Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to draw attention to the exceptional work done by the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre and to highlight the value that more funding would have for the centre and for the local community. The Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre at Katoomba has been providing legal information and advice to disadvantaged residents in communities from the Blue Mountains to Bathurst for over 25 years. The service includes a tenant advocacy service and a women's domestic violence court advocacy service. Demand is high for all the centre's services and that demand always exceeds the centre's capacity to respond. The need for additional capacity is particularly acute in tenancy services, but the pressure on staff working in family law and domestic violence is also great.

The incidence of domestic violence in New South Wales rose 1.2 per cent in the 24 months to March 2011, a trend which has been reflected in the increasing workload of the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre. The centre offers many needed services to the community, including community legal information seminars where residents can attend and receive information on a range of areas, such as elder law, family law, domestic violence and wills. The centre also offers face-to-face consultation for residents who have more specific needs and this is a valuable source of information for all members of the Blue Mountains community.

Currently, the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre supports 13 very hard working staff members. We live in a time where many are struggling with cost-of-living pressures. These pressures were exacerbated during the winter months. The Elizabeth Evatt centre has seen a marked increase in residents who are suffering through financial hardship and in some instances homelessness. The centre works very hard to ensure that the needs of these people are met. It is important to recognise the increased workload of the team.

With this in mind, it is vital that the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre receives appropriate levels of funding. I have previously lobbied the Attorney-General on behalf of the centre to acquire funding from the Commonwealth Community Legal Services Program. The centre received $360,703 in Commonwealth and state grants under the program. The current financial hardship of many in our community has placed severe strain on the centre. I urge the government to respond to the needs that this centre is responding to.

I conclude by thanking all the staff at the Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre for all the valued work that they do for the Blue Mountains community. The services they deliver are indeed greatly needed and greatly appreciated.

Lyons Electorate: Kentish Municipality

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently I had the privilege of visiting a small community in my electorate of Wilmot. A historical shed, which had been down by the Forth Falls and used as a picnic shelter and change room for the swimming hole, has been revived. It was a hayshed when Lake Barrington was formed and the falls went under the lake. This shed has now become part of the Wilmot Museum.

Its interest is in the names of the children who had carved into the back of the shed 50, 60 and 70 years ago. Many of those people were able to attend the opening of this shed and it was great for them to go through the names of people that they had forgotten, had swum with and had played with at the old waterhole. It was a very pleasant thing to be a part of. The shed had been taken away and used as a hayshed on a farm and was brought back and put together by volunteer labour in this wonderful community of Wilmot. There was a bit of a cost to using a carpenter to get it back up so they auctioned a painting of the Forth Falls which hung in the museum. Fortunately the purchaser of that painting donated it back to the museum and it was hung back where it came from.

Also in this local area, the Kentish municipality, there was a wonderful occasion for the local school due to the BER federal stimulus money. They were able to shift the infants' school back onto the full campus of the high and primary schools. That left the old infants' school available for the state government to give to the municipality to turn it into a health centre, with the federal government donating $1.7 million to allow this health centre to be built. The council was very bold and took on the leadership role. Just recently I was there when we opened the first stage of this, which is to have the local GP, Dr Kissalev, there with his staff and allied health workers. This health centre is a wonderful opportunity to get consulting rooms, a dental clinic, X-ray facilities, an allied health treatment room for the elderly, a disabled day service centre, community health and education and of course a little gym for the older people of the community. This is a wonderful thing to have occurred. I look forward to getting the rest of it up and running very shortly.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday was a tragic day for people in the Goulburn Valley, where we grow 80 per cent of Australia's pears and a very big proportion of Australia's best apples. We have a lot of food factories that use pears, in particular, as a fundamental building block for their products. Yesterday was the announcement of the end of a decades-long battle to stop fresh apples coming from a fire blight infected zone, New Zealand, into this country. Yesterday we heard that we were not to have a strong protocol. The problem is that fire blight is an incurable disease. Once it gets loose in the orchards of Australia, it will take out the pear industry altogether. New Zealand is not going to export pears to Australia—they do not have them for that purpose—but they are saying to Australia, 'Don't worry.' Their scientists assure them that the fire blight bacteria cannot piggyback on a fresh apple into this country and, via bees, wind or water, get into Australian orchards. Well, our Australian scientists say that, yes, live bacteria can be transferred from an orchard with a problem to anywhere else that apple finally ends up.

