Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. In response to the lack of response from the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry—I got nothing, zero, the inside of a doughnut—I asked why the government is targeting the beef and sheep industries. No response. I asked which agricultural industry would be targeted next. Nothing. I asked: will imported beef from somewhere be labelled correctly? Still nothing. So, when a farmer asks me about this, my response will have to be, 'No-one knows.' What a sad state of affairs.

It is of the utmost importance to understand the reason that the ban on the import of beef from the USA was put in place: because they cannot trace back to the farm any beef originating in Canada, which has mad cow disease, or Mexico, which has foot-and-mouth disease. The ban is absolutely essential for our biosecurity. Here's what we do know: foot-and-mouth disease could be an $80 billion hit to our agricultural industry. BSE, or mad cow disease, could harm Australians. Here's the quiet part out loud: it seems the Prime Minister is happy to sacrifice Australia's biosecurity to get a meeting with the President of the United States.