Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Cattle men and women in the electorate of Lingiari are calling the risk of foot-and-mouth disease one of the biggest threats to the cattle industry they've seen. I cannot understand why the previous government did not act on it before the election. This put the Northern Territory at risk. Indonesia is the second closest country to Australia. Diseases in Indonesia can jump to Australia so quickly. That's why the Labor government is taking this matter seriously. We must be prepared.

On this latter point, I wish to make a big callout to the Northern Territory Cattlemen 's Association and Territory pastoralists. The staff at the Northern Territory Cattlemen 's Association are working hard to support pastoralists and provide information and training to ensure they know exactly what they can do to mitigate risk.

There are 230 pastoral properties in the Northern Territory. The people who run them are super savvy. They are not the rough-and-ready blokes of the old movie stereotypes. These are men and women who are first and foremost business managers. They have farm biosecurity plans in place, and they have all the technology.

I want to make a big callout to all the vets involved. They are critical in testing and are ready to do a mass vaccination campaign if needed. I also thank officers of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for their important work with everyone in the pastoral industry in the Northern Territory.