The protocols that are to be imposed in New Zealand, which have now been ticked off, say that you can be actively out there in your orchard with chainsaws and streptomycin sprays trying to control your fire blight while your pickers are on the next tree taking the fruit off to put in a box to go to Australia. We are saying that that is absurd. Given that this bacteria gets spread, as I said, by insect, wind and wind-borne rain, how can we just stand back and not even expect or require that an orchard has been fire blight free for a period of time before the apples are able to be brought across to Australia? As I say, we do not have fire blight in Australia at this time. Miraculously, Australia has remained fire blight free.

There are two other pest species involved in this protocol—European canker and twirling leaf mite—neither of which are in Australia now. This protocol says that, if people make sure they are actively using the appropriate sprays in New Zealand, they can just pop their fruit in the boxes out of those orchards and send it across to Australia. This is a serious problem for us.

I have with me a petition. It has hundreds of names on it. There are thousands more sitting in my office ready for me to bring into this parliament. I wish to table this petition. It comes from the heart of the people of the Goulburn Valley and northern Victoria, who are saying, 'Please, there is one last hope for us.' A motion is going to be brought into the House to make this protocol a disallowable instrument. If we can receive the support of the Greens on this matter, maybe there is one last hope for the Australian apple and pear industry. (Time expired)

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition from certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House: The failure of the Gillard Government;

We therefore ask the House to instruct the Government to;

from 143 citizens

Petition received.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to update parliament on the steady but painful progress of flood recovery in my electorate. Five thousand two hundred properties in Moreton—4,200 homes and 1,000 businesses—went under in January. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh represents suburbs in the state parliament that are also in Moreton. The Brisbane River is our boundary. I still recall Premier Bligh's courageous words as the floodwaters rose to their peak and claimed more and more houses:

As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who we are. We are Queenslanders. We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border.

With those inspirational words, Premier Bligh galvanised all for the recovery ahead. I am proud to say we are still standing—some of us a little shakily but we are still standing. It has not been easy. Some of us are lucky enough to be back to life as it was before the floods. Some battles with insurance are still ongoing and many people are still waiting for the builders to repair their flood damaged homes. For others, there are tougher times. The Premier's disaster relief funding, as well as federal government disaster payments, have been a godsend to many, along with some generous community groups. I thank the many generous Australians who supported the Premier's appeal. While countless thousands pitched in to do what they could, some went above and beyond. When Premier Bligh said, 'We are bred tough in Queensland,' she was talking about people like Michelle and Carl Matolat, who opened their home to an elderly couple left homeless by the floods. She was talking about people like Kylie and Shelby Robinson, who converted their basement into a flood relief centre to coordinate food parcels and replacement goods for their community. Then there are heroes like long-time Chelmer resident George McLachlan. George's cheerful and optimistic attitude was a great inspiration to his neighbours in the aftermath of the flood. He sadly passed away last week at the young age of 97. I am proud to have met him and to have recognised him with the Moreton Australia Day Award this year, presented in conjunction with Lady Killen.

As the recovery continues, there is much we can learn from the flood. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, which I chair, is conducting an inquiry into the operation of the insurance industry during natural disasters, because there seems to have been such a range of advice, support and service given to my constituents. Obviously this is not a witch hunt. We all know that we need a strong insurance industry. However, we also want to ensure that we can respond appropriately to future disasters from the lessons we have learnt from recent disasters. This is what happened after Cyclone Larry. The insurance industry was shocked by the scale of the disaster and changed a lot of practices. The Insurance Council of Australia shares this view and I welcome their generous cooperation and leadership in this regard.

The inquiry comes to Graceville in my electorate late next month before heading to the flood affected communities in Ipswich, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. Then we head to Cairns and Innisfail to hear about their experiences following Cyclone Yasi and Cyclone Larry. I look forward to reporting back to the House in the months ahead on the outcome of the inquiry. (Time expired)

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity today to talk about the visit to the parliament on Tuesday by students from Woodvale Secondary College. We know that there is a lot of effort and cost involved for schools to come to Canberra, particularly for those who come from the outer areas of Australia, and Perth in particular. It is not undertaken lightly. There are a number of schools that are committed to taking the opportunity for the education of their students. Woodvale Secondary College, once known as Woodvale Senior High School, is one of the schools that has a good record in making their way to Canberra for the educational opportunity.

On Tuesday it was good to be able to welcome the school to the parliament and to move around with them as they engaged with the great Parliamentary Education Office's role-play scenario. I thank the Parliamentary Education Office for that. They were also guided through the Senate and the House of Representatives. During the parliamentary role-play I took the opportunity to say to Sheryl Hudson, the leading teacher of the tour, that we could look behind the scenes in the House of Representatives if she wanted to. She asked students who was interested in progressing past year 10 to study politics and a number of students put their hands up. It was good to be able to take them around and show them some of the things that the ordinary person does not get to see when they visit Canberra.

