Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to say how tremendously important the Biosecurity Bill 2014 is. It is absolutely essential that it be passed to protect Australia's agriculture industries. Before I conclude I would like to put on the record that Australia's relative freedom from many pests and diseases is an extraordinarily invaluable asset to Australian agriculture, and it must be protected at all costs. Regardless of the fact that we have been left in a financially extraordinarily difficult position by the largess of the previous government and their lack of financial control, it is absolutely essential that we continue to fund biosecurity and to protect our Australian industries.

The intelligence gathering about new and emerging biosecurity threats is absolutely critical. As I mentioned in the earlier part of my contribution to this debate this morning, it is very clear that the increasing amount of movement and activity around the world, and the fact that we have become a global marketplace, puts continuing and increasing pressures on Australia's biosecurity systems. We must ensure that we are at the forefront of intelligence gathering to ensure that any new and emerging biosecurity threats are dealt with before they become an issue. This absolutely emphasises the need for pre-border activities designed to do exactly that. It is too late once the threat gets here.

However, one of the things that must be commended is the flying squad, which was provided $20 million at the election to have a fast and effective response to biosecurity emergency. Obviously the first thing we want to do by this legislation is ensure that we do not have the incursions at all and that we deal with them pre-border. But, if in the unfortunate circumstance we do have a post-border incursion, we need to be very, very quick to respond to it, as you would know yourself, Mr Acting Deputy President. The quick response to any incursion, not only rescues our industries, but will save millions and possibly billions of dollars for Australian taxpayers and obviously protects Australian industries. In the case of some of the industries in Australia, they face a lot of threats from our borders. We have a very long border and we have a very small population. The potential for incursions is alive and well every single hour of the day.

One of the things I would like to put on the record, which has been a very positive initiative of this government, has been the establishment and re-ignition of the National Fruit Fly Strategy, which is so terribly important in my home state and in the Riverland where I live. We all know that we have fruit fly in Australia, but there are hundreds of different types of fruit fly that exist in other parts of the world. It is absolutely essential that we prevent those fruit fly from coming to Australia so that we can maintain our reputation as being a pest- and disease-free country and continue to be able to access the export markets around the world in the way that we do. We are renowned for the fact that we do not have many pests and diseases, and people aspire to eat Australian food and to wear Australian fibre, and they want to continue to buy products from Australia.

In speaking on this bill today I want to emphasise how terribly important it is that we get our biosecurity settings absolutely right. Australia's future is going to be based, I think, very solidly on our agricultural industries, therefore it is absolutely essential that we protect them.