Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, the former minister has gone into the industry. The Callinan report into equine influenza found clear inadequacies in Australia’s quarantine system, best described in Commissioner Callinan’s own words. The opposition has not referred to this, but it is important that it is on the record. The former Justice Callinan said:

What I describe bespeaks an organisation that lacked clear lines of communication between those responsible for formulating procedures and work instructions and those responsible for implementing them …

This report is a scathing assessment of aspects of our quarantine and biosecurity arrangements, in particular for horse imports prior to August 2007. This does not reflect well on the previous government’s stewardship of the great Australian racing industry. Whilst there is no clear finding, Justice Callinan does make clear that the most likely way that equine influenza reached Australia was from horses imported from Japan.

The government’s response to the Callinan report was provided in a ministerial statement to this House by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the member for Watson, on 12 June 2008. The minister advised the House that the government had agreed to every single one of Commissioner Callinan’s 38 recommendations. The minister said that he would ensure that the government’s response was implemented in full and without delay. We appointed Professor Peter Shergold AC, former Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, to independently audit the implementation of the government’s response.

On 11 June, the Australian government, the Rudd government, announced that it would not levy the horse industry to repay its share of costs of dealing with the 2007 equine influenza outbreak. As the horse industry was not a signatory to Australia’s EADRA at the time of or during the outbreak, it would not have been proper to legislate retrospectively to recover the industry’s share of costs. In announcing this decision, the minister noted that a year earlier, in 2006, the horse industry had proposed to the Howard government a levy arrangement to protect the horse sector against the impacts of emergency animal disease outbreaks. Under the previous government, arrangements were not made to sign up the horse industry to EADRA and to establish the sector’s emergency disease preparedness. Whilst the intention at the time was that the horse industry and the government would share the costs for the response to and eradication of equine influenza, the Rudd government decided that it would not be fair to ask the industry to pay for those costs, given that they were not a signatory to the agreement—but we can have no more Pearl Harbours in the horse industry.

The response of the coalition is: ‘Let’s have another inquiry.’ In fact, another important part of the government’s response to the inquiry is already well underway. On 19 February this year, the minister announced a comprehensive, independent review of Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity systems, which is being led by Mr Roger Beale AO.

I congratulate the minister on his approach and his diligence in ensuring that the government’s response to the important issue of exotic disease outbreaks was comprehensive by ensuring that better arrangements exist into the future to protect the important horse industry. I commend not only the public heroes of racing but also the unsung heroes of racing, the jockeys, the stablehands, the cleaners, the barrier attendants and the members of the unions, who promote better conditions in the industry. I commend the thoroughbred owners, I commend the trainers, I commend the punters and I commend all of the people who have a share in a syndicate in a horse. And, to protect all of these great people, I commend the bills to the House.

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