Very quickly I will name the students: Connor Bates, Natalie Travis, Connor Mallis, Katelyn Cole, Alex Kelly, Triahna Coombs, Rebecca Davenport, Lauren Turnbull, Rachel Newton, James Carr, Louise Counsel, Hetsvi Patel, Grace Holloway, Gemma Bailey, Albert Arulnamby and Jocelyn Bishop. As I said, it was good to be able to engage with these year 10 students, listen to the questions they had and help them with their enhanced study here in Canberra and their movement around Parliament House. I included the great decor of the basement, as it is one of the things that not many people get to see, or would want to see, but at least they had that as well. It was a great effort by the Woodvale Secondary College, and I thank the students for their interest in our great country.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did the honourable member show the students what used to be the cells downstairs?

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The contribution by the member for Cowan brings to mind the importance of bringing people to Canberra to see how our great democracy works and to understand that members of parliament come to this House to try to bring about change and make Australia a better place.

What has upset me enormously in recent times is the level of debate taking place within Australia. I have been involved in politics for a very long time and I am very fearful about where the vitriol that has crept into politics in recent times will end, and it is not only in politics; it is generating out into the community. A person like me who has been around for a long time can handle people being very angry and upset, but as members of parliament we have a role to show leadership and to encourage people to engage in debate in a civilised way. Unfortunately, in this country things have changed so much that the level of debate has descended to abuse and to the lowest common denominator. I am not necessarily saying that it is only within this parliament, but it happens within this parliament. I would like to think that we can raise the level of debate, show some leadership and move away from where we are at the moment.

I am the greatest advocate for freedom of speech that you will ever come across. I believe that people should have the right to express their views, no matter what they are. I accept that a lot of people have views that are different from my own, and I think that is great because that is what a democracy is about. It is about people having different views and being able to express those views, but that does not mean that people can abuse, threaten, denigrate or trivialise other people. So I say that it is time now for all politicians to show a bit of leadership and get out there and lift the level of debate in the community.

I have two petitions that I wish to submit to the parliament. These are petitions that I do not necessarily agree or disagree with, but they are the thoughts of the people who signed the petitions. One petition calls for an end to live animal exports, which was sponsored to a large extent by Temple Eyre. The other petition asks for the definition of marriage to be retained as being between a man and a woman. I seek leave to table these petitions, and in doing so I encourage all in this House to lift the level of debate, stop denigrating other people and show some leadership. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member does not need leave to present a petition, under standing order 207(b)(ii). However, my understanding is that these petitions have not yet been approved by the Petitions Committee so the receipt of the petitions will be on the basis that they are in order. If they are not in order, the honourable member will be able to return and seek to table them as a document, with the consent of other honourable members.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 193, the time for constituency statements has concluded.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment (Inventory) Bill 2011, which amends the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989. This act originally established a notification and assessment scheme on a national system for the regulation of industrial chemicals. It was designed to provide protection for people's health and safety when dealing with these chemicals and provide for registration when people propose to introduce industrial chemicals. The act is administered by the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, or NICNAS. The bill before us makes two main amendments to the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989. The first is to allow for a mechanism to transfer chemicals from one government regulatory agency to NICNAS. The second set of amendments are designed to improve the efficiency of the scheme's internal processes. I would like to briefly cover these in a little more detail.

The main amendment contained within the bill before us will create a mechanism to transfer the chemicals from regulation under one government agency to the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances under the management of NICNAS. It will achieve this by allowing the director of NICNAS to add to the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances chemicals which have been transferred to the industrial chemicals framework from other Commonwealth regulatory schemes. Currently, in the absence of this transfer mechanism, introducers of chemicals to the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances which were previously regulated under other Commonwealth regulatory schemes have been forced to meet the requirements of the framework and the associated notification and assessment costs. This amendment will remove this extra burden created by the government decision to transfer regulation of certain chemicals from one regulatory framework to NICNAS.

The second amendment formalises the notification and assessment arrangements for UV filters in secondary sunscreen products. These arrangements have been in place since October 2008 and these amendments just formalise that process. When cosmetics were transferred from the TGA to NICNAS in 2007, it was agreed that the data requirements under the TGA relating to UV products be maintained. This bill updates the NICNAS schedule to this act to cater for the additional data requirements relating to UV products.

