Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government have really only got themselves to blame for the complete mess that they find themselves in in relation to the changed protocols for the importation of beef into Australia, particularly the relaxation of requirements for the importation of beef from countries that have had outbreaks of BSE. As we have said previously in this place, the whole process was conducted under a cloak of secrecy. The industry asked that the opposition be consulted; the opposition were not. The information was brought out during estimates hearings, when the government hoped that members of the opposition would be otherwise occupied. The government tried at all times to be clever, they tried to be secretive, but all they have done is create a significant problem for themselves and enormous concern within the Australian community.

It must be clearly stated that Australia is the safest place in the world to eat beef. For a long time we have had strong protocols and strong protections in place, and in some ways we were fortunate that we had already put into place bans on feeding feed derived from meat products to bovines well in advance of BSE unfortunately becoming a part of life in some other countries. We had made some decisions upfront which put us into a very good position. We had dealt with that, and, when the unfortunate outbreaks occurred, we were very well placed, because there was a strong level of trust in our beef products in overseas markets, particularly the prime overseas markets of Japan and Korea.

When the government made the decision during estimates in October last year to change those protocols, one of the real impacts was that the advantages we have in those particularly strong and important markets were potentially reduced. That is what this is all about: marketing and perceptions of the safety of beef coming out of countries that have had BSE outbreaks. We know that there were huge reductions in the consumption of beef in those countries at the time, particularly in Japan, which is highly sensitive to food safety.

One of the important things that Australia had going for it was that it had a good, strong record; it had traceability. The Australian industry had put through the National Livestock Identification System, albeit with some resistance from some cohorts of the beef industry, and it proved to be a very strong and valuable part of our credentials in those key markets. The government tried to be secretive. It tried to be exclusive. It tried to bring in a process that excluded this parliament from having any say in the changes, and it should rightly be condemned for that.

We welcome Minister Burke’s decision yesterday to conduct a full import risk analysis for beef coming into Australia from countries that have had BSE. That is what we said should happen some weeks ago. That is a position that the opposition has held for a long time. We welcome the fact that that is what the government has now done, but there is still more to be done. There are issues of labelling. We know that beef does not enjoy country of origin labelling as many other products do.