Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not wish to take the question, Madam Deputy Speaker. Those opposite have not given any indication of how they would fund the 40 per cent AQIS export rebate that the member for Calare was talking about. Perhaps it is going to be thrown into the $70 billion black hole, or maybe the $11 billion black hole they had at the last election. As I said, they have cobbled together this motion to distract us from the fact that they did nothing during the 11½ years there were in power to address the failures in Australia's biosecurity system. And they have done nothing in opposition. They are a policy-free zone on this issue—not just policy-free, but funding-free, because they have not come up with any ideas as to how they would fund any of these sorts of things. Since becoming the shadow spokesperson, the member for Calare has not put forward a single proposal—not one proposal—for how to make AQIS's service delivery more efficient.Those opposite are not fair dinkum about supporting our initiatives for export certification reforms. Why? Because good policy is something that is entirely gone from their agenda. They have no interest in it. Motions like this clearly show that that is the case. We are doing work with the industry, and on 6 September—let's talk about the facts, not the fiction—Gary Burridge from the Australian Meat Industry Council and the minister announced a new regulatory reform for meat exports: the Australian Meta Export Inspection System, which would be implemented on 1 October 2011 along with, as I mentioned before, the $25.8 million in Australian government funding to support the transition to new arrangements. The industry supported it. AMIC, Gary Burridge, the chair of the ministerial task force, said, 'AMIC will work closely with the Australian government as we implement the new system.'

That is what it is all about. They hate the fact that people they believe belong to them are working with the federal Labor government. That is what this motion is all about. It is an attempt by the member for Calare to be relevant. They hate the fact that an industry that they feel should be supporting them is working with the federal Labor government. I oppose the motion.

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