The third and more technical amendment contained within this bill removes the requirement for NICNAS to publish summary assessment reports. Summary assessment reports were originally used when the full chemical assessment reports were not publicly available unless they were purchased in hard copy. The summary assessment reports provided a summary of the report and were available free of charge. The full NICNAS assessment reports are now freely available on the internet, making the need for summary reports obsolete. Removing the requirements for NICNAS to duplicate reports should increase the efficiencies of the scheme.

It is a rare thing to see the government decreasing the regulatory burden on business and industry, and making their departments smaller and more efficient, but this bill seems to do exactly that: it decreases the regulatory burden while increasing the efficiency of the scheme. For this reason, the coalition will be supporting this bill through the parliament. I can only hope that we start to see more reductions in red tape from the government.

Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to support the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment (Inventory) Bill 2011. The bill amends the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989, which established a national system of notification and assessment of industrial chemicals used in Australia. The National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme administer the act, and the activities of NICNAS underpin essential advice to other government agencies which make up Australia's regulatory system for industrial chemicals. The bill underpins the completion of the cosmetic regulatory reforms which were largely implemented in 2007. It completes the reforms to the cosmetic therapeutic interface and it puts in place significant technical changes to enhance the administration and efficiency of the industrial chemical scheme's assessment processes.

In 2007, to facilitate the transfer regulatory responsibility for certain low-risk cosmetic products from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to NICNAS, the NICNAS cosmetics standard was introduced. The standard enables NICNAS to set standards for certain cosmetics and impose penalties for noncompliance. However, a mechanism to transfer the chemicals in these cosmetic products from the TGA to the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances was not developed. This bill establishes that mechanism, allowing the transfer of these chemicals to AICS as well as enabling NICNAS to legally impose the same controls that had previously been applied by the TGA. The transfer process will be open and transparent, with any proposal to transfer a chemical onto the inventory being published by the director of NICNAS, with this also open to review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. In the absence of any transfer mechanisms some introducers of chemicals have had to meet the more stringent requirements of the new chemicals framework with the associated notification and assessment costs or reporting obligations.

The bill also includes technical amendments to the act in relation to NICNAS's assessment processes. The act currently requires the director of NICNAS to prepare and publish separate summary reports for all of the organisation's chemical assessment reports. This practice was introduced at a time when the full assessment report had to be purchased and was only available in paper form. However, NICNAS now publishes the full public report on its website for all interested parties to download free of charge. To facilitate public access to these reports, NICNAS will also publish a short notice outlining the key content of new assessment reports in the Chemical Gazettewith a link to those reports. The bill also includes technical amendments to the act's schedule to improve the consistency of Australia's data requirements with other national and international assessment schemes, particularly those requirements that apply to UV filters in cosmetics.

The cosmetics reforms in 2007 included the transfer of regulatory responsibility for secondary sunscreen products which are applied to the skin—for example, moisturisers containing a sunscreening chemical. NICNAS has assessed the UV filter chemicals in these products by requesting on a case-by-case basis the additional data required for sunscreens under the TGA. The bill allows the more efficient collection of data by creating a new section in the schedule of data requirements, including requirements specific to UV filters. The intent of this amendment to the schedule is to formalise current arrangements and maintain a consistent approach to the assessment of these chemicals across regulatory schemes. The proposed amendments will not place any significant additional requirements on the industrial chemicals industry, contrary to the remarks of the previous speaker. The bill has been developed in consultation with stakeholders and as a result of the collaborative approach adopted by the government, industry and the community. The amendments enable NICNAS to regulate chemicals transferred from other agencies and to ensure consistent data requirements and administrative processes to provide a much more efficient process and maintain transparency.

These amendments deliver on the Gillard government's commitment to ensure the most efficient regulatory system is in place for industrial chemicals while maintaining existing levels of worker safety, public health and environmental standards. I commend the bill to the House.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the members for Boothby and La Trobe for their contribution to the debate on the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Amendment (Inventory) Bill 2011. The bill does fulfil a range of government objectives by continuing to protect public health and the environment; by reducing the regulatory burden on industry; by providing more information on chemicals in use in Australia; and by maximising the efficient use of NICNAS resources. The bill enables finalisation of the government's reform of the regulation of cosmetics, thereby creating long-term, sustainable and competitive advantage for the cosmetics industry while ensuring the continued safeguarding of health, safety and the environment. While the ingredients in certain cosmetics transferred from the TGA have been regulated by NICNAS as industrial chemicals for some time, these ingredients have been regulated as new industrial chemicals with the attendant notification and assessment costs of reporting obligation. The bill makes the necessary changes to the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act to recognise these chemicals as existing chemicals through entry on the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances. These mechanisms will also provide a regulatory pathway for future reforms that involve the transfer of regulatory responsibility for chemicals to NICNAS should a need be demonstrated.

