Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also on the issue of fresh pineapple imports coming into this country and in support of Senator Boswell's comments. Before I start, I will just let everybody know who is listening to this that the importation risk of disease with these pineapples has been assessed at two per cent. I would have thought any percentage likelihood was too much.

This inquiry is one of the many on the proposed importation of produce into Australia that has looked at the quality, rigour and scientific assessment of the reviews undertaken by DAFF Biosecurity. Over the past year, I have been involved in a number of inquiries, including the effect on Australian growers from importing fresh ginger from Fiji, apples from New Zealand, most recently one about potatoes, also from New Zealand, and this one, of course, about fresh pineapples from Malaysia.

As I had a look back through the archives, there were a number of other similar inquiries that were conducted before my time here, such as the ones into the Asian honey bee, Chinese apples and the US cherry trade. This has been omnipresent in this environment over the last few years. It is probably time the minister should be pricking up his ears. In April this year, the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee handed down its report into our broad look at Australia's biosecurity and quarantine arrangements. Needless to say there were a number of areas identified for improvement, yet we have not heard much from the minister or his department on those recommendations.

There is a common theme running through most of these inquiries. The growers, producers and farmers in their respective markets, in conjunction with the scientific community, are at odds with the findings of most import risk assessments and other reviews undertaken by DAFF Biosecurity. If it were on one particular disease or pest or risk incursion then you might just think it was the apple, grape, grain, pear or whatever industry you were talking about just being protectionist. But when it is one inquiry after the other, where the main issue seems to be scientific credibility, rigour and validity of DAFF Biosecurity's assessments then you have to wonder what is really going on. Are the policies serving us well?

This leads me to ask whether we are providing the appropriate level of protection for the Australian farming industry against pests and disease. I would like to think that I was flying a flare for the minister to have a look at these issues and to scrutinise why the department is coming under such attention from the very important farming sectors of the Australian rural communities.

Interestingly, under our current system, the minister has no role to play in the final approval process for food importation into this country. There is only a requirement for him to be kept informed. In addition, the minister has no power to overrule the decision made by the Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine, who has the final say on whether pineapples are allowed to be imported into Australia.

Through the course of this inquiry, the committee was seeking independent advice regarding the use of the risk estimation matrix which has been a source of significant contestation between growers, scientists and Biosecurity. Before I hand over to my colleague Senator Macdonald, from Queensland, who knows more about pineapples than I will ever dream about, as does my colleague Senator Boswell, who spoke earlier, I would like to point out to the minister that the calls from the various farming industries about inappropriate risk assessment regimes by DAFF Biosecurity in this country, combined with little or no right of appeal for farmers, have to be addressed by him in his role as the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. I call on him to walk a mile in the shoes of pineapple, potato, apple and ginger growers. He must intervene to stop the increasing number of exposed farming industries crying foul on what they are calling expedient and foolish import approvals.