Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I want to thank my colleague Senator Canavan for raising this important topic for debate. As we all know, maintaining strong biosecurity is absolutely critical for protecting our Australian farmers and the agricultural sector. Biosecurity cannot be taken too seriously.

Some of us here would remember the first few weeks of the Labor government in the last term of parliament and the major concerns with the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that we had to manage quickly. The Australian beef industry also had to respond quickly, because it's not us here in this place who suffer; indeed, it's the cattle stations and farmers across Australia that suffer when outbreaks occur.

Yet, with this latest decision, the Australian beef industry was blindsided by its own government's announcement last week. There was no consultation, but of course that's a common theme with this government, as we saw in the last term, and unfortunately we're already seeing it happen here and we're only a week into a new term. In fact, the government themselves cannot even get their story right with this deal. It's been well reported that the Minister for Trade and Tourism publicly stated that this issue had been directly raised with the US president in a phone call to our prime minister. If only there were a phone call that had occurred between the Prime Minister of this country and the President of the United States, but it wasn't true, and an hour later he had to retract it. This creates only confusion and requires us to ask the important questions to ensure the PM isn't throwing the beef industry overboard in order to finally secure that phone call or a meeting with the President.

Let me be clear: the United States is one of our most important allies, if not the most important ally. They are our strategic partner in AUKUS, a vital trade partner and a friend in an increasingly uncertain world. But, even in a strong partnership, we must stand up for our national interests. We must protect our beef industry, our world-class biosecurity standards and, indeed, the livelihood of our precious farmers. Being a reliable ally doesn't mean being a pushover in the hopes of a handshake in Washington.

Once again, Labor is making decisions that will hurt Australian agriculture, exactly like the reckless live sheep export ban, which is impacting farmers in my home state of Western Australia. They're abandoning hardworking farmers and regional communities without a credible plan for the future. Labor's contradictions are mixed messages and they risk undermining not just our beef industry but also our credibility with international partners. We cannot afford to look this disorganised on the world stage, especially when our own farmers are asking why we'd import something they never asked for.

I think that on these debates we should always listen to those who are on the very front line. Australian Black Angus beef producer Robert McKenzie said, on ABC Radio National:

All it is is just playing in the hand of the US and bending over and giving up and not looking after our biosecurity.

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Our appetite for US beef isn't there. We exported last year 1.3 million tonne of beef back to the US. So why would we want to import US beef that potentially is still, well, we don't know whether it's going to be US beef, we don't know whether it's going to be Canadian beef, we don't know whether it's going to be Mexican beef. Why would we take that risk, bring it into Australia when clearly we don't want it?

These concerns are the concerns of Australian farmers. We need to listen to them and understand exactly why this is happening.

This is why we're pushing for a review into this decision. It may be sound, but let's get to the bottom of it. The government must give the Australian beef industry and our farmers the confidence that there is a plan in place to manage any emerging biosecurity risk with this new deal. We simply cannot rely on US biosecurity measures. We must be proactive and protect our industry and our farmers as a priority. The greatest risk is rushing this deal and not ensuring that we have the appropriate biosecurity protections in place. So we're calling for an independent review into this decision to ensure that we're getting it right for the Australian beef farmers. It's not a big ask. Irrespective of country of origin, it will end up being the Australian consumer who will dictate what they purchase: Australian beef or beef from the United States. Well, we all know that it's important to get this right. A simple inquiry into this would absolutely be a sensible and essential thing to do.