At the same time the amendments also address a public health gap for chemicals in transferred cosmetic products by ensuring that the previous TGA controls become conditions of use under the NICNAS inventory. Further safeguards are built into the transfer process, with the bill providing the director of NICNAS with the discretion not to place chemicals on the inventory should they pose an unreasonable risk. The transfer process will be open to public scrutiny and subject to review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Moreover, chemicals can only be transferred to the public section of the inventory and not the confidential section, further ensuring public scrutiny of the transfer process.

The bill will also formalise the application by NICNAS of the TGA's data requirements for UV filters in certain products transferred from the TGA—namely, in secondary sunscreening products such as moisturisers. The schedule of the act lists data requirements for new chemicals that must be provided by industry. However, UV filters have some additional data requirements that are not covered by requirements already in the act. NICNAS currently obtains this data through an existing power in the act which allows NICNAS to seek further data not in the schedule. The bill will create a new part in the schedule for these additional data requirements so that industry will know upfront the data required for the assessment of these particular chemicals. This will deliver greater efficiencies and certainty for industry, improve the utilisation of NICNAS resources, and maintain consistency of approach across regulatory schemes responsible for UV filters.

In addition to implementing cosmetics reforms, the second objective achieved by this bill is to make technical amendments to improve clarity and consistency within the act. These proposed amendments do not place any significant additional requirements on the industrial chemicals industry but instead provide some added efficiencies by clarifying NICNAS data requirements in accordance with international best practice.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the support of stakeholders for the proposed amendments and their ongoing cooperation and assistance in the development of this bill. As a result of the collaborative approach adopted between government, industry and the community, I believe we have been able to achieve a well-considered and appropriate piece of amending legislation. I also acknowledge the work of NICNAS staff and thank the opposition for their support on these bills. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the package of three bills to establish a horse disease response levy. The outbreak of equine influenza was only four years ago, in August 2007, and horses on thousands of properties were reported to have been infected over that time. In response to the emergency, Commonwealth, state and territory governments worked with the horse industry and horse owners to eradicate the disease. On 30 June 2008 affected areas of the country were officially declared free of the virus as no new cases had been reported for six months, since 25 December 2007. During this outbreak the Commonwealth government provided through various assistance packages about $227 million of the $268 million committed to individuals and businesses whose primary source of income had been affected by the outbreak and the subsequent movement restrictions.

This is why I strongly support the package of three bills to establish the horse disease response levy. The combination of these three bills will ensure that, if there is a combined national emergency response, at the end of the day, the industry is able to fund that, subsequent to government dealing with it.

The first bill, the Horse Disease Response Levy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011 amends the Australian Animal Health Council (Live-stock Industries) Funding Act 1996 to enable a horse disease response levy to be appropriated to the Australian Animal Health Council. The Commonwealth will ensure that assistance is given to the industry to help in progressing R&D activities and/or the promotion of maintenance of horse health.

The second bill, the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011, imposes a levy on manufactured horse feed and worm treatment for horses to enable the horse industry to repay amounts paid by the Commonwealth on behalf of the horse industry in response to an emergency animal disease outbreak affecting horses. The introduction of this levy is an important mechanism for the horse industry to recoup costs if the need arises. It will only—and I stress, only—be used or acted upon if there is an emergency animal disease outbreak affecting horses. The third bill, the Horse Disease Response Levy Collection Bill 2011, will enable the collection and administration of a horse disease response levy on manufactured horse feed and worm treatments for horses. The Commonwealth will be able to impose penalties for unpaid levies and the remission of any penalty for late payments as well as enable the collection of information and documents as specified by the Commonwealth.

These bills have come to fruition under this government after a typical initially half-baked approach which led to a failed attempt to pass legislation in 2008. While their motives were correct, the government's delivery of policy outcomes was less than perfect. A bill inquiry was conducted in relation to the failed 2008 bill. Horse owners identified the cause of the EI outbreak as a result of a breakdown in quarantine arrangements and the importation of shuttle stallions. It was because of these findings that the industry argued that a levy should be imposed on those most likely to contribute to future disease outbreak and who would ultimately benefit from any resulting compensation. The committee recommended the passage of the bill. The committee has indicated support for compulsory registration for all horses in the establishment of a national register. The legislation was ultimately reintroduced and defeated in the Senate on 4 February 2009.

