Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We can all reflect in this place that Australia has a wonderful reputation globally for producing high-quality fruit and vegetables and, more generally, agricultural products. To have to stand in this place and speak about a piece of legislation such as this as a result of the actions of people who have no consideration for the welfare of their fellow citizens is, for me, a very disappointing day. As we stand here today, we have a situation where many strawberry farmers around this country are in significant and dire financial circumstances as a result of the actions of individuals who have been determined to damage the reputation of that industry through putting needles in fruit in our shopping centres and in our supermarkets. That somebody can even come up with the idea of doing that is beyond belief. At least in this House today we see a bipartisan response to the issue and, more importantly, a timely response, which is critically important to restore the confidence of the Australian public in our fruit and our vegetables, particularly, in this case, our strawberries.

I reflect on a local strawberry farmer, Laura Hendriksen, who runs a fabulous little strawberry farm out at Chambers Flat, and the impact on their business. It's a small family-run business and it's her life. My officers have been out to see her this week, and I know this has had an impact. But the other opportunity that arises out of this and out of restoring the confidence in the community is that we can support businesses such as Laura's. I will give credit to the Queensland state government for the steps that they have taken to help our strawberry farmers in this difficult time. Equally, we also, as a government, have stepped in to help them.

So, whilst the Criminal Code Amendment (Food Contamination) Bill 2018 is about strengthening the penalties for the people who commit these heinous acts, more importantly, over the past few days, both at a federal level and at a state level, we've seen governments being prepared to step in and support our farmers so they can get through this difficult period and rebuild their businesses and put back onto the shelves the quality product that they have always provided to the Australian community. I thank Senator Amanda Stoker for bringing a large number of punnets of strawberries into our party room meeting this morning; we were certainly able to enjoy those strawberries at the whips morning tea.

I say to my community of Forde and the broader Australian community: take the opportunity this weekend to go and buy strawberries. Support our farmers. The best way we can support our farmers is actually to buy their product, safe in the knowledge that they have taken the steps and the measures—and I know Laura Hendriksen has with their strawberry farm; they've bought metal detectors to ensure the quality of their fruit. Go and support Laura and her strawberry farm over the weekend. Certainly, when I'm back in the electorate next week, I will be going to visit to see how they're doing. Go and support our farmers and our agricultural producers, because they do produce some of the best fruit in the world. We should be very proud of their capacity to do that and we should support them as much as possible.

I commend this bill to the House because it sends a message to those who have perpetrated these heinous crimes that we will not tolerate this, because it does our entire community an enormous disservice. It has cost people their jobs. It has cost people who have spent many, many years building their businesses their businesses and their livelihoods. I'm pleased to see today that in this chamber, on a bipartisan basis, we are supporting all of those people and calling out the people who have committed these heinous crimes for what they are—and that is cowards. They should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Go out this weekend and support our local strawberry farmers. Buy a punnet or two of strawberries and ensure that we continue to have wonderful fruit on our tables, for ourselves, our children and the broader community.

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