Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my keenness to rise to speak on the motion that has been put forward by the member for Barker, I do acknowledge I was standing a bit early, so I thank you, Member for Riverina, for jumping in to second the motion. Biosecurity is an important issue in our country, and the electorates that the people in this room represent know how real this is. Despite some government ministers saying that Labor doesn't represent farming electorates, we have significant farming in my electorate. We have not just boutique industries where they have gone for high-value products; we still have quite a bit of commodity.

One of the commodities that is still quite popularly grown but is constantly under biosecurity threat is the apples in our orchards in Harcourt. Every year, our apple growers struggle with fruit fly. I do not wish fruit fly upon any area of Australia. I know that in Tasmania they have their own running battles in trying to keep fruit fly out. And it's not just in South Australia that they're battling it; it's parts of Tasmania, it's parts of Australia where, if this fly gets in, it's hard to get rid of it. We are constantly looking for local ways that we can help our farmers and our growers battle this disease.

I guess that brings me to ask the question, why has it taken so long for this government to act? This government has been talking about biosecurity and a biosecurity levy since they came to office. They first promised reform in the 2018 budget. That's when they first proposed the biosecurity imports levy, yet it is constantly delayed, constantly being reviewed, constantly being reformed. It wasn't until this year that they actually put the money behind genuine reform, which leads me to ask, why did it take so long? The biosecurity import levy was a great idea. It was about raising revenue from what is imported in order to fund a robust system, which is desperately needed. We talked about African swine flu a moment ago, in the contribution of the member for Barker. I know how real that is. In my own electorate, again, it was raised with me by Don KR, which is the biggest manufacturer of smallgoods in Australia. They are based in Castlemaine, and they are continually concerned about the importing of product and what product could come in, given the way people try to sneak around our tough biosecurity laws. They tell you stories about people importing ham, then importing the bone in a separate process and then trying to put it back together—crazy stuff that people try to do, to get around our biosecurity rules. We know that these are the extents that people will go to. That's why we need a robust system.

So, it is disappointing that it has taken the government a long time to get to a place where they can now proudly talk about what they've done on biosecurity, because agriculture and farming and the value-adding industries that go with it are critical to this country. In this country we have banned certain forms of imports. I talked about pork before. You can import pork fillet to turn it into bacon, which they do a lot of at Don KR, but you can't import ham on the bone. There's a very good reason for that. It is because of the disease it carries. This is an area where all the regional MPs know what I'm talking about, because we live it and see it in our electorates every day. The people in their homes, in their kitchens and in their supermarkets are relieved that we do that. We know we need to have a robust system to keep disease out. There's another pandemic that is affecting humans right now, apart from COVID, and that is swine flu. A few years ago it decimated pig populations throughout Asia. Then it was found in the Timor-Leste, and we've had a few cases in Australia. We are working really hard to keep it out.

That is why a system like this is critical to that clean and green image and to the food we eat. People have become really conscious about what they buy and what they eat. If we want to protect our industry, if we want to protect our imports and if we want to protect what we export, we need to have a robust system. I do agree that we need to have national leadership on this, to bring our states together and to make sure we're all working together on this. I feel for the Tasmanian apple growers. They're battling what is happening in my electorate. We don't want to see fruit fly in their electorates. That's why we need national leadership, to bring our states together to have a robust rapid response team when this disease gets out.

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