Since then, there has been extensive consultation with the industry, with a constant stream of stakeholders coming through both the minister's and my own offices. Finally, on 3 March 2011, the peak horse bodies—the Australian Horse Industry Council, Harness Racing Australia, the Australian Racing Board and Equestrian Australia—each signed up to the EADR, an emergency animal disease response agreement, to fund dealing with future horse outbreaks like horse flu on behalf of the horse industry. The agreement means that the Australian government will pay for all costs associated with disease outbreak but then the industry has 10 years to pay back its share of the costs.

The horse industry had previously disagreed on how to collect its funding share. Recreational horse owners, understandably, had concerns that a compulsory levy would disadvantage them, but now the industry has agreed to place a levy of about 50c on manufactured feed and wormers. While there is not universal support, it is widely accepted that this is the best and fairest available option to collect the levy across the horse industry.

As previously mentioned, with the recent outbreak of the Hendra virus in Queensland and the discovery of the deadly disease in a dog, there is a very real need for the Commonwealth to impose measures to assist in combating outbreak. Having said that, the Hendra virus has an awful outcome on humans and I would not want people to think that the animal industry is expected to fund those exotic diseases that have a serious human component, like Hendra. I do not want to confuse the issue there. But it does show how we have to act when a disease comes under our skies.

We on this side of the House are concerned about quarantine and biosecurity defences having been significantly downgraded. We need to be ready for an outbreak that will inevitably come. Labor's 2009 federal budget took another $35.8 million from the quarantine and biosecurity budgets, leading to the loss of 125 jobs and reduced inspections of arriving passengers and cargo. Fifty-eight million dollars was slashed from the Customs budget, leading to 4.7 million fewer air cargo consignments being inspected each year and 2,150 fewer vessels being boarded on arrival.

Science is taking a back seat as federal bureaucrats find reasons to ignore warnings due to funding shortfalls and there has not been sufficient support from Minister Ludwig or Minister Burke before him. I have serious concerns about biosecurity and quarantine measures in our country. Ignoring the myrtle rust and Asian bee incursions are two recent cases in point. New South Wales and Queensland tried, but neither got sufficient back-up from the Commonwealth government—that is, Minister Ludwig or Minister Burke—who pretended it was not really happening. Then there is yesterday's decision on New Zealand apples.

I strongly support the introduction and combination of these three bills. I think we have got to a point where, as much as is humanly possible, it is fair. It imposes a lesser burden on recreational animals and a far more serious burden on those who spend most on manufactured feeds and wormers, which, undoubtedly, the racehorse industry, the jumping industry and the professional horse industry do.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to be speaking, finally, on the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011 and related bills. I spoke on the previous bill in the previous parliament, in 2008. For all that time, the Australian horse industry has been left in a state of insecurity because we did not have arrangements in place to allow the industry and the government to adjust to any outbreak of disease that might occur. This comes after a decade of insecurity and indifference by the previous government to the risk of equine influenza. In my previous speech, I talked about that quite a bit: how the member for Wide Bay had basically adopted a 'she'll be right' attitude to the potential threat of equine influenza, despite being warned by people in the industry.

So this is unfinished business. It is a great pity that it did not come to the House before this. It is a great pity that the opposition rejected the bill in its first incarnation. I thought it was a profoundly fair bill, a bill that protected Australia and the horse industry and provided that industry with the same level of security that occurs in other livestock industries. We have potential levies in place for chicken meat, honeybees, cattle, dairy, chickens, sheep, lambs, goat and pigs. This was not a new concept in the previous bill. It was a perfectly reasonable arrangement.

I am pleased that the opposition has finally seen sense and we have finally been able to get levy arrangements on which there is a greater level of agreement. But I think we need to understand that we are never going to have universal approval for levy arrangements. There is always going to be someone out there who regards it as an impost on their business or on their individual liberty. But levies, taxes and prices on carbon are all arrangements that are necessary for civilisation, for stable government and for security. They are the great compromise we make between our individual liberty and our collective security. I do not mean to fire up the opposition, but after a decade of their indifference and ignoring all these problems it is nice for them to finally come to a conclusion and say yes. It must be a heart-warming thing for the opposition—such a novel experience! One hopes that saying yes might be catching. You might get some warm fuzzies! We can only hope that this might be part of a new era of civility in our public life and that the warring parties might give it a rest. We can only hope.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have got to stop smoking that stuff!

