Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Watt, to questions asked today.

Well, today was a masterclass by a minister who has clearly still got his training wheels on. This is a minister who is way out of his depth. I've got a lot of experience with this man. For the last three years, whenever we've done interviews together, this guy has done nothing but throw smear and mud. He hasn't been able to answer any questions. We just got a long list of answers then from the questions that he took on notice yesterday because he is not around the detail. He is not around the detail. He doesn't take the livestock industry seriously in this country, and it's not surprising. He grew up in inner-city Brisbane. He went to a posh inner-city school. He's never gone any further west than the Oxley pub!

He knows nothing about agriculture in this country. And let me tell you: the livestock industry in this country is the backbone of this country. It's not just beef. It's sheep and it's pigs. It's cattle and camels, and also all the wild feral animals. So if foot-and-mouth gets out—we've got wild pigs roaming around out in the regions—this will be very hard to contain.

Of course, what Senator Watt doesn't realise—he likes to blame the previous government for not doing anything—is that foot-and-mouth only got into Indonesia on 9 May, but the key part of it is that it only got into Bali on 5 July. That is after Labor took government. That is a classic example of spin by Senator Watt. Now, as he just pointed out, 90 per cent of the traffic that comes from Indonesia is from Bali. So that is why the previous government didn't do anything, in terms of not having to do anything—there was no serious outbreak until it got to Bali. But when you've got travellers going over to Bali and coming back—90 per cent of the people coming back are basically not thinking of foot-and-mouth; you don't expect to when you go to Bali; that's not the first thing on your mind—Senator Watt tries to downplay just how serious this issue is.

Let me tell you this: if foot-and-mouth gets into this country, it will be very serious. Every farm within a three-kilometre radius of where a foot-and-mouth outbreak is diagnosed will have to have all of their livestock destroyed on the spot. And if that continues, we will see the devastation of our livestock. That is not a laughing matter, and that is something that Senator Watt should be taking more seriously, and we know that he's not because his good colleague here, Senator Ayres, pointed out that they took a long time to even have any foot mats. They didn't have any foot mats. So he's taken a long time to respond. He's only bringing on 18 extra biosecurity staff. That is not enough when you've got 90 per cent of 323,000—about 300,000 people—coming from Bali. How on earth are 18 extra security officers going to actually make sure that we trap foot-and-mouth in this country?

The other thing that I want to talk about is the fact that the Labor Party think that they are going to look after our youth. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Labor Party have a long history of destroying the dreams and aspirations of our young people. There's no greater example of that than the introduction of superannuation in this country. Right now, our young children who are on low incomes are having 10 per cent of their income taken from them. It's just now jumped to 10½ per cent in the last month, and Labor want to take it to 12 per cent. But that's not enough, because in a second term, if they get in, they're already talking about lifting it to 15 per cent. Now, I fail to see how that's going to help our young people deal with the cost of living. They are ripping money out of young people's pockets and giving it to their mates in the industry super funds and their rivers of gold.

This is why they won't do anything about the corporate sector either. It is because the Labor Party today is the party of the big end of town, and never ever forget that. They've marched through the bureaucracy. They've marched through the corporations. They love big business. This is the party of big business, and they've just been ripping the fees—over $30 billion in fees—out of hardworking Australians every year, and this is why they go paralytic whenever you talk about touching superannuation. It's not your money. You should give that money back to the young people and let them pay off their mortgages. But, you see, they don't want that, because the industry funds own over 20 per cent of the banks in this country. They want to rip off our young people both ways: through bank fees and interest and through superannuation fees.

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to make broad and wild statements about the questions asked today of Senator Watt. It's wideranging, yes, because having such a broad remit here is quite good. The first thing, just to be really clear, is the manner in which this debate has rolled on over the last two days. There has been the asking of questions and no sense of wanting to hear the answers at all. On the foot mats: it's very clear they were decided upon by the minister. They were announced by the minister. They were commissioned by the minister. And they were then installed. They were installed on Monday. The numbers given were appropriate numbers.

I think the entire approach here has been wild—I appreciate that the opposition may be suffering with quite a lot of grief at the moment, but the behaviour—

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're okay!

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Okay, that's lovely; glad to hear it! It's important!

The number of people returning from Indonesia since the outbreak was answered the previous day, and the updated numbers based on following questions were also answered. If you're actually looking for a genuine investigation of what's happening with this critical issue, then you should potentially improve your questions, listen to the answers and bring further questions on from there.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, a point of order?

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

She's not addressing the question. We're not here to get lessons on how to put questions to the ministers. If you could ask her to stay pertinent to the actual relevant questions.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the point of order, but I believe Senator Grogan is relevant. There's a fair bit of latitude in this part of the day.

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If we're talking about the facts here, we have introduced the toughest biosecurity measures ever used in Australia. We have remained calm and focused on maintaining strict biosecurity quarantine protocols to keep this virus out of Australia, which is what we intend to do, which is what we will do with the measures that have been put in place.

