John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I note that the matter of public importance put forward by the member for Lyne talks about the urgent need to shape regional Australia’s future, and that is actually very real, particularly now that that part of Australia is so dependent upon exports and the jobs that accrue to them. This is nowhere more so than in one particular industry, the meat industry. The industry is responsible for 50,000 jobs not just in regional Australia but around Australia generally, but it is obviously a crucial industry as far as regional Australia is concerned. In response to a question about the future of that industry today, I believe the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry misled parliament when asked about the government’s or his intention to withdraw the 40 per cent the Commonwealth puts towards AQIS’s export quarantine expenses. He said that the coalition government had intended to cease to fund that, and that is absolutely untrue. In fact, I asked him to look at the provisional forward estimates, which included funding for a 40 per cent rebate beyond 30 June 2009. So I wonder why the minister misled the parliament on that issue, because he certainly did.

This is a very big issue. We are talking about a time when not just Australia but the world is facing economic hardship, catastrophe—put it any way you want. Let us remember that regional Australia has based its wealth and prosperity very much around mining and agriculture, which are very much export industries. Sixty-five per cent of agriculture is exported. A huge proportion of mining is exported. So what does the minister do? He decides to withdraw the funding for the AQIS export program which government and industry had agreed should be funded 40 per cent by government and 60 per cent by industry. I am not quite sure what his purpose is. Why would he want to pull the best part of $40 million out of regional Australia, out of the 50,000 jobs that accrue to it? We are not just talking about the meat industry here; we are talking about horticulture and seafood, a very great proportion of both of which—probably half or more of the product—go to the Japanese market, which is so sensitive to anything surrounding quarantine, and therefore the program is needed.

At the same time, the minister is pulling out of Washington and out of Brussels the vet and the person in those two offices dealing with trade specifically involving quarantine. The two people in Brussels have, I believe, been told to pack their bags; they are finished. I believe that those in Washington have been told that they will cease on 30 June. The member for Lyne quite correctly talked about the urgent need in regional Australia for people who can help them deal with issues of quarantine and issues of dispute between Australia’s exporters. Taking away their support for exporting to markets, particularly to Europe and the Americas, is hardly the way to do that. I compare it to what the government have done to the car industry. The car industry employs approximately the same number of people as the meat industry. Its exports bring in only about a third of the amount of money that comes back into Australia through the meat, horticulture and seafood industries, yet just a moment ago we had the parliamentary secretary going on about what the government are doing for regional Australia. At a time of need, they are withdrawing their support in Brussels and in the Americas to help with trade and to help settle disputes and adding $40 million to the cost. I think they should be ashamed, and I think the member for Lyne was quite right when he talked about the urgent need which this government is ignoring and in fact doing its best to exacerbate.

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