David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

(1) Clause 4, page 3 (after line 12), after the definition of animal, insert:

Animal Health Australia has the same meaning as in the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Act 2023.

(2) Clause 4, page 3 (after line 20), after the definition of aquaculture, insert:

emergency animal biosecurity response deed has the same meaning as in the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Act 2023.

emergency plant biosecurity response deed has the same meaning as in the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Act 2023.

(3) Clause 4, page 4 (after line 15), after the definition of plant, insert:

Plant Health Australia has the same meaning as in the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Act 2023.

(4) Clause 7, page 6 (lines 19 to 22), omit paragraphs (3)(c) and (d), substitute:

(c) expenditure on activities, including biosecurity activities, that:

(i) are undertaken by Animal Health Australia or Plant Health Australia; and

(ii) relate to the promotion or maintenance of the health of plants, animals, fungi or algae;

(d) expenditure on matters relating to a biosecurity response under:

(i) the emergency animal biosecurity response deed; or

(ii) the emergency plant biosecurity response deed;

(5) Clause 10, page 8 (lines 17 to 20), omit paragraphs (2)(a) and (b), substitute:

(a) expenditure on activities, including biosecurity activities, that:

(i) are undertaken by Animal Health Australia or Plant Health Australia; and

(ii) relate to the promotion or maintenance of the health of plants, animals, fungi or algae;

(b) expenditure on matters relating to a biosecurity response under:

(i) the emergency animal biosecurity response deed; or

(ii) the emergency plant biosecurity response deed.

(6) Clause 13, page 10 (lines 23 to 26), omit paragraphs (2)(c) and (d), substitute:

(c) expenditure on activities, including biosecurity activities, that:

(i) are undertaken by Plant Health Australia; and

(ii) relate to the promotion or maintenance of the health of plants;

(d) expenditure on matters relating to a biosecurity response under the emergency plant biosecurity response deed;

It's crucial that Australia's national agricultural levy framework operates as effectively as possible. A big part of this is the need to maintain and protect the levy system's transparency, which is what these detailed amendments go directly to. This set of amendments will add to the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Bill 2023 by clarifying, affirming and solidifying the essential roles that Animal Health Australia—the AHA—and Plant Health Australia—the PHA—have within our levy framework. The AHA represents 14 livestock industries while the PHA represents 39 plant industry members. They need to remain important players in this space. These two levy organisations are levy recipient bodies, and they are responsible for facilitating industry-government partnerships for pest and disease preparedness, prevention, emergency response and management. However, under the provisions of the government's bill, references to the AHA levy and the PHA levy have been renamed as the 'biosecurity activity levy'. These amendments, circulated by the federal coalition, will ensure that Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia are formally recognised in relation to this biosecurity activity levy.

We are doing this because we believe removing references to the AHA and PHA have the potential to cloud transparency of the levy framework. It's important that levy payers, farmers and producers have a proper line of sight into where their levy funds are going. These amendments will do this. Also, for the biosecurity response levy, our amendments will recognise that the levy funding will go to expenditure under the emergency animal response deed managed by the AHA or the emergency plant response deed managed by the PHA. These deeds are activated in the event of a pest or disease incursion into Australia.

Another reason we are moving this set of amendments is that they will help minimise confusion among levy payers by inserting clarity into the framework. When combined with the government's proposed biosecurity protection levy, the creation of the broadly named 'biosecurity activity levy' under this bill will eventually bring the number of security levies to three. Having Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia appropriately recognised in the biosecurity activity levy and the biosecurity response levy will give confidence and assurance to the agricultural industry. With this change, farmers can feel secure about where they levies are being directed to without causing disruption to a system that has worked well over many years.

There are two more sets of amendments which the coalition will be moving for the other two imposition bills, which are the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Bill 2023 and the Primary Industry (Services) Levies Bill 2023. I advise the chamber that the intent and effect of this particular set of amendments is essentially identical to the amendments the coalition is moving to the next two imposition bills. These amendments are all about securing the transparency of Australia's agricultural levy system. On that note, I commend them to the chamber.

See this speech in context