We have strengthened the biosecurity measures. We have a $14 million biosecurity package. We have deployed sanitised foot mats, as we've discussed. We have additional frontline resources at the airports and in mail centres. We have enhanced the mail profiling and inspections. We have added biosecurity officers boarding planes on arrival. We have increased the information flow. Everything is being done to make sure that this issue is being managed and that we will not have an outbreak in this country. We have the support of the major stakeholders, who also believe that we are dealing with this appropriately. So I don't think that there's room for the opposition to be looking at this situation as a joke, as a shouting match. There are facts here. The facts are fully available. We are taking appropriate action and this country will remain safe. Our relationship with our international friends and partners is something that the Labor Party has worked very hard on, and has made fundamental improvements in, in the last number of weeks since it took government.

I would also range to the issue of the questions from Senator Chandler around young people. At the point at which Senator Chandler started asking her questions, and all the yelling and shouting and heckling was going on, the entire gallery was full of school students. I'm pretty confident that the kind of behaviour they saw in this chamber is not the behaviour that they would be allowed to get away with at home or in the classroom. Heckling is something that goes on every question time, but not listening to the answers is not something that I believe we did.

I will also take you to the fact that when we're talking about the economic future of young people, and the situation they find themselves in, we have experienced a decade of energy policy paralysis. That is why we have got issues with our energy prices. We have spent a decade under the previous government with the wrong investments in skills and local manufacturing capacity. We have not boosted the jobs of the future. We have not invested in our young people. We have not provided them with appropriate training to build their careers and foster a positive future for themselves. This country, under the previous government, just totally put those young people aside and did not provide them with the opportunities that they deserve.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to continue taking note of answers given by Minister Watt. As somebody who has been involved in the agriculture industry all of my life and received hundreds of representations from farmers and graziers across this country every week since the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in Bali, I share the industry's concern about the politicisation of this discussion. I called early for greater steps to be taken in the response not because I was interested in a political outcome but because I was urged by industry—by farmers and by graziers—to provide a sense of urgency to both the department and the government. They were incredibly distressed about the impending risk to their herd and their farmers' and graziers' mental health and about the impact on consumers and on the cost of food.

We all know what the impact of both foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease arriving in this country would be. We don't need to continue that discussion, because it is too horrific to think about. When foot-and-mouth disease arrived in the UK in 2001, it spread the length of that country. Contaminated meat came in on an airline food tray and was fed to pigs. It travelled the length of the country within days. It got into Ireland and then spread with the export of animals to France and the Netherlands. This all happened within such a short time frame that the contamination and quarantine zones resulted in the destruction of six million head of sheep and cattle. The impact on farmers, butchers, truck drivers and consumers still lives with them today. It was desperation.

So the response that the opposition has had has not been, as has been suggested, a political one but one of sheer desperation in ensuring that the government is making a proportionate response to the risk. That is our job. Our job is to ensure that we represent our industries and that the response is suitable.

I have to tell you that it's now week 4 since the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in Bali. Indonesia is a completely different country because there are a lot more pigs than in other countries that you travel to and they are a superconductor of foot-and-mouth disease. It grows quickly and spreads easily amongst that herd. Also 25 per cent of the 143,000 Australians who travelled to Bali last month stayed in a private residence where the ladies who might be cooking for that family or that household might return from caring for their sick animals at six o'clock in the morning and cook a meal for the Australian family before they get on a plane back to this country at, say, eight o'clock in the morning. So the risk profile is very different. That is why the previous government, like this government, was watching the risks as identified by the department. But we are now in a different situation.

I acknowledge the measures that have been introduced by this government, but I do have to, once again, point out that it has been too slow. The foot mats that are in place contain citric acid. Normally contact with citric acid to kill foot-and-mouth disease or a virus like that would take 30 minutes. We are asking people to walk across the mat, shaking the dirt from their shoes, hopefully killing the virus as the dirt falls on the mat. It doesn't address the entirety of their shoe. It doesn't address the other footwear and clothes that they have in their suitcases.

We have also been asking that all food that comes into the country be dumped in big food tubs the way it is when going into the Northern Territory or New Zealand because that is a proportionate response to the risk to this nation. We're also flagging that the response and the money being spent, $14 million, on vaccines going into Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is not enough. It is not fast enough. It is not proportionate. That is the job we will continue to carry out.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy President McLachlan, this is my first opportunity to congratulate you on your role. I would like to take it. I was getting a bit worried about the lack of South Australian representation in this chamber, so it's very pleasing to see you in the chair. There are not enough South Australians in that central area of the chamber, I would say!

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for your kind words.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was really, really pleased to hear the sudden interest from the other side today in youth policy in Australia, particularly in the economic impacts for youth. I do wonder if, if the opposition hadn't abolished the Youth Advisory Council, if perhaps they would have fewer questions and more answers around what young people in Australia are thinking and needing and wanting from their government. I'm very pleased to let the opposition know that, under a federal Labor government, a thoughtful, detailed youth policy is back. We're going to have a new youth engagement model. We're going to have a fantastic Minister for Youth in Anne Aly. So, for all those questions which went unanswered for you during government because you abolished the advisory board, there's really great news: young people finally have a seat at the table again, just as they should.

