Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, I will. Fire blight will come into the country under this government, this regime. What do we call the regime? Big Brother No. 1! Under this regime fire blight will come in. Without being jocular, if fire blight comes in we will lose the apple industry. We will totally lose the pear industry; it will definitely be wiped out.

We got to this position because the Prime Minister of Australia went over to New Zealand and it just seemed like a cool thing to say. She was moved by the moment. She was moved by the podium. She thought, 'I've got to say something.' She said, 'Your apples can come in,' and then she walked away, to the smell of burning flesh. This is part of the crazy government we have.

I don't know; maybe if they have a change of leader they will change their position. I was watching the next contender for leadership—the former leader—sing the other day over in Perth. He was doing a marvellous job! He was being moved by the mosh pit! Apparently, he said that he sings like a cow. He was very tired. He asked the people whether they wanted him to sing. And I thought, 'There's my next Prime Minister. I'm feeling so comfortable about where we are! Things are looking A-okay!'

If we do not have a competent government occupying the treasury benches soon, on so many fronts—fire blight will just be one classic example—this nation is just going to start falling down around our ears. They have shown no competency. Whenever it comes to a test on biosecurity—we are not in the government; they are—they have shown no competency whatsoever in any way, shape or form on any of the major environmental issues and in the real environmental battles. There is not one thing that they can direct our attention to where they have shown a real interest in protecting the environment of Australia. They are very interested in the social re-engineering of Australia. They have been usurped by the Greens and have now gone down the path of almost profane economics that will put the whole of Australia at threat. But they are doing nothing at all to deal with the real environmental problems.

We have had so many issues and so many battles. I can remember postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome. Now it is the fire blight issue. We have had, in the past, governments that were actually competent. The brucellosis and tuberculosis eradication campaign was the classic example of what happens when you have real, fair dinkum people who get out and do a job and bring about a result. We do not have that with this government. What we will end up with is the destruction of a large section of the agriculture of the southern basin, because this government, backed by the Greens and the Independents, will be responsible for fire blight coming into this nation.