Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to call out good behaviour when I see it. Every single time the Labor Party—and there have been a few instances of late—chooses to adopt coalition policy positions and to put forward in this place legislation that we had drafted or that had lapsed in the last parliament, we're very happy they support that and know it's going to be good for our country. There's no other area that we can invest more in to protect our future prosperity and sustainability, not just as a nation but particularly for rural and regional Australians, than biosecurity itself.

The bill will increase protection from diseases and pests by implementing measures that manage biosecurity risks from travellers, including responding to the threat of foot-and-mouth disease being introduced into Australia through the footwear and clothing of travellers.

If the federal Labor Party had been more robust in supporting this legislation when it had the coalition's name on it, it would've been a lot easier for the now agriculture minister to direct travellers returning from Bali in June, July, August this year, with the threat of foot-and-mouth disease, specifically that they had to walk through those foot baths et cetera and a whole raft of other measures to increase our biosecurity and also decrease the risk of such a disease getting into Australia. Better late than never, so well done, Minister Watt, on finally getting this before the Senate. While this is welcome, it is worth recognising that it was the federal coalition who was calling for foot mats to be installed—and the NFF, I might say—at international airports once foot-and-mouth was detected in Bali, given the increased risk from travellers, and it was Minister Watt and the federal Labor Party who were standing up saying that wasn't needed and that people coming back from Bali were in thongs, so they didn't want to go through the foot baths, because it was going to hurt their feet.