House debates
Monday, 4 September 2006
Questions without Notice
Bananas
2:55 pm
Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is addressed to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Would the minister inform the House of the commitments given to the banana industry in the wake of Cyclone Larry and, Minister, would you assure the House that these commitments have been fully kept?
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the honourable member for Herbert for his question. The honourable member for Herbert well knows how devastating—
Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Put your hand on your heart and pledge loyalty!
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The minister has the call. The minister will be heard.
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Herbert well knows the devastation of Cyclone Larry to northern Queensland communities—
Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Pledge loyalty!
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
and the northern banana industry. He knows that the government’s commitment was that our strict quarantine requirements would not be compromised—
Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
to meet any domestic shortfall. That commitment has been met in full by the government. Trading on people’s suffering and misery is the lowest act of a politician, and the Leader of the Opposition and the Premier have been doing exactly that over the last couple of days. Even as late as this morning at his doorstop, he was telling hard-pressed and fearful banana growers of north Queensland and their associated industry that they would suffer further loss because of the government reneging on its promise. They have made allegations of broken promises, of increased competition and quarantine laxness—all of it untrue. Let us not beat about the bush: Labor were peddling lies and the evidence of that is that there is no question on the bananas today. We are halfway through question time and there is not a single question from Labor—and I am hopeful there might be some.
Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Swan interjecting
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
This is my challenge to the Labor Party: ask some of these banana questions. No, you have gone out there, you have distorted the truth, you have reaped what political—
Gavan O'Connor (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Gavan O’Connor interjecting
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
opportunities you could, and now you will stay silent. You do not have the courage of your convictions and the simple fact is that the commitment was met. The best adjudicator of this is the Banana Growers Council itself. The banana council believes ‘the frozen banana importation is not a breach of the Prime Minister’s commitment given to growers at Innisfail after Cyclone Larry’.
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Albanese interjecting
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Grayndler is warned!
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
We have had this mock outrage from the Labor Party. Guess who started importing pulped and diced bananas? The Labor Party, of course. For many years Australia has imported processed banana product, so I thought I would check some facts—something those opposite chose not to do. Between 1993 and 1996, the amount of processed bananas that the Labor Party allowed into the country was 140 tonnes. They are complaining about the 11 tonnes of processed bananas but they let in 140 tonnes from countries such as Vietnam, Fiji, Tonga, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and the like.
Gavan O'Connor (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Why don’t you tell the truth?
Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
And the member for Corio, the departing agriculture spokesman, interjects. Even in a radio interview today he was saying that this pulped and processed banana would be used in restaurants—completely false. This is another distortion of the truth. It is quite obvious that the Labor Party is as lacking in political morality and honesty as it is lacking in policy.
2:59 pm
Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister and follows that extraordinary answer that we have just been given. Has the Prime Minister seen the exchange between a journalist and Mr Eddie Hatchman, a Queensland banana grower and a member of the industry’s biosecurity group, in connection with the importation of whole bananas from Vietnam?
Journalist: Do you feel betrayed by the Prime Minister?
Eddie Hatchman: Yes, because we haven’t been informed of any risk analysis. We haven’t been informed of anything whatsoever.
Why has the Prime Minister breached the trust of Queensland banana growers, who are still trying to rebuild their farms and their lives after Cyclone Larry?
John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The answer to the first part of the question is no, I have not. The answer to the second part of the question—have I breached their trust, or have I gone back on a promise?—is no. In support of that denial, I refer to no better authority than the Australia Banana Growers Council. It said:
The large volume of frozen banana brought into Australia from Vietnam has taken the Australian Banana Growers’ Council by surprise but it does not believe this is a breach of the commitment given by the Prime Minister regarding fresh green banana imports.
Quite frankly, I know it is election time in Queensland. In response to the cyclone in Far North Queensland, the federal government to date has poured—as it should have, and I support the expenditure to the hard-pressed people of Far North Queensland of every single dollar I am about to quote—$249 million of assistance into that community, and the amount contributed, so I am advised, by the Queensland government falls short of $100 million. I do not criticise the Queensland government and, up until yesterday when this banana thing cropped up, I had worked in total bipartisan harmony with the Queensland Premier, Mr Beattie. At no stage had either of the governments tried to make any political capital out of this. With every announcement I was about to make, I rang the Queensland Premier to talk about it.
Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Swan interjecting
John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He approached me; we agreed; we visited Innisfail together. I would not have offered a zephyr of criticism of the Queensland government, but we get the last week of an election campaign and he cannot help himself.
Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The bananas have made him do it!
John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He grabs hold of this piece of absolute nonsense. He knows I have kept my promise, and he ought to be ashamed of himself.