Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a world that is increasingly uncertain, when we see the rule of power overcoming the rule of laws, it is time to look at what we need to do as a country. I am taken by a phrase in The Art of War that says that preparation against defeat lies in oneself. We must look at what we're doing in Australia to make our own country resilient, to preserve our sovereignty. Sovereignty is the ability to make decisions without undue duress by others. I look at our food sovereignty. Our food and fibre are so important to who we are and what we are. How we are diminishing it—not by a single act, not by changing the rules all of a sudden, but by layer upon layer upon layer of different rules and regulations—is making it harder for Australians to provide quality food, quality fibre and quality products to our own people.

I'll take the seafood industry as a starter. Australia imports now almost 70 per cent—in the high 60s—of our seafood from other nations when we have bountiful seas, when we have bountiful fish, when we have all of these things that are going there. We are about to have boats and fleets that do not set out this fishing season, because it is no longer viable. It is no one thing. It is fuel costs going up. It is lack of staff to fix refrigerators on boats. It is training. It is legislation. It is regulation. It is all of these things. If we don't send out someone to catch a prawn, a fish, a lobster here, it's not that it's not taken; it's taken from somewhere else—places that don't have our same requirements, don't have our same registrations, don't have our same regulations. We are on our people, on our food and fibre, all the time to sign off on this, that and the other, but all we expect our importers to do is sign something and they comply. They aren't held to the same laws. They aren't held to the same standards. They don't pay the same wages. It is time, if Australia is serious, we protect our way of life and protect our food and fibre industries.