Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to continue taking note of answers given by Minister Watt. As somebody who has been involved in the agriculture industry all of my life and received hundreds of representations from farmers and graziers across this country every week since the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in Bali, I share the industry's concern about the politicisation of this discussion. I called early for greater steps to be taken in the response not because I was interested in a political outcome but because I was urged by industry—by farmers and by graziers—to provide a sense of urgency to both the department and the government. They were incredibly distressed about the impending risk to their herd and their farmers' and graziers' mental health and about the impact on consumers and on the cost of food.

We all know what the impact of both foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease arriving in this country would be. We don't need to continue that discussion, because it is too horrific to think about. When foot-and-mouth disease arrived in the UK in 2001, it spread the length of that country. Contaminated meat came in on an airline food tray and was fed to pigs. It travelled the length of the country within days. It got into Ireland and then spread with the export of animals to France and the Netherlands. This all happened within such a short time frame that the contamination and quarantine zones resulted in the destruction of six million head of sheep and cattle. The impact on farmers, butchers, truck drivers and consumers still lives with them today. It was desperation.

So the response that the opposition has had has not been, as has been suggested, a political one but one of sheer desperation in ensuring that the government is making a proportionate response to the risk. That is our job. Our job is to ensure that we represent our industries and that the response is suitable.

I have to tell you that it's now week 4 since the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in Bali. Indonesia is a completely different country because there are a lot more pigs than in other countries that you travel to and they are a superconductor of foot-and-mouth disease. It grows quickly and spreads easily amongst that herd. Also 25 per cent of the 143,000 Australians who travelled to Bali last month stayed in a private residence where the ladies who might be cooking for that family or that household might return from caring for their sick animals at six o'clock in the morning and cook a meal for the Australian family before they get on a plane back to this country at, say, eight o'clock in the morning. So the risk profile is very different. That is why the previous government, like this government, was watching the risks as identified by the department. But we are now in a different situation.

I acknowledge the measures that have been introduced by this government, but I do have to, once again, point out that it has been too slow. The foot mats that are in place contain citric acid. Normally contact with citric acid to kill foot-and-mouth disease or a virus like that would take 30 minutes. We are asking people to walk across the mat, shaking the dirt from their shoes, hopefully killing the virus as the dirt falls on the mat. It doesn't address the entirety of their shoe. It doesn't address the other footwear and clothes that they have in their suitcases.

We have also been asking that all food that comes into the country be dumped in big food tubs the way it is when going into the Northern Territory or New Zealand because that is a proportionate response to the risk to this nation. We're also flagging that the response and the money being spent, $14 million, on vaccines going into Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is not enough. It is not fast enough. It is not proportionate. That is the job we will continue to carry out.