David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Export Control Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2020. As you know, Mr Deputy Speaker, we are a major exporting nation, and this bill is very important to help the machinery of export industries flourish. I hope it doesn't end up clogging up the works, but the intent is there to streamline things and to give exporters certainty. And we certainly have, in agriculture, a wish to export our food and produce—processed, unprocessed, raw and live—to feed millions of people around the world, both in Asia and in distant quarters like North America and even Europe.

The amendments to the Export Control Act streamline and consolidate existing port controls, and they come into force on 28 March this year. Why are there amendments? It is because there are issues that have been identified since the original act passed through the royal assent process in March 2020. There will be five amendments, and I'll just outline them before I say a few words. First of all, the fit-and-proper-person test is applied when there are variations to the exporting facility or the holder of the licence. It also gives greater flexibility in the notice of intention to export, which is a process one has to go through. If you have an export licence, you have to apply to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and it then will become a registered notice of intent to export, which gives both the department and the exporter the certainty that the process is at a certain stage. There were a lot of third parties who were intervening on the export of certain products—usually live—and you could have the situation where animals were on a boat and then an injunction turned up. So it gives certainty to the exporter, and it also gives certainty to the process.

The other thing is that the bill will give guidance in relation to the approval of export permits. People on both sides of the House realise that we have struck many free trade agreements, which have quotas on what we can export into the recipient countries. Those quotas—what is allowed and what tariffs would be due—under those free trade agreements will be much more certainly defined. It gives the secretary of the department the legislative clarity to facilitate that process.

The bill also contains rules or legislative instruments that the secretary can use to modify other acts that might be involved in challenging it, like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act. It also clarifies and facilitates the certificate generation so that everything is laid out—it's there for everyone to see—and there'll be no ambiguity. As you would appreciate, some of these free trade agreements have gradual increases and changes in quota over time. The amendments to this act will also facilitate the export quota certificates that need to be adjusted as details of the free trade agreements that have already been struck come into force.

There are certain things in this act which I'll put on the record that I queried but it appears that it has been discussed, commented on, and exposure drafts have been put out. But there is vested in these changes ever-increasing mounts of regulatory control to the secretary of the department as opposed to the minister responsible for the act, and that is a global concern that I have about many of the legislative processes coming through this House. There appears to be a shift away from legislation into regulation but the legislative instruments in this case will be decided upon by the departmental secretary.

I mentioned we are an exporting nation. We do have a long record in this government of trying to facilitate and increase our exports. Everyone in the agricultural industry knows that we produce far more food and fibre than we, as a nation of 26 million people, will ever consume. In fact, about three-quarters of what we grow and produce goes to export. We feed not billions of people but we are feeding, as well as our 25 million people, depending on the product and the harvest, enough for 60 million or 70 million more people. Trade and exports mean jobs in Australia.

We in Australia support our neighbours with their nutrition. A lot of them can't grow protein as well as we can because their climate and their vegetation don't suit broadacre cropping. Through our live meat and live sheep trade, we supply animal protein not only to the Middle East but to our near neighbours to the north. We want to grow all our export industries, hence this bill. The government have also put a lot of funds into increasing exports. I just want to put on the record what we've been trying to do in a policy sense and in fiscal support for our exporters. We have, in the last budget, allocated $328 million to modernise our trading environment, and this legislation is part of that. A single, digital one-stop shop fast-tracking goods to international markets is a goal that these funds will be used towards.

The government wants to reduce other red tape where possible. We also want to have streamlined plant export services giving farmers quicker, easier and cheaper access, and there's $10 million allocated to programs with that in mind. The government has also done a lot for agribusinesses to expand their markets and their reach into foreign markets with an expansion program. During the COVID crisis, a lot of this planned-for expansion was potentially frozen in limbo, so we allocated $669 million to address air freight shortages and disrupted supply chains for both agricultural and fishery exports. The International Freight Assistance Mechanism has kept a lot of those exports going.

We've also set aside funds to enhance our competitiveness in the horticultural sector. We've got another package for small exporters, with $6.14 million set aside to assist small exporters. We have tried to reduce the impact of non-tariff measures by funding industry based analysis. So not only have we put legislative processes in place to streamline things; we've backed those processes with hard dollars to help our exporters. There are 2,000 agrifood exporters through the Austrade led accelerator program. That is going to deliver dividends for many years. I think that, after COVID, our Export Market Development Grants scheme will need to be refreshed, because a lot of people will have to re-establish their markets. Though it's not part of this bill or the announcements in the last budget, I think it's something that we need to look at.

This is an important bill. It doesn't have the most comprehensive amendments, but they're all important. If they function in the way they're intended, it will give a lot more certainty to our exporters of live produce, fresh food and all the other food and fibre that we export to our neighbours and nations around the world. I commend the bill to the House.

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