Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Quarantine Charges (Imposition—General) Bill 2014 and the other bills in this cognate debate and also in support of the amendment put by the member for Hunter, who is Labor's spokesperson for agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Agriculture is absolutely critical to our future as a country. I represent a regional and rural seat in South-East Queensland and, as a federal member in my third term, I have seen firsthand and from personal experience the importance of food security and agriculture to our economy. Labor, in government and in opposition, has been committed to guaranteeing the long-term productivity and sustainability of Australia's agriculture, fishery and forestry industries; we think this is crucial.

The agricultural sector contributes about $38 billion annually in export dollars and about $47.3 billion to the gross value of production, so this is an important sector for our economy. We face challenges in areas of biosecurity. We need a biosecurity system that protects the health of all Australians. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. We have a wonderful natural environment which faces the challenges of floods, droughts and fire, so we need a biosecurity system that makes sure that we have competitive agricultural, farming, fishery and forestry sectors.

We also face the challenge of agri-terrorism and the risk of climate change and the challenges that it brings. We have also seen the risks of pests and disease status challenge us. We have a competitive advantage in this country when exporting to world markets because other countries recognise our pest and disease control status. We expect our exporters to be treated fairly under the World Trade Organisation rules and, in turn, we also expect our trading partners to be treated fairly. We have real and legitimate concerns about our biosecurity.

We saw the challenges that that brought to our economy in the agricultural and farming sectors, particularly in equine industries in the last few years. There was devastation in not just one part of Australia but whole areas, and that created a challenge for those people who work in the horse industry, particularly those who keep horses not just for sporting activities but also for use in agriculture. I represent an area where the racing industry is important, particularly to Ipswich. The Ipswich Cup is the most visited regional race day in the country. It brings a huge amount of money into the Ipswich economy, so the equine industry is very important for Ipswich and its surrounds.

This legislation is important, and it comes about because of the Beale report. The review panel, chaired by Roger Beale AO, presented a pretty far-reaching and comprehensive blueprint for a stronger biosecurity system. Now in opposition, we are calling on the government to carry out a number of things which we think are important, and the member for Hunter has raised them. We had some legislation on the table and asked the government to reintroduce the biosecurity bills to replace the Quarantine Act 1908. That was a recommendation of the Beale report and built on work we undertook in this space when Tony Burke was the minister for primary industries.

The Beale report indicated that our governance in this area was totally outdated—a 100-year-old act of parliament. So we introduced the Biosecurity Bill 2012. One of the other recommendations was that we needed an inspector-general—a peak organisation across this space. So we introduced the Inspector-General of Biosecurity Bill 2012 into parliament on 28 November 2012. It went to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry. The bills have lapsed and we are calling on the government to resurrect those bills. They are important. The Beale review was highly commended and its report, One biosecurity: a working partnership, is important. It has far-reaching recommendations and we call on the government to act on this.

This particular quarantine charges legislation before the chamber is basic. It covers a legislative package designed purely as a cost-recovery mechanism. Governments of both persuasions do this. It is important that cost-recovery in the industry takes place so that taxpayers do not foot the bill. It does give the power for the Commonwealth government to sell goods and vessels to recover outstanding debts and deal with goods and vessels that are abandoned or forfeited, and it provides an opportunity for regulations to be undertaken to make sure that taxpayers are not out of pocket in this area.

We are critical of the government in relation to this area, as indicated by member for Hunter in his motion. There is a voluntary retrenchment program across this space and we saw that announcement back in November 2013. We have seen a number of retrenchments. It was not about natural attrition; they called on people to take voluntary redundancies as part of cost-cutting measures. The shadow minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, the member for Hunter, has called on the government to reverse this and said that those job losses within the department would strike at Australia's front-line defences against introduced plants. We have seen that more than 500 public servants in the department want out, most of whom work in the agriculture and border protection divisions. So we are concerned that if the government continues down this road, our biosecurity safety could be at risk. We think the government should have a look at this. This is particularly concerning for us.

We saw the impact with equine influenza across the horse industry—not just for equestrian and farming but also for the racing industry. Through Senate estimates, we have seen some more concerns in this area as well. We think the government should look at this. The government do go on a lot about the fact that they are a government for all Australia, particularly for the regions. This impacts agriculture and they should really look at this. The facts and figures are clear, redundancies are taking place in this space. There is a risk to our reputation as a clean and green producer of food if these redundancies continue. We call on the government to look at this and to review this.

The Canberra Times reported on 6 March this year that the agriculture department is the latest government department to be swamped with requests from its workers for redundancy payouts. We think the government should have a look at this. We do not want to risk the biosecurity of this country. We support this legislation before the chamber but we have also put forward the amendment from the member for Hunter because we are very concerned about the job losses in this space. We are very concerned about the risk to Australia's reputation and the risk to the farming, agriculture and fishing industries of this country from job losses across the Public Service.

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