Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

There could be an issue where there is a threat to livestock or a threat to human life caused by, say, a virus where a cure involves a genetically modified organism which has not gone through the normal processes. That is why it might be necessary for the minister to move very quickly to introduce that to solve the problem. I would add that the idea of an emergency determination is not unusual in this regulatory context. For example, in the areas of the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority—they are complementary regulatory agencies—there is also an allowance for emergency determinations. I accept that there is always a risk in any of these contexts, but it really is only based on threats to human life, threats to livestock, industrial spillage and so forth. Economic consequences are merely a potential threat, but they are not used to assess an emergency.