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

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. He, as a former farmer, would know more than anyone the importance of biosecurity not just to our nation's security but also to the nearly 339,000 Australians who are employed in agriculture. That's why, in supporting agriculture's ambitious goal of $100 billion by 2030, we devised our Ag2030 plan. One of the key pillars to that is biosecurity, and making sure we are backing it with cash. Last night, I'm proud to say, this government invested a further $400 million, on top of the $888 million that we committed in the budget in October, to making sure we protect those borders. Part of that, nearly $30 million, is for the eradication of pests—that is, making sure that we remove deer, pigs and dogs from the landscape to protect our biosecurity and also our environment.

As part of this, we're also looking to modernise our biosecurity systems so that they evolve as the threats evolve. That's not just putting boots on the ground and paws on the ground; it's also making sure we are investing in technology, putting in new scientists, increasing the number of scientists, so that we can have real-time decision-making processes where we understand the threats as they appear and making sure that we have the ability to eradicate them as quickly as we possibly can. But technology is the way forward. That's why we've invested in 3D X-ray machines that we put into our postal services. There are 144 million parcels that go through Australia Post every year, and now, with artificial intelligence and 3D X-rays, we'll be able to detect any organic matter or plant life. In fact, we will be evolving this technology to be able to detect any animal life within these parcels so that our officers can intercept and protect through the system.

We are also working with international partners to adopt this technology so that before someone leaves a country we will know what's in their bag, if it is an organic matter, if it has plant life, so that we can deploy the resources on the spot to make sure that we can protect Australia. An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease would cost us around $50 billion—just that alone—so it's important we continue to protect our biosecurity borders.

We're complementing that with increased penalties. I'm proud to say that since we introduced new penalties in October 2019 we have cancelled the visas of 14 overseas visitors who failed to declare on their declaration cards, such was the seriousness of the infringement. We also lifted the on-spot fines from $444 to $2,664 and, to importers, lifting it from $400,000 to a million dollars plus paying a penalty of 10 years jail. This is about protecting Australia's borders, but it's also, more importantly, about protecting the jobs of Australian agriculture.

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