Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—The Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Legislation Amendment (Export Control and Quarantine) Bill 2006 amends the Export Control Act 1982 and the Quarantine Act 1908. Both of these acts are crucial to the regulation of Australia’s international trade in food and agricultural products. The key amendments to the Export Control Act create new offences relating to the preparation of goods for export and ensure that the act has sufficient authority to enable the regulation of the sourcing of fish intended for export. These amendments enhance the capacity of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to maintain market access for Australia’s agricultural and food exports. The amendment to the Quarantine Act clarifies the cost recovery arrangements from other Commonwealth bodies for quarantine services provided by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.

I thank members who have spoken on this bill: the member for Capricornia, the member for New England, the member for Batman and the member for Lyons. The member for Capricornia certainly mentioned the need for the highest standards in food preparation along our supply chain and emphasised the importance of that. The member for New England—and I thank him for supporting the legislation—related many of his comments and remarks to the risks associated with imports. That is not what this bill is about, but they are important debates, I appreciate, in his own area. The member for Batman gave rousing support for the forest industry, and I thank him for that. The member for Lyons made the important point that this gives our producers confidence that in our own exports to other countries we are exporting food products that are all that we have declared them to be.

This bill is about preserving the integrity of our export chain. Those are key and critical things that we need to be aware of and that this bill will strengthen and enhance. I will conclude with a good example. In today’s Land it was noted that we will now see an easing of the quarantine requirements for Australian tomatoes imported into New Zealand—two million of which were exported to New Zealand between 2002 and 2004—because during that time there were no shipments in which fruit fly was detected. So New Zealand has now decided to reduce the number of inspections, reduce dip-sampling requirements and remove the requirement to label individual pallets of tomatoes being inspected. I think that is a good example of how overseas countries can have confidence in AQIS and our own supply chain. That confidence will be further strengthened by the provisions of this bill.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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