Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Streamlining regulation and cutting red tape is essential for growing Australia's agricultural industries, exports and market access.

Our agricultural industries produce more than our country needs. They export the bulk of their product and rely on an effective regulatory system to assist them in doing so.

It is vital that export control legislation remains current and fit for purpose, keeping step with developments in importing country requirements, changing regulatory objectives and industry practice advancements.

This bill will achieve this by making information-sharing provisions within the export control legislation more flexible. It will allow relevant information to be efficiently shared with regulatory partners, exporters and other key stakeholders while maintaining appropriate control on the sharing of certain kinds of information that may cause harm.

It will support the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to streamline complex administrative and authorisation processes to access and utilise the export control information that it already holds, such as trade statistics, industry information and market intelligence.

Currently, all information collected under the act is classified as 'protected' information, irrespective of whether or not it is commercially or trade sensitive, or sensitive within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988.

Consequently, the department's ability to share non-harmful information is limited and comes with administrative complexities, time and resource costs which impact the efficient regulation of trade activities.

Streamlined information sharing requirements can assist with rapid delivery of information that can be essential in trade situations—for instance, where an importing country may hold and request further information about a consignment of fresh produce at its port.

This bill will benefit our exporters and trade partners by satisfying the growing demand for intelligence to sustain and grow our export markets.

It will more efficiently allow for the provision of relevant information to other Australian government departments or agencies in appropriate circumstances, while ensuring appropriate safeguards for information which could cause harm.

Being able to efficiently use and re-purpose export control information will increase our ability to innovate and to make gains from those innovations to retain Australia's competitive edge in the international agricultural export market.

The September quarter ABARES Agricultural commodities report, brought welcome news of a record forecast exceeding $70 billion in value of Australian agricultural exports.

By cutting red tape and continuing to streamline regulation and administrative arrangements as we are here, the government is supporting the agricultural sector's ambition to grow and become a hundred-billion-dollar industry by 2030.

The amendments in this bill are also consistent with the broader information sharing reform work occurring across government. The government takes the protection of private information seriously, and this bill will not affect the department's commitment to continue to protect personal or sensitive information as identified in the Privacy Act 1988.

Greater flexibility in being able to analyse and explore the export data we hold opens opportunities to support key priorities such as Busting Congestion for Agricultural Exporters and other agricultural policy initiatives.

The improved information sharing arrangements ensure greater flexibility and tailoring for export control purposes and will make the export control legislative framework more effective, efficient and future-focused.

This bill will also make some minor amendments to the act to simplify processes and improve effective administration of the act.

This bill will support a modern export system, providing streamlined processes for exporters and improved delivery of services that will benefit our agricultural export industry, and I commend the bill to the House.

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