Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is true. They have cut officers. Not only that; they haven't increased the biosecurity officers that have been needed to deal with the increase in tourists. They know that people are coming into our state. They are bringing fruit into our state and we now have a fruit fly incursion. This, of course, has affected our primary producers. We invested very heavily in irrigation, around $180 million between state and federal Labor on irrigation schemes in Tasmania, and we are seeing the benefits of those investments. But they are at jeopardy because of the state Liberal government's ineptness when it comes to biosecurity. They are not ready. They don't have enough staff trained. That has become very clear during this outbreak. They are scrambling to deal with this situation.

We've even had the Deputy Premier of Tasmania say that this is a national issue and that it's because of the federal government that the state is in this position. I'm not sure whether it's the federal government's responsibility, the state Liberal government's responsibility or both of the Liberal governments' responsibility, but Tasmanians are very concerned about this biosecurity issue. They're very concerned about our fruit fly status that is stopping some of our exports overseas and is causing people to have to dump their produce. We are having people dump tomatoes and cherries because they're not allowed to remove them from the fruit fly exclusion zone. This is a very serious matter, and it would only have happened under the Liberals' watch, because they are the ones that haven't kept up with the need when it comes to biosecurity. They are blaming the federal government, but clearly neither the federal Liberal government nor the state Liberal government are taking this issue seriously enough. The choice is clear this Saturday: Rebecca White and her talented team or the tired, old Hodgman government.

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