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

Thanks, Senator Van. Again, this issue around a container levy goes back to that report that was delivered by Ms Craik several years ago to the former government. You may remember that at one point the former government promised to introduce a container levy, then they decided it was all too hard and they scrapped it. I notice that now they're promising to bring in a container levy, even though they weren't prepared to do it when they were in office.

What we've done instead is to focus on the charges that we know we are legally authorised to charge importers by making them pay the full cost of the biosecurity services that we provide. We are continuing to examine a container levy, but, as I've previously indicated, there are some World Trade Organization legal issues that we need to work through to ensure that we can charge a container levy. As soon as that work is completed, I'll of course update the chamber.