Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parkes for his interest in what is my favourite project in the finance portfolio. I know that biosecurity is paramount in my electorate of Riverina and I certainly know that being a neighbour of one of my favourite members of parliament, the member for Parkes, how important it is in his part of the world.

I am delighted to inform the member for Parkes that the Post Entry Quarantine facility remains on budget and on schedule. We do a lot of interesting things in Finance, and a lot of important things in the national interest; but this project, as I say, is a favourite of mine, because when it is completed, the facility will manage risks which are very real for the food and fibre growers, the primary producers, in my electorate, in the electorate of Parkes and indeed all over Australia. The Post Entry Quarantine facility will be a laboratory, it will be a hospital and it will be a jail for equines, canines and felines to name just a few.

It is being designed to be functional now and to allow the potential for expansion into the future. It is being constructed with the sharp eye and the safety of several hundred people working on site. It will leverage the possibilities that consolidating quarantine experts on the one site will create.

Construction commenced in April 2014; the Minister for Agriculture and I marked the occasion with a ceremonial sod turning on 1 May 2014. The facilities will be delivered, tested and become operational progressively from the end of 2015 to 2018. Progressive completion of phase 1 facilities during 2015 includes the plant facility, administration building, horse compounds and facilities for bees, cats and dogs.

Phase 1 will essentially allow the facility to start operation and then phase 2 will focus on expanding capacity at the site. Once completed it will consolidate five existing plant and animal quarantine facilities into a single integrated site on Donnybrook Road, Mickleham, in Victoria—your state, Deputy Speaker Henderson, as member for Corangamite. This new site is a significant investment in Australia's biosecurity system, which is critically important to maintaining our unique animal and plant health status. At a cost of $379.9 million this new modern facility does not come cheap, but I am on record as commending the previous government for committing to the project—one of its rare sensible moments.

Something that was not so sensible was the original funding profile, which effectively defunded the project in 2015-16. But in the 2014-15 MYEFO, the government rephased funding for the project to better align with the contractor's ability to progress work on the site. Under the original profile, work would effectively have to stop in 2015-16 and then ramp back up again. By restoring a more sensible funding profile, a number of facilities at the site will be available earlier than previously planned and should enable a smooth transition from existing facilities to the new site for the Department of Agriculture.

Keeping the project on budget and on schedule is no easy task, particularly when you consider its sheer scale and sheer complexity. At the end of May 2015, 18 kilometres of electrical services had been installed, bulk earthworks of 220,000 cubic metres had been undertaken and 43,000 square metres of road or asphalt had been constructed. It is a huge project, and unlike a tunnel or a skyscraper, which is a linear build going straight along or straight up, this project has discrete and unique facilities being constructed across a vast plain with numerous different trades working concurrently. I am also delighted to be able to inform the member for Parkes that in July 2015 the project will achieve a significant construction milestone by clocking up one million person hours worked on the project. The current total of 910,000 hours at the end of May was achieved with no lost time due to injuries and a total recordable injury frequency rate of 3.3, which is lower than the managing contractor company target of less than 4.8, which is great.

Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd is nominated for a Master Builders excellence in construction award in Victoria in the excellence in the health and safety category for their work on the Post Entry Quarantine Facility project. Every time I visit the site I am impressed by the professionalism of all staff and tradespeople working on-site. The Post Entry Quarantine Facility will provide around 2,000 square metres of greenhouse space, 1,200 square metres of shadehouse and a plant diagnostic laboratory. At its maximum capacity, the facility will hold 240 cats, 400 dogs and 80 horses. It is almost like Noah's Ark. The facilities will also provide for ruminants such as alpacas, birds such as pigeons and fertile eggs, and it is going to play such a great part in Australia's current and future biosecurity needs. As the member for Parkes pointed out, this is so crucial to our nation.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Debate adjourned.

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