David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of the chair, Senator Heffernan, I present an interim report of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee on fresh pineapple imports. I move:

That the time for the presentation of the final report of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee on its inquiry into fresh pineapple imports be extended to 29 November 2012.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I moved the original motion for the committee to report by 10 October 2012. We have had quite a number of meetings and discussions, which have led to the committee needing more time to get some further information. This has led to Senator Bushby asking for that extension of time to 29 November.

The pineapple industry, like many rural industries—and we heard this from the previous speaker—is under pressure. I can recall when the pineapple industry had 800 growers and I was the sort of in-house senator for Golden Circle when it was a cooperative. I spent a great number of hours over there trying to help them in many ways. But unfortunately, like a lot of rural industries, it has been under pressure and the 800 growers are now down to 80 growers—and it is the big growers who are left. They are facing the normal problems from imports and the high dollar. Also, the land that the pineapples are grown on is coastal land. It is very valuable, and it is being sold off to various people for hobby farms and so forth. These growers are rocking on a critical mass, and if they lose any more growers then the critical mass goes and they will not be able to sustain the industry.

There has been a request to bring in pineapples from Malaysia. There is a disease in Malaysia called pineapple strain. This disease started in Malaysia and has jumped to Brazil, Costa Rica and Hawaii. Now we are importing these pineapples and this disease into Australia. A scientist called Glen Taniguchi from the University of Hawaii, who is an expert on pineapples, said that the risk from bringing these pineapples into Australia is high, but the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said that that risk is low. The expert from Hawaii said that at any time, depending on the weather situation, there can be from five per cent up to 40 per cent disease present in pineapples and that it is undetectable. DAFF said, 'Yes, you will import diseased pineapple.' DAFF then made the assumption that this disease will not jump and get into our pineapple farms. But once it is in, it is in. There is no way that you can get it out. There are pineapple farms in very close proximity to Brisbane—maybe 15 or 20 miles. They are all around Caboolture. My argument is: if a disease can jump from Malaysia to the Philippines, to Brazil, to Costa Rica and to Hawaii, why can't it jump from Brisbane to Caboolture, which is about 20 miles away? There needs to be much more research done on this issue.

During the hearings, Mr Derek Lightfoot, the Director of Tropical Pines, who has expertise in risk assessment gained from a background in one of the top four accounting firms, questioned the matrix. The matrix is the way that you multiply out the risk assessment. The matrix is the multiplier effect of all the risk. You multiply all the risk and it comes out good, bad or indifferent. In his view, the matrix is throwing up the wrong level of assessment. He believes that the risk assessment matrix used by DAFF Biosecurity is at odds with the normal, standard matrix. The risk matrix used by DAFF has a bias towards a low-risk result. Nine out of 36 possible outcomes are above low risk—only nine out of the 36. So I made inquiries about this matrix. This matrix is used in every assessment. If the matrix is wrong then we are assessing everything wrongly. The committee has asked for a reassessment of the matrix, for an expert to check this matrix out.

What we have in Australia at the moment is DAFF as the sort of judge, jury and executioner. It is very difficult to question their evidence because they virtually ignore it.

So the committee has sought independent expert advice to see whether this matrix does perform the way it should. If that independent expert advice says the matrix is good, it is throwing up the right answers to the multiplication of the risk assessment, we have challenged it and it has come up okay. If it has not then it is going to make a difference in the assessment of imports going through Australia.

We are facing the import of potatoes, we are facing the import of ginger and we are facing the import of pineapples from Malaysia. At this stage there are huge problems with these minor industries like pineapple, ginger and potatoes. Of course, we have got to accept that we are a free trading nation and if we sell millions and billions of dollars' worth of product overseas, we have got to accept a few potatoes in, but we also have got to be very careful.

Never in Australia's history, I believe, has primary industry been under so much threat. Everything is starting to stack up against it. New Zealand has an application to bring potatoes in and we trade freely with New Zealand. But they have a tremendous advantage over us—the dollar is so high, it is almost impossible to sell anything. Then we have the IR rules and the rates of payment all stacked against the Australian grower.

We are seeing a lot of the farms going overboard. A lot of people are getting out. As I said, we have gone from 800 growers to 80—and it is the big growers remaining, the 400-acre growers. Once our industry gets below a critical mass level then you cannot sustain it. There are only about 45 ginger growers. They run a big factory up there and employ a lot of people.

They want to bring ginger in from Fiji. All right, but Fiji does not even have a government. Why are we bending the knee to Fiji? I can understand from New Zealand and places like that, but if someone turns up at the parliament and says, 'I am the government,' then he is the government in Fiji. I do not know why we have to bend the knee on free trade there. We can say what we like about the Fijian AQIS assessment, but it is not going to work. Those people want to sell ginger and they are not going to worry about a few niceties and whether the ginger has disease or where the ginger comes from. I believe DAFF is just accepting its riding instructions— (Time expired)

Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise also on the issue of fresh pineapple imports coming into this country and in support of Senator Boswell's comments. Before I start, I will just let everybody know who is listening to this that the importation risk of disease with these pineapples has been assessed at two per cent. I would have thought any percentage likelihood was too much.

