Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

It is a disgrace. This outbreak occurred over four weeks ago. Whilst the parliament has not been sitting, there is no reason why there could not have been an exposure draft or a bill circulated, consultation with the industry about the terms of reference, and an explanation of why it needs to done in this particular form. I am not going to take issue with it. We have to accept the minister at his word. But had we had more time I think it would have been an interesting exercise to understand why it was being done as part of the Quarantine Act.

The inquiry being set up under this bill would potentially make important recommendations about the future of Australia’s quarantine arrangements. We are only debating this matter because there has been a serious breach of an existing quarantine arrangement that poses a serious threat to an industry that touches most people’s lives. The reality is that it is not the only circumstance of breach—it is only the latest of a number of significant quarantine problems that have occurred under this government’s watch. In the last few years we have had white spot disease in prawns in Darwin Harbour, black sigatoka in bananas in Tully, fire ants in Brisbane, citrus canker in Emerald and sugarcane smut in Queensland and New South Wales. Who can forget that Senator Bill Heffernan had his Christmas dinner spoilt after he found a carton of Brazilian beef dumped at the Wagga tip, at a time when Brazil was most certainly not free of foot-and-mouth disease. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, it is a very demonstrative list. These are examples of breaches we know about. It is a list that has led to considerable disquiet in sections of industry, particularly in our great agricultural industries, about the effectiveness of our quarantine arrangements.

That disquiet last year led members of the New South Wales Farmers Association, at their annual general meeting, to vote unanimously for a comprehensive inquiry into Australia’s quarantine arrangements. This followed a review of Australia’s quarantine commission by the association, conducted by respected Sydney barrister Tom Brennan. Mr Brennan found that there are structural flaws in our quarantine arrangements. Unfortunately, the Howard government chose to ignore the advice of the New South Wales Farmers Association and the Brennan report. Labor did not ignore the call, though, because we share concerns about the management of our quarantine system under this government. We have committed to establishing a comprehensive inquiry into all aspects of quarantine should we be successful at the coming election.

Part of the amendment I will be proposing later seeks to go to the question of how our procedures stack up against international best practice and whether they have in fact been followed. That is not in the terms of reference. I think it is an important term of reference. We believe it would provide a very sensible base on which to build the inquiry that we would hope to implement should we be elected to government. If the terms of reference are not altered, if the minister chooses to write them down even further, we still believe there will be some useful work that Commissioner Callinan will undertake, but we hope that the opportunity is there to look comprehensively at this issue so that we get it right.

The reality is that it is now more than 11 years since the last effective review into our quarantine system was undertaken. Eleven years ago it was a Labor government that did it. Former minister Bob Collins commissioned Malcolm Nairn to do that major review. For Labor and its primary industries ministers, quarantine was a priority. It was not just the reforms that Bob Collins initiated. John Kerin initiated some and so did I, when I held the portfolio. But the government, as usual, dropped the ball in this vital area.

The government has made a habit of ignoring warnings about quarantine, including at least one that directly related to equine quarantine arrangements. On 24 September 2004, the Australian Racing Board wrote to the former agriculture minister, Mr Truss, warning about quarantine risks associated with inspection protocols for imported horses. The letter from the board said, in relation to equine influenza:

If equine influenza gained entry into Australia, it would close down racing and other events for several months—

See this speech in context