Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with great joy to speak about the Biosecurity Amendment (Ballast Water and Other Measures) Bill 2017, which we know, as many have said before me, is going to help enormously to manage biosecurity risks in our country and further strengthen our whole biosecurity system. We know the importance of this, because a good biosecurity system is going to help keep our economy strong. Why do I say that? Our agricultural industries are forecast to earn over $60 billion in 2016-17. And to indulge the member for Reid, who I know will be interested in some of the information I am now going to go into before I come back to this, I have many, many examples from my own electorate of the contribution it is making to this $60 billion in exports. It is very crucial to the economic wealth of our country, the taxes that are paid, the economic activity.

Let me start at the northern end of my electorate, around places like Woodenbong and Kyogle—great beef cattle country up there. A lot of the beef from there goes down the valley and ends up in Casino. Now, Casino has the biggest private employer in the electorate: 1,100 people work at the local abattoir there. It is by far the biggest private sector employer for many, many hundreds of kilometres. Again, it is a great practical example of the contribution the agricultural sector is playing in our region.

Another exciting one is further west. If you are in Casino, head towards the tablelands and you will end up in a place called Tabulam. It is a great place. It is on the heads of the Clarence River. Around there is a new industry that is contributing to this $60 billion that I mentioned earlier, and that is the blueberry industry, a very exciting industry. They are employing hundreds of people out there at Tabulam—and Tabulam is not a big place. I was there just a few months ago. I go there regularly, but when I turned up there a few months ago I turned around the corner and down the end I saw, where the cafe is, near the pub, all these cars. I thought, 'That's a lot of people here in Tabulam!'

I went down, and it was full of backpackers, it was full of young people and it was full of all these blueberry pickers who, again, are part of this contribution that the blueberry industry is making to this $60 billion in exports.

Other industries in my community have contributed to this $60 billion—actually, let us stay with blueberries and go south to Woolgoolga. The banana industry had some tough times down there. There is a wonderful Sikh community in Woolgoolga too. A lot of people who were previously growing bananas have switched to blueberries. There is a very vibrant industry down there, employing a lot of people not only regularly throughout the whole season but also, obviously, peaking in picking season. Again, they almost cannot find enough workers to pick these things, which is why the backpacker tax that we changed late last year was very important: we wanted backpacker tax rates to be competitive. We needed the rates to be competitive with other countries, but we certainly did not want to give those backpackers a lower tax rate than what the equivalent Australian full-time workers were getting, so that level of around 15 per cent was a fair rate to not only keep attracting the backpackers but also make sure that all those wonderful blueberries get picked.

There is more in the rivers and the ocean in my electorate. We still have commercial fishing fleets—good, quality fish—and they are making a strong contribution to the economy. The sugar industry have had a good season; prices are pretty good, so they are making a strong contribution as well. There are forestry products. I nearly forgot macadamias—Page would almost be the centre of the macadamia industry in Australia, and the first commercial plantations are not far from where I live. Again, they are getting very good prices in the macadamia industry, and a lot of it is exported. I might have forgotten to tell you that 70 per cent of the product from the abattoir, the meatworks, is exported.

What has happened? I will just mention briefly the free trade agreements that we have done. The free trade agreements that we did with China, South Korea and Japan were integral to finding new markets for all these industries and, of course, when you find new markets for product obviously what that means is more buyers for your products. But is that as good for the people who are sellers? We are sellers of these products and we have found new buyers and, because we have found new buyers, that means the prices for all these products are going up. Not only has that provided great extra cash flow for the producers but, very importantly, it has also provided extra cash flow for our towns, because the producers come into town and buy extra equipment. They may not have made that capital purchase for their farm previously, but now they are. Besides the good agricultural prices we are getting, I know the $20,000 tax write-off that we give for one-off purchases for equipment has greatly assisted this. Our towns are more vibrant because of the free trade agreements and the $20,000 tax write-off, and the prices for a lot of these agricultural products are doing very well.

