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

Yes. You're going to be hit with a massive fine if you don't take our biosecurity framework as seriously as we do, and that's a good thing.

Those who deliberately conceal risk goods will face stiffer penalties of up to 5,000 bucks, so when you tick the card coming back into Australia and answer the question about having any meat products or animal products in your luggage, if you've stuffed the meat pie or the Hungary Jack's burger in your carry-on luggage, that's concealing meat products. That's going to be a very, very, very expensive whopper with cheese. It's going to cost you $5,000, and so it should because this is important stuff. Those people who aren't linked to rural and regional Australia and don't understand how important the livestock industry is to our national economy and particularly to local communities don't realise what they're doing. I hope that operators of vessels and aircraft will make the risk very clear to travellers if they think: 'Oh well, it's just a ham sandwich that I didn't finish. I'll save that for the bus trip back to Melbourne, the SkyBus because the Labor Party hasn't built our airport to CBD rail yet.' They're going to have to get on that SkyBus, and they think they'll save the ham sandwich for then. Don't—declare it because, again, that will a very expensive sandwich. For operators the increased penalties are up to $222,000 for an individual and up to $1.1 million for corporate bodies.

The remaining measures in the bill will simplify the process for making decisions, identifying prohibited, conditionally non-prohibited and suspended goods, or granting permits based on risk assessment. The bill will allow the agriculture minister and the health minister to authorise expenditure on biosecurity related measures to increase efficiency and allow more transparency of such expenditure. More effective sharing of information with government agencies and other bodies will be secured whilst ensuring necessary confidentiality. It will also improve the operation and provisions relating to approved arrangements and compensation.

Overall, these are sensible measures that the federal coalition will be supporting. Australia's biosecurity system is a crucial pillar in our national defence, helping us to prepare for, protect against and respond to risks to our environment, economy and way of life. Our nation has enjoyed a reputation for clean, healthy and disease-free agricultural production systems through our natural advantage of geographic isolation. This is also giving our producers an edge in a very competitive international environment, and this rock-solid reputation is not something we should ever put at risk. We need a strong biosecurity system because in 2020 Australia's environmental assets were valued at a staggering $5.7 trillion over the next five decades, and they cannot be replaced. We are a unique nation, a continent with a unique flora and fauna heritage that is completely at risk if we do not keep pest and disease out. We also need to ensure that we protect our agricultural production, which is projected to reach $82 billion in 2022-23 and supports 1.6 million Australians in work. Those 1.6 million Australians can thank our fabulous agriculture industry for their job. The success and future prosperity of that industry is premised on keeping pests and disease out in an increasingly competitive global market.

Before COVID, tourism contributed $50 billion to our GDP. There are a lot of planes and a lot of vessels bringing people to our shore—all of them representing a risk to our biosecurity framework. It's important to point this out: the health of all these sectors relies on a strong, robust biosecurity system. The coalition is very, very proud of our track record when we were in government, because we made it a priority. In 2023 we made more than $1 billion available for biosecurity and export programs—an increase of 69 per cent from 2014-15. In government, we also increased fines for people breaking biosecurity laws. I was very, very happy as the minister to hand out a few of those to ensure that people who did the wrong thing were fined appropriately and are unable to return to our country within certain time frames for doing the wrong thing—for not treating our nation with the respect that it deserves.

Given the increased risks at our border with a major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia and the threat of varroa mite and lumpy skin disease, the federal coalition will always lend our support to outcomes that will strengthen our biosecurity system because we're a world leader. We commend the bill to the Senate.

(Quorum formed)