we need to make sure they are on a level playing field. A real concern that I have is that this government has not invested enough in making sure that we have a level playing field. Investing in the science, particularly the quarantine science, is good for our future; it is important for our future. There should be an immediate decision today by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator Ludwig, to invest more money in our quarantine system. We know the state Labor governments have cut the guts out of primary industries departments across the country, particularly in South Australia. It is not good enough. One thing that we can do arising from this motion today is invest more to make a real difference for the future.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the members opposite and I would be pleased to speak about apples if time permits me to because I am very familiar with the situation in Adelaide and the importance of the apple industry to the people of Adelaide and South Australia. In fact I have friends in the Adelaide Hills who are apple growers.

I was making the point when time ran out that I have written to the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Ms Catherine King, with regard to the food labelling inquiry report, in particular recommendation 41 which transfers the matter of country of origin labelling from Food Standards Australia and New Zealand to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The importance of that is that it gives the opportunity to the consumers to make some choices in the products that they consume which, today, is very difficult for them to do.

Clear food labelling standards are linked to this very matter that we are speaking on because, certainly, when it comes to biosecurity matters which people are quite rightly and properly concerned with one, of the steps that they can all take as individuals is to choose a product on the shelf for themselves. They can only make the choice that I suspect many of them would want to make—that is, to buy the Australian product if they have clear labelling laws. I would certainly urge the parliamentary secretary to take that recommendation separate from the other 66, I think, recommendations in total and act on it urgently because I believe it is a separate matter to the questions of the other information that people are seeking on food labels.

I want to come back to the importance of this whole issue of biosecurity and the importance of ensuring that products that come into this country are not contaminated and do not in any way, shape or form present a risk of any sort to Australian producers. I know that frequently free trade negotiations, which I referred to earlier, are negotiations and agreements that are entered into willingly by this country at the urging of the industry sector which, perhaps, is also the sector that may have the most to lose if something goes wrong.

I recall being caught up in the discussions and the debate about the importation of meat in this country some 18 months ago. At that time there was a real concern that meat could be brought into Australia from countries that had what is referred to as ‘mad cow disease’ detected in their herds. I am also aware that at the time the importation of meat from those countries was driven by the cattle industry of Australia who I understand wanted access to the opposite countries’ markets.

The reality here though is that if, when dealing with one of those countries, we import meat which for one reason or another gets through the system and is contaminated and then contaminates the livestock in this country then we risk the loss of sales to every country around the world. That is why it is so important that we ensure that we have a very secure system in place to make sure that we do not have any contaminated products whatsoever coming into the country.

The same applies to the question of apples. I recall meeting with apple growers in Adelaide with the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy at the time and having a roundtable discussion about that industry and their concerns. Legitimately, they were concerned because, if we allow apples to come in from a country where previously in this case, I think, fire blight had been detected and in turn fire blight gets into Australian apples then that will immediately diminish the value of Australian products when we are trying to sell to other countries.

Australia has a terrific reputation. Australian growers, I believe, are some of the best in the world. They have a terrific reputation around the world for the quality of the products that they produce. It is in our national interest to ensure that that quality is in no way jeopardised. That is effectively what this motion is talking about. It is about the importance of having a strong biosecurity system in place to ensure that we do not allow products that could otherwise contaminate our own to be brought into the country. For that reason I support the member for Hindmarsh’s motion and I commend it to the House.

Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.