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I live in hope. I am a great believer in cooperation. But it is good that we have some agreement on this bill and some agreement about how the levies will be imposed. They are going to be imposed on manufactured horse feed and worming treatments for horses. It will be a levy on consumers; we cannot not get away from that. People will not like paying it in the event of a disease outbreak. Initially, of course, the levies are all set at zero, so there will not be an impost unless there is an outbreak of disease. It is worth noting that the previous outbreak of disease cost the government—and therefore cost the community—some $249 million because of the financial assistance that had to be made to individuals, organisations and businesses. And that is not counting the significant losses that were experienced by people outside the reasonably strict framework that had to occur because of the high costs and the failure to have a levy. One constituent of mine, who made ribbons for horseshows—the prizes for the winners at pony clubs and many horseshows in my electorate—received no compensation and there was a great impact on her business. I remember her plight very well.

It is worth acknowledging the great contribution horses do make to our rural life and the culture of rural life—and I note that we have the member for Eden Monaro in the chamber. Although I do not have any spectacular jumps in my electorate—we have got plains for the most part—there are many pony clubs. My sister participated in one. There is a very famous rodeo in Marrabel in my electorate. Marrabel is a great little town. I got a six per cent swing there last election, and got 17 votes rather than 11. So I thank the one family who might have changed sides for their support. It is a great town and I have very fond memories of going to Marrabel in my youth and going to the rodeo there. It is interwoven with rural life and interwoven to the culture of it. When equine influenza hit, everything stopped for a while. All the horse components of country shows were cancelled, and you noticed that. It made a big difference in my hometown of Kapunda.

It is worth acknowledging that these great insecurities are out there. We know that we cannot put up the shutters and have a 'fortress Australia'. We live in an interconnected world, and that means that we must resist the siren song of protectionism and this idea of a 'fortress Australia'. That will not provide security; it will just cost us jobs, trade and opportunity. We have to acknowledge that we need to seek security in different ways—firstly, through prevention and, secondly, when we do have issues we need to respond to them quickly.

I commend this bill to the House. It is certainly nice to see the opposition finally saying yes. I look forward to these arrangements coming into place and making my constituents more secure in the event of any disease outbreak.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011 and related bills. I of course have a great interest in it, particularly because the trigger for this bill relates to a quarantine outbreak of equine influenza in Australia. I think that is the reason we have this bill before us today. As a consequence of what happened with the equine influenza outbreak, the industry had to look at how it will respond should a situation like that occur in the future and what the costs will be and who will bear those costs.

We would not be discussing this bill, I believe, were it not for a breakdown of quarantine in Australia. That breakdown in quarantine was a result of shuttle stallions coming, I understand, from Japan and carrying the equine influenza being transported to Australia to a quarantine facility at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. It was from that facility, a quarantine facility, that the disease escaped into the domestic horse industry across Australia—and it spread rapidly.

In my electorate of Maranoa there is a big horse event at Morgan Park in Warwick. Race meetings in the outback were underway. The circuit had started. As result of it being identified, word got out into the horse industry, and not just around Sydney; it was identified in Warwick at Morgan Park, because horses had come from the Hunter. It demonstrates how quickly a disease—an exotic disease in this case, influenza—can spread when it gets out because of a breakdown of quarantine.

The whole of the landmass of Queensland was in quarantine lockdown. I mentioned Morgan Park at Warwick, for instance. There were people travelling with their racehorses from Mount Isa and Longreach to the Birdsville races; they were overnighting with their horses, I recall, at Windorah. They could not move; they were locked down there, 1,500 kilometres away from where the outbreak had been identified and had spread to, in this case Morgan Park in Warwick in my electorate. The races had to be cancelled—the Birdsville races, for instance.

Those races in the outback raise significant funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Sure, the outback race circuit out there is a great event, but let us look at all the other benefits of it, not only for local tourism and commerce but the funds they raise for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Horses were stranded at Bedourie, Windorah and many other parts of Queensland, because, when the lockdown occurred, no permits were given to move horses from that facility. I remember the event clearly, because it was one of those issues where people said, 'Well now, this is a breakdown of quarantine in this country.' We were in government at the time; I remember it well.

The question is: where were the quarantine facilities and those associated with the administration and control of quarantine? How can a disease such as this escape from a secure quarantine facility in Sydney? If it can escape from a quarantine facility, what does it say about our other quarantine measures around Australia? Shouldn't we be running up the red alert in relation to quarantine generally? This was a breakdown in our quarantine.

It was contained because of the lockdown, but it affected some 8,000 properties around Australia. Compensation and measures to assist people affected—some $250-odd million—was just for the equine influenza incident affecting the horse industry. There are many other businesses associated with the horse industry that did not receive any compensation. It occurred at the very start of the breeding season, if I can put it that way, with our domestic blood horse industry. I have blood horse studs in the east of my electorate—exceptionally good studs—for the racing industry. They had mares about to travel to the property. They could not come, so the service fee that those stallions would have generated in income for those studs was not realised. The mares were not able to travel. Those that were there could be joined, but those that were travelling over the next month or six weeks were not able to travel. So it affected the bloodstock industry. Pony clubs, rodeos, camp draughts, farriers and the transport sector were all affected by this—and I go back to the original point—because of a breakdown in quarantine in Australia. We should be running the red alert out on quarantine.