This inquiry is one of the many on the proposed importation of produce into Australia that has looked at the quality, rigour and scientific assessment of the reviews undertaken by DAFF Biosecurity. Over the past year, I have been involved in a number of inquiries, including the effect on Australian growers from importing fresh ginger from Fiji, apples from New Zealand, most recently one about potatoes, also from New Zealand, and this one, of course, about fresh pineapples from Malaysia.

As I had a look back through the archives, there were a number of other similar inquiries that were conducted before my time here, such as the ones into the Asian honey bee, Chinese apples and the US cherry trade. This has been omnipresent in this environment over the last few years. It is probably time the minister should be pricking up his ears. In April this year, the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee handed down its report into our broad look at Australia's biosecurity and quarantine arrangements. Needless to say there were a number of areas identified for improvement, yet we have not heard much from the minister or his department on those recommendations.

There is a common theme running through most of these inquiries. The growers, producers and farmers in their respective markets, in conjunction with the scientific community, are at odds with the findings of most import risk assessments and other reviews undertaken by DAFF Biosecurity. If it were on one particular disease or pest or risk incursion then you might just think it was the apple, grape, grain, pear or whatever industry you were talking about just being protectionist. But when it is one inquiry after the other, where the main issue seems to be scientific credibility, rigour and validity of DAFF Biosecurity's assessments then you have to wonder what is really going on. Are the policies serving us well?

This leads me to ask whether we are providing the appropriate level of protection for the Australian farming industry against pests and disease. I would like to think that I was flying a flare for the minister to have a look at these issues and to scrutinise why the department is coming under such attention from the very important farming sectors of the Australian rural communities.

Interestingly, under our current system, the minister has no role to play in the final approval process for food importation into this country. There is only a requirement for him to be kept informed. In addition, the minister has no power to overrule the decision made by the Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine, who has the final say on whether pineapples are allowed to be imported into Australia.

Through the course of this inquiry, the committee was seeking independent advice regarding the use of the risk estimation matrix which has been a source of significant contestation between growers, scientists and Biosecurity. Before I hand over to my colleague Senator Macdonald, from Queensland, who knows more about pineapples than I will ever dream about, as does my colleague Senator Boswell, who spoke earlier, I would like to point out to the minister that the calls from the various farming industries about inappropriate risk assessment regimes by DAFF Biosecurity in this country, combined with little or no right of appeal for farmers, have to be addressed by him in his role as the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. I call on him to walk a mile in the shoes of pineapple, potato, apple and ginger growers. He must intervene to stop the increasing number of exposed farming industries crying foul on what they are calling expedient and foolish import approvals.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always an honour to follow in a debate two speakers from the coalition who really know what they are talking about when it comes to biosecurity matters. I am delighted that, back in June, Senator Boswell initiated this inquiry to have a look at the effect on Australian pineapple growers of importing fresh pineapple from Malaysia. Queensland does grow a lot of pineapples. We grow a lot of bananas, too, and I have to thank Senator Boswell for the sterling efforts he made during the time of the Howard government to get rationality into the debate on the importation of bananas, which would have affected the banana industry in Tully.

Whilst a lot of Queensland is the home of some of the very best pineapples in the world, I am particularly concerned about the impact of imported pineapples on the pineapple-growing industry around Central Queensland. By coincidence, on 26 October, Tropical Pines will be opening their new head office and packing shed in Yeppoon in Central Queensland. I am delighted to be going along and I know that Senator Boswell will be as well. We will be taking with us Michelle Landry, who is the LNP candidate for the electorate of Capricornia, which takes in Yeppoon and Rockhampton, in Central Queensland. I only mention this in order to say that the current member for Capricornia is always absent, always silent, when the interests of her constituents—for example, the pineapple growers—are at stake. I know that Michelle Landry, the LNP candidate for Capricornia, is one who will have the pineapple-growing industry in Central Queensland at the front and centre of her activities in the federal parliament when and if she is elected to that seat following the next federal election.

What Tropical Pines has done for the pineapple industry is fantastic. It employs a lot of people in Central Queensland. It is a very significant industry. In fact, Mr Derek Lightfoot, the managing director, gave evidence before the committee. It is very important that the evidence presented by people like Mr Lightfoot is listened to. It is no good just having these matrices of DAFF Biosecurity. You really need to have the understanding of people on the ground, people who make their livelihoods out of understanding pineapples and the impact of diseases, particularly imported diseases, that could devastate a very successful industry in Queensland.

There is a lot more I would like to say. This is only an interim report at the present time. I would very much like to make further comments, but I understand that there are senators who want to talk on other matters so I will confine my remarks to that. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.