Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Australia's biosecurity system is put to the test every single day through the arrival of travellers and aircraft into Australia, the arrival of cargo and vessels, international mail and parcels, and the unregulated movement of wild animals, the wind and the waves.

Strong biosecurity is essential to protecting over $90 billion worth of agricultural production and more than $5.7 trillion worth of unique environmental assets.

Strong biosecurity protects our people, our environment, our economy and our lifestyle from the biosecurity threats of today and tomorrow.

Unfortunately, there are still those whose actions put all of this at risk, either accidentally or, even worse, deliberately.

Earlier this year Operation Avoca identified one of Australia's largest single detections of biosecurity risk material.

Thirty-eight tonnes of risk material was detected by our dedicated biosecurity officers. That's seven shipping containers worth of unauthorised meat products, turtles, pigs' heads and smallgoods trying to enter this country, material that would have been harbouring foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, white spot syndrome virus or xylella—any of which could devastate our agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries.

As the number of international travellers and the amount of cargo continue to increase, so do the regional and global threats, including foot-and-mouth disease and hitchhiker pests like khapra beetle.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, noncompliance with Australia's biosecurity laws could have risked the introduction of new COVID-19 variants into our country.

This could have had devastating impacts or our public health and our vulnerable population.

It is high time to re-evaluate the current penalty regime in the Biosecurity Act in the face of such threats and consequences.

Our biosecurity system is strong, but to keep Australia safe, the laws that underpin the system need to remain fit for purpose.

This bill strengthens the Biosecurity Act to enable targeted intervention, better risk management and more proportionate responses.

This bill enables a more intelligent and evidence-based approach to biosecurity risks involving international travellers at our border.

In order to properly respond to risks, people must be open and truthful. We must make sure that penalties available under the Biosecurity Act are an effective deterrent to those who would knowingly provide false or misleading information.

With stronger penalties, in some cases up to $275,000, we better reflect the seriousness of breaches of the act and provide a more effective deterrent to noncompliance with biosecurity laws.

For lower-level contraventions of the act, the infringement notice scheme provides an effective method for managing noncompliance.

Last December, we passed legislation to create a new class of infringement for deliberate concealment of non-declared goods.

This infringement of 20 penalty units, or $5,500, is the highest ever and I congratulate biosecurity officers who have already started exercising it.

Whilst this was a big step, the current infringement notice scheme does not cover some provisions that are critical for the management of biosecurity risk.

These new infringement notice provisions in the bill address the current gap in the ability of biosecurity officers to penalise individuals and businesses whose behaviour is less serious but may still have significant consequences for our biosecurity.

Big or small, all threats can expose Australia to a significant biosecurity risk.

These changes in the bill complement measures in the Albanese government's 2023-24 budget to sustainably fund our biosecurity system for the first time.

For years we have seen independent reviews and industry groups call for permanent, dedicated biosecurity funding and greater accountability for how that funding is spent.

Biosecurity is a shared responsibility and so is paying for it.

The sustainable funding model recovers more than ever before from biosecurity risk creators, whether that be importers, international parcels and mail or travellers.

The model rebuilds cost recovery to protect taxpayers, increase the contribution from importers and ensure that biosecurity services to industry are efficient and effective.

Our sustainable funding model locks in higher and permanent biosecurity funding, along with a fair system to pay for it.

Australia's biosecurity system is recognised as among the best in the world.

This bill and our new sustainable funding model will ensure that we maintain our reputation as a supplier of safe, high-quality produce, while protecting our farmers, our economy and our environment from biosecurity risks into the future.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.