Senator Farrell referred to me as a young person today, and whilst I don't take any issues with that—at the age of 35, it's nice to still be called young!—I will be respectful of those Australians who are actually within the government's definition of young. I won't speak on their behalf or for them, but I will advocate for their interests.

When this lot opposite were in government, we saw intergenerational theft, when young people were forced to raid their superannuation accounts during the pandemic—intergenerational theft targeting the people in our country with the lowest balances of superannuation. They were forced to raid that. Do you think they will ever get that back? Do you think they will ever catch up from that act of intergenerational theft? They will not.

Young people in Australia are doing it really tough, and they've been saddled with the burden of $1 trillion worth of debt from the former government. They were saddled with a former government who had stagnant wages as a design flaw of its economy—unlike the Labor government, which has already advocated for an increase in the minimum wage which will make a real difference in young people's lives. Young people bear the burden of failures of government more than any other group in our society. They have to deal with it for the longest. When I was elected to parliament, I made a vow to stand up for children and to stand up for young people, and that's exactly what I am doing.

I am so proud to be part of a government with fairness at the heart of all of our plans—with concern for the next generation at the heart of all of our plans. We never stop thinking about the next generation. We've got some great policies for them. We've got fee-free TAFE—what an excellent policy if you're a young person. There are 465,000 fee-free places, including 45,000 new places. My stepdad is a TAFE teacher. We've seen firsthand how amazing TAFE can be and the opportunities it has for young people from the dedicated and passionate workforce which delivers it. For those kids who want to go to university—we know university is not everything, but for some kids that's the thing which will unlock their dreams, their potential and their future—$481.7 million will go to deliver 20,000 extra university places. This is unlike the former government, which made it more expensive and more difficult for young people to go to university.

If you want to hear about a positive agenda for young people, I could go on more. I'll take an extension of time. I'm really pleased you're interested.

I'm so glad you're back, Senator Rennick! It's so great to have your engagement back. I think the only time I've been named in the Senate before was in response to an interjection from you, but I promise to behave myself this time. It's nice to have you back. I know it's been a bit tough, but it's nice to have you and your interjections back.

Young people can trust that our government will never forget them. In every way we consider and design policy, we take seriously our responsibility as custodians for the next generation. Our responsibility, our heartfelt belief which defines all of us as Labor people, is to leave this nation better for the generations that come after us. That is core to every single person who sits on this side of the chamber. It is our reason for being and our reason for being Labor. We care about the next generation. We will make Australia better for them, because we're in it for them and not for ourselves. It's great to have you back, Senator Rennick!

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry about that, Mr Deputy President. I was just enjoying Senator Rennick's interjections—which are always disorderly, I would remind Senator Rennick.

I too rise to take note of the answers given by Senator Watt. At the beginning, I will note the very thoughtful contribution of Senator McDonald. Like Senator McDonald, I too come from a farming background and, like Senator McDonald, I care deeply about the agricultural industries of Australia. As Senator McDonald said, we in this place are reflecting on the level of concern we are hearing from our agricultural communities that under threat from foot-and-mouth disease and lumpy skin disease and the response that is currently occurring.

Senator Watt was sworn in from 1 June. Yes, foot-and-mouth disease was present in Indonesia when Senator Watt was sworn in. But, in July, foot-and-mouth disease reached Bali, a full month after Senator Watt was sworn in. The number of arrivals from Bali to Perth in the month of July was around 17,000 people—17,000 individual passengers returning to Perth airport from Bali. From the evidence given and the dates publicly available as to when foot baths, foot cleaning, became available in the airport, there were two days of foot cleaning available in the airport. That means—and I'll be generous—that around 1,500 or, at best, 2,000 passengers had access to those foot baths. So we had 17,000 passengers arriving back in Perth in the month of July and, at best, around 2,000 of them had access to foot baths at a time when—probably for all that time—foot-and-mouth disease was present in Bali.

Foot-and-mouth disease was only detected in Bali, I believe, on 6 or 7 July. However, everybody knows that the presence of foot-and-mouth disease would predate the actual date of declaration. So we effectively had a full month, with more than a month of warning before that, of Senator Watt being the minister, and around 15,000 individual passengers returned on planes from Bali to Perth and there were no foot baths and no increased level of inspection. Anecdotally—and I know you cannot rely on anecdotes in this place; you need hard evidence—I have spoken to numerous people who went through the airport returning from Bali in that period who ticked a box saying that they had been to a farm, who ticked a box saying they had been to rural areas, and who received no additional inspection—no additional inspection and no additional precautions to take footwear out of bags, to examine it for dirt and to look for potentially contaminated products in luggage. So you had people doing the right thing and declaring—Australians care deeply about agriculture—and then nothing happens.

The other thing that worries those on our side is when you have a state Labor minister downplaying the serious threat of foot-and-mouth disease and saying, 'Oh, it could make milk and meat cheaper.' Have we heard one word out of the federal minister for agriculture on that topic? Have we heard one word from Minister Watt, the minister for agriculture, the minister who is responsible for protecting the agricultural industries of Australia? Did he repudiate that state Labor minister? There was not a word, and yet this is the state Labor minister who the minister said, in his own words, yesterday that he is relying on to manage biosecurity.

Question agreed to.