Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition is supporting the Biosecurity Amendment (Advanced Compliance Measures) Bill 2023 because a strong and robust biosecurity system is crucial to protecting Australia against the threat of pests and diseases. It is also largely supported by industry. Australia's diverse ecosystem and agricultural industries are the envy of the world. Our produce and exports put us on the map globally while simultaneously supporting livelihoods and enriching our economy. This wouldn't have been the case without strong biosecurity laws protecting our growers and producers, and setting our nation up for success. This bill seeks to amend the Biosecurity Act 2015 to update our national biosecurity regulation framework—in particular, the compliance measures.

Australia has enjoyed, and enjoys, a reputation for clean, healthy and disease-free agricultural production systems through our natural advantage of geographical location. Tourism and international trade have become two of our greatest strengths, but they don't come without risks. With each aircraft, vessel, cargo ship, truck or delivery comes risks that we must mitigate for the sake of our crops and our environment. Strong biosecurity laws are absolutely essential to create thriving industries and a thriving economy. They hold particular importance in my electorate of Casey, which is home to wine producers, horticulturalists, organic producers, large agricultural farms and permaculture—just some examples. These producers aren't just putting food on the table and plants in the gardens of many Australians; many operate on a global scale and export to the world. The agricultural industries of the Yarra Valley are a vital pillar of our local economy and community. We have a proud agricultural heritage and, over time, our rich red soil, diverse climate and natural resources have seen our region flourish as a significant agricultural corner of the nation.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Montague, in a corner of my electorate. I'm sure you've all heard about and enjoyed a JAZZ apple—if you have, they've come from Montague. I met with Scott to tour their incredible facility, where they're using state-of-the-art technology to ensure the very best produce for consumers. They export premium stone fruit and apples all around the world, right through South-East Asia and the north of Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Canada. Biosecurity is paramount for Montague, both in terms of keeping pests out and ensuring that our Aussie produce is held in the highest esteem in international markets. Other countries value working with nations like Australia to prioritise biosecurity, reducing their risk of trade disruption, disease and illness. Our regulations have ensured access to international markets without the burden of restrictions and the disruption of trade barriers.

I also recently had the privilege of visiting Yarra Valley Dairy, another major exporter in my electorate, and Yarra Valley ECOSS, a small permaculture farm focused on sustainability and organics.

It's clear, when driving through my electorate and looking at the strawberry farms, the vineyards, the dairies, the organic producers, the crops and the rolling hills, that we have an important role to play in protecting our landscape and our local industries. This bill will continue to strengthen our position by making a number of updates to biosecurity regulations. This follows a similar track record, where changes have been made consistently to the act since its inception in 2015 to ensure the strongest protections for biosecurity risks. It is vital that biosecurity arrangements are continually improved, given the potential impact of noncompliance on our environment, our economy and our way of life.

The first suite of changes relates to people coming in on aircraft or vessels. The Director of Biosecurity will have the power to seek information for the purpose of assessing the risk associated with a person and to request classes of persons to produce a passport or travel document to assess their biosecurity risk. These documents can be retained for as long as necessary to reduce risks, and there are penalties for failure to comply with certain requirements, including for operators of aircraft or vessels.

Importantly, the bill will increase civil penalties where a person gives false or misleading information knowing that the information or document is misleading. This is an important provision, because those who purposely provide false information are risking Australia's human, plant and animal health, which could have drastic impacts on our industries and our economy.

Schedule 4 allows for infringement notices to be given in situations of low-level offences where there is currently no way of deterring them other than prosecution or civil litigation. This will ensure all situations of noncompliance are met with the law, to strictly uphold our standards for biosecurity. The last thing we need is importers seeing noncompliance as a cost of doing business or otherwise worth the risk.

In my community of Casey, we are home to Fleming's Nurseries, one of the largest nurseries in the country. The company has grown from strength to strength out of the rich red soils of Monbulk at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges. I recently had an opportunity to meet with Daniel and Leanne from Fleming's. They raised a number of concerns in regard to biosecurity. Their concerns relate in particular to a white paper produced by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. They are deeply concerned about the impact on their business if the changes presented in the white paper are adopted, particularly in relation to food security and future climate and biosecurity risks.

Fleming's have been involved in growing fruit and ornamental trees for over a century. They have imported thousands of new plant varieties into Australia, including many of the fruits available in supermarkets today. For growers like Fleming's, our plant importation process must be robust, easy to navigate and cost-effective for importers, to ensure that all plants are imported through legitimate pathways. Currently, the charge for importing a new variety within a 24-month post-entry quarantine period is almost $10,000. If the changes in the department's report are adopted, this will increase—will more than double—to $25,614. Following release from quarantine, each new variety must be tested for performance under our Australian conditions. On average, only 30 per cent of the varieties imported make it to commercialisation. This compounds the cost and time expense of importation. Fleming's varieties allow Australian growers to compete on the global market, providing jobs and food security to Australia. Their ability to import and test varieties will be significantly impacted if the cost doubles as detailed in the white paper.

The key lesson here is that, while biosecurity is absolutely crucial, we must be careful not to make it impossible for Australian growers to cultivate, import and test. This, too, will have flow-on effects for our economy, food security and forests. If our successful growers become financially incapable of importing and testing new varieties, it will impact our global competitiveness. We must have strong biosecurity laws, but we must also remember the real-world farmers and growers and not hinder the success of their private enterprise. I encourage the Albanese Labor government to consider the impact on Australian growers and consult with industry before making any decisions that could have negative impacts on our economy, on our growers and on our communities.

Similar things could be said of Labor's new farming tax. The coalition introduced the importer container levy to charge importers for the risk they are bringing to our nation. That was common sense. But now Labor has decided to slug farmers with a new tax, forcing them to pay for the biosecurity risks posed by international importers. In essence, they are paying for the risks brought by their competition. This is the type of policy that you could only see under Labor. They don't understand rural Australia, they don't understand farming and they clearly don't understand economics.

Many Australian farmers will be hit with a bill equivalent to 10 per cent of their existing agricultural levies from 1 July next year. In Senate estimates, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry was questioned on why the levy was set at a rate of 10 per cent. His answer was that he felt this rate 'was a fair contribution to make'. So, no, it wasn't based on any economic modelling or evidence. It was plucked out of thin air because the minister for agriculture thought it would be a figure that seemed fair. This is a minister for agriculture who has not worked a day in his life in agriculture. As someone whose family came to this country in the fifties with nothing and created a life for themselves through farming, I find it deeply offensive to all the farmers across the country that a minister for agriculture with no experience in agriculture would just decide that he thought it was a fair contribution to make.

So, while we are supporting this bill and will always support strong biosecurity legislation, Labor's track record in biosecurity to date has been a cause for concern. I would encourage the minister to begin consulting with the community and considering the impact on our economy and our farmers before making any further decisions.

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