David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

I was not as informed as the Manager of Opposition Business may be, when he wasn't here. If it was of such importance, I would have thought that he would be here to make sure of the protocols. In essence, I was surprised when no-one was here, and that's why I simply thought that it was going to continue.

Let me say why it's very important that this legislation does need to go through. This is an emerging industry, and, at the moment, under the current legislation, the department of agriculture can't issue certificates. What we have seen in this heightened environment since COVID-19 is that trading partners want certainty and, if you are unable to tick off and give that certainty around the protocols and certification of our products as we send them out, then we put at risk and at jeopardy the livelihoods of Australian farmers. This is an emerging industry, and we did not want to see what we've seen in other agricultural industries, particularly barley and the red meat sector, at the moment. We did not want to see that the protocols were not being adhered to. We were simply working in good faith, in essence, with our department of agricultural giving assurances to our trading partners, rather than being able to support it through legislation—a structured process.

This is about us understanding the global community that we're in at the moment and the heightened concern about the provenance of what's being exported. This is a sensible action for a government to take to protect the agricultural sector. We're doing that quickly to make sure we're protecting the livelihoods of Australian farmers, and we should be proud of the fact that they're diversifying into narcotic goods that can be exported safely. This is an opportunity for Australia to lead the world, and that is why there is the urgency of us putting this bill in today to this parliament: for this parliament to demonstrate to Australian farmers and to the world that we will lead them and we will lead them out of COVID-19.

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