Let me return to the bill. We know today's threats to biosecurity can emerge faster than before. If we let any biosecurity risk get out of control, all those examples that I spoke to you about are at risk. That is why this measure is very important. We saw the recent global outbreak of the zika virus, which was spread by mosquitoes. It has shown us how important control of disease-carrying pests is. This bill will provide additional powers to control exotic mosquitoes and other disease carriers at Australia's airports and seaports—that is obviously where a lot of the risk is—including on incoming aircraft and vessels. This includes spraying insecticide to kill the mosquitoes and other disease-carrying vectors capable of carrying viruses so that they do not establish populations in Australia. This bill also gives us the ability to direct airports and seaports to control such incursions. The bill is also going to strengthen Australia's ability to manage ballast water in ships. It will provide additional protection for fisheries and coastal environments from the risk of marine pest incursions by fostering new, more effective ballast-water treatment technologies and phasing out ballast-water exchange.

The bill will position us to ratify the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments. This convention was adopted in 2004 and signed by the Howard government in 2005. It is a key international measure for protecting marine environments and it aims to stop the global spread of potentially invasive and harmful aquatic organisms that can cause havoc to marine ecosystems—especially diseases that are current. One that I know has been mentioned in this place a number of times recently is white spot in prawns. These outbreaks can do great damage to whole industries. These organisms can be transported in the ballast water of ships travelling around the world, can affect biodiversity and can lead to substantial economic loss for our maritime industries. The convention is an important global initiative involving over 50 countries. It will come into force internationally on 8 September 2017, and we hope to ratify it this year.

For Australians more broadly, these amendments mean that there is much less risk of infection from viruses such as zika. It also means we can continue to enjoy the sea and all the joys that it brings to us. Strengthening Australia's biosecurity system through these legislative amendments means we can continue to enjoy our unique environment and way of life. I think we have stressed why protecting biodiversity is important. I think it is obvious that the current Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources has been very serious about these measures. One example that was quite famous was Pistol and Boo. We saw that just because you are a famous movie star does not mean you have the right to break our biodiversity laws. The minister made it quite clear that he would leave no stone unturned to make sure that Pistol and Boo did not damage the biosecurity of our country.

Earlier I was mentioning a few industries, and one that I was remiss of that I would also like to acknowledge—again, biodiversity is very important for this industry—is the dairy industry. I have the fortune to also have a very healthy dairy sector. The main processor is a co-op called Norco. I just happen to have in my region some of the most successful, largest and long-time operating co-ops in the country, and Norco is one of them. Very excitingly, they are exporting fresh milk into China. The volumes are quite small at the moment, but it is a market that they hope will grow over time. They have been maintaining good prices for our producers recently. The meatworks that I mentioned earlier is also a co-op, again one of the biggest in the country and one of the longest operating. The macadamia industry has a co-op, the fishing people have a co-op and blueberries have Oz Berries down near Woolgoolga, which is quite a new co-op. That has been very successful very quickly.

As a result of that, the agriculture minister was able to obtain close to $14 million to establish a national centre of excellence for cooperatives in this country. It was decided, I think quite wisely, to place that my electorate, in conjunction with Southern Cross University, a great regional university. That centre is operating now. The money for that is all about making more co-ops operate and be successful and about having more trained people for co-ops. If you are going to operate a co-op, you need specialist legal advice and specialist accounting advice. It is a very specialised operation in the way you raise capital and in the way you operate. This national centre of excellence for cooperatives is all about making sure that people who want to establish a co-op have the right technical expertise and the information and advice on hand to make it successful. We want this model to succeed. The agriculture minister is not necessarily about corporate farms—the big guys, the big corporations. He is about the co-op structure, which helps the little guys help each other. Especially in my region, that structure has been shown to be very successful. I am very excited about the national centre of excellence for cooperatives, based at Southern Cross University. There is a lot of expertise on hand with the wonderful co-ops in the region who already operate there. I know they are doing a lot of great work already to help this model thrive and prosper. These co-ops would not thrive and prosper if we did not have strong biosecurity laws, which brings me back to the bill.

As I have said, over a number of years, since September 2013, the agriculture minister has shown that he is not only committed to biosecurity—this bill is further proof of that, and I have given examples of that in this speech—but also committed to the success of co-ops in this space and to the success of agricultural industries in this country more broadly. We are seeing the fruits of that—no pun intended!—because we are seeing higher prices for a whole array of agricultural products. I commend this bill. I could go on, but I am going to seek leave from the member for Reid.

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