Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Before addressing Senator Whish-Wilson's question, I table an addendum to the explanatory memorandum relating to this bill. This addendum responds to the concerns that were raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee.

Senator Whish-Wilson, it was my intention to address these issues, because I know a number of senators raised them in their contributions, but I wanted to do it in the context of tabling that addendum. This is something that was requested by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, I believe, only yesterday, and they asked for that to be done in time for it to be considered as part of this debate. I thank the departmental officials and my own personal staff in my office for the speed with which they've addressed this issue.

You're right, Senator Whish-Wilson, there has been a lot of back and forth in the last couple of weeks—particularly between me, my department and the scrutiny committees of this parliament—about what are essentially non-disallowable powers that are being provided through this legislation to the agriculture minister of the day. As I have made clear to those committees, I haven't taken it lightly to put forward legislation which provides powers to a minister—which, for the moment, happens to be me but will be someone different at some point in the future—which are not disallowable by the Senate. Obviously, the usual practice is that powers granted to ministers, in whatever field, are disallowable by the Senate, to provide some sort of check and balance on the potential misuse of those powers by ministers.

I would point out that the existing Biosecurity Act contains a small number of powers related to biosecurity outbreaks that are granted to either the agriculture minister or the health minister of the day. So it has been the case in years gone by that this parliament has recognised that, particularly in the circumstance of a major biosecurity outbreak that threatens human, animal or plant health, there are limited circumstances in which the minister of the day needs to be given powers to act very quickly to contain an outbreak without the threat of those decisions and those powers being jeopardised by potential overrule, if you like, by the Senate.

Similarly, in the amendments that we're putting forward in this legislation we are conferring additional powers to the agriculture minister of the day, and it is in response to the recent threats we've seen, particularly around foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease. They are powers, for instance, to direct how passengers arrive in airports, what they need to do on arrival and the ability to put down foot mats or other protections at airports—the sort of measures that we undertook in response to the recent threat. But I can tell you, it was a pretty convoluted process under the existing legislation to enable those things to happen. And that was all in a situation where, fortunately, we didn't have an outbreak here. It was about the threat of a potential outbreak. If we ever were in a situation in Australia where we did have an outbreak of a serious animal or plant disease like foot-and-mouth disease, we would need to be able to act quickly and with certainty, without the threat of those powers being overturned by the Senate.

As I say, I recognise that it is not the norm for these sorts of powers to be non-disallowable, and that's why with this legislation we're confining the non-disallowable nature to a very small number of powers that would only need to be used in the most extreme circumstances. There are a number of other powers provided in this legislation that would be disallowable by the Senate, because we recognise that, in general, powers being used by ministers should be subject to oversight by the Senate. But, as I say, there are a very small number of powers being provided for in this legislation that—it is our view and it's certainly the advice of my department—may be needed in the event of a serious biosecurity emergency. My No. 1 responsibility in that situation, as the agriculture minister, is to bring an outbreak under control quickly before it spreads and before it potentially wipes out an entire industry. We need to be able to act fast and we need to be able to act with certainty.

As I say, I understand it's not what we see on most occasions—that through legislation powers are granted on a non-disallowable basis. That's why some of the other powers that are being provided by this legislation would be disallowable. The exception is a very small number where it's our view and it's the department's advice to me that they are necessary to allow a minister of the day to act very quickly to bring that sort of an outbreak under control.