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

I would like to start off, if I may, with a very nonpartisan issue and, if the minister is able to tell us anything about it, I would appreciate it, and I think the beef industry would as well. There are reports at the moment that manufacturing beef exports to the US in recent times have been found in some places to be infected with E. coli. I think that all of us have a great deal of knowledge of the great length that Australia's process is to make sure that nothing leaves our country that has not been subjected to that test in particular, and that it is not accepted into the US without having passed the same strictures. I think that currently we are at record levels of export to the US in this type of beef. I am just wondering, in view of how important this is, if the minister has an update on this issue that he can give us? If not, okay, but it would be good to know, if there is.

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