Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Biosecurity Amendment (Strengthening Biosecurity) Bill. Obviously, this is something that is very close to my heart, coming from regional Western Australia and being concerned for the agricultural industry. Successful biosecurity arrangements are one of the pillars that will enable agriculture to meet its growth targets over the next decade. We on this side are extraordinarily happy to support measures that do increase those protections, particularly for our agricultural community, and to see a constant evolution. This is a constant battle.

We like the fact that people move, we like the fact that people can travel and we like the fact that trade can occur between nations. These are good things. They are a positive for our nation and for other nations. But as population flows and trade flows increase, they also leave our environment and our agricultural producers at risk of biosecurity threats. Obviously, we've seen that very starkly revealed over the last six months with foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease being found in our near neighbour Indonesia. It is a constant battle to make sure that our systems and processes and the structures of our regulatory regime keep up with the constantly increasing pressure on those systems, so we do need to keep a watching brief on this. This isn't something you can set and forget, so we do welcome the government's introduction of these measures.

We particularly support the bill because it allows for new measures to manage biosecurity risk coming from travellers. As I said, this is very important because of the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia and the risk of that disease finding its way into Australia, which would obviously be absolutely devastating for agricultural producers. The bill expands pre-arrival reporting requirements for aircraft and vessels. Getting people to think about biosecurity is one of the key tasks. If people think about it they will act appropriately. If they don't think about it, there's always the risk that things will slip through. It allows for better information sharing with government agencies and other bodies. It raises civil and criminal penalties for breaches. Again, if people are aware there are penalties involved, they will behave more carefully. It increases transparency around the process. It increases efficiency and transparency of expenditure on biosecurity programs, and improves the operation of provisions relating to the approval arrangements and compensation. As I said, these are common-sense measures. They have our support and they certainly have the backing of the agricultural industry.