Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate, but I have to take Senator Colbeck’s claims to task. I cannot let them slip through. It is just not true that it has been an absolute debacle. It was a very emotive couple of weeks of hearings—I would not argue with that. A massive scare campaign has been put out by the opposition, but everyone out there has to understand that the government consulted with industry. With my background in representing transport workers for all those years, I do not see anything more credible than the government’s consulting with industry. The industry came and worked hand in hand with government to see how the heck we could improve the situation.

In defence of the previous government, they were right to put the blanket bans on in whichever year they did that—you would remember the year better than me, Mr Acting Deputy President. They were correct to do that, but since then the science has changed. The science has improved. The science showed that we could import meat from these countries. There is no argument about that.

I would like to spend a minute defending the standing of Mr Greg Brown from the Cattle Council of Australia, who came before us on a number of occasions. Mr Brown took a lot of heat from senators opposite. Some of the questioning from some of the opposition senators was very good, but some of the attacks on Mr Brown’s persona were nothing short of disgraceful. I know that it is an emotive issue, but Mr Brown’s being called a fool or being accused of not knowing what he was talking about and having his credibility carved up in a Senate hearing was nothing short of disgraceful.