If a simple equine influenza and a breakdown of our quarantine can occur in relation to the horse industry, what does it say about the new protocols in relation to New Zealand apples coming to Australia? I know what the decision is, but I have to say: not only should we have the red alert out there; we should also make sure that quarantine here in Australia and in New Zealand is of the highest and strictest standards. The very fact that equine influenza has entered Australia through a quarantine station—and the cost to the horse industry and to associated industries has not been measured—demonstrates to me that, if fire blight comes to Australia as a result of Quarantine saying the protocols for New Zealand apples coming into Australia will not lead to an outbreak of fire blight, which I do not accept, we will have it forever. This levy bill resulting from equine influenza in the horse industry must demonstrate to us all that our quarantine protocols are not strict enough, and I do not have confidence in the protocols for New Zealand apples coming into Australia. This very bill should be shining a red light on our quarantine protocols. What does this also say about the possibility of foot and mouth disease entering Australia through our quarantine entry points?

I have to say that I am very, very concerned about our quarantine. I am very concerned about the decision yesterday to allow New Zealand apples into Australia. I witnessed the accidental, as it were, introduction of equine influenza that escaped detection through a secure quarantine station. So what does that say about apples coming from New Zealand in a container? Are they going to go through a quarantine station? Are there going to be any inspections here in Australia? If fire blight were to get here, we would have it forever. It would destroy the apple industry. Governments would then have to pick up the costs to the industry and the costs to individual families and orchardists across those regions.

I know the reason for this bill. It will certainly raise money and it has received agreement from the industry itself. But if we had quarantine protocols and quarantine policing, this bill may never have come before the House because we would never have seen a shuttle stallion coming from Japan to Australia, which obviously led to the outbreak of equine influenza. I acknowledge it happened on our watch as a government, but it should send to both sides of the House a red alert that our quarantine protocols can never be compromised. I fear that, with the agreement to allow apples in from New Zealand, we have allowed a compromise. There is no such thing as zero risk when you allow the physical product into Australia. It is just like the situation with the horses: if you allow the physical product—the carrier of the disease—into Australia, you do run those risks. It is inevitable that you run those risks. There is no such thing as a zero risk. There is no such thing as a 100 per cent guarantee that it will not appear. Whilst this bill has the support of the industry, we must remain vigilant.

I can assure the House that I have got the red light shining on our quarantine right across Australia at every entry point, and I will certainly not be taking a back seat when it comes to keeping up scrutiny on this whole issue of quarantine. If we ever saw a breakdown in relation to foot and mouth disease entering Australia, I fear what it would do to our magnificent livestock industries in Australia. I am not wanting to lay the blame on anyone. It was on our watch as a government that this occurred. We have to make sure that we do not see a repeat of the mistakes of the past.

This levy has been agreed to by the industry to provide funds if circumstances warranting their use arise; they may never arise but, if they do, we will be prepared. Let us keep that red light shining. I will not be taking a backwards step at any stage in relation to quarantine. I thank the House.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011, which is being debated cognately with the Horse Disease Response Levy Collection Bill 2011 and the Horse Disease Response Levy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011. I do so because I have an abiding interest in all things equine. Just to give you a background as to why, Madam Deputy Speaker, right from a young person I spent a lot of time on the back of a horse. In fact, in my younger, sillier days I used to ride in rodeos in the circuit around Western Australia. I recall being on the front page of the West Australian riding the feature horse at the Western Australian Royal Show. It was not a very good picture because I was coming off at the time, but I did enjoy my involvement in those days. I further went on to semiprofessionally train thoroughbred racehorses for seven years, having my own stables at Ascot around that racecourse in Perth. I had some success in the city and the country training thoroughbreds.

When you extrapolate that into my electorate now, the Canning electorate is the home of much of Western Australia's horse industry. We have breeding facilities and probably the most pre-eminent is the Heytesbury horse stud, which is owned by the Holmes a Court family. We have many standardbred studs. We have the Pinjarra Trotting Club, which is probably the best trotting track in Western Australia. We have the Pinjarra Race Club, which has one of the best all-weather tracks and layout itself. Many of the hobby trainers, both at a standardbred level and at a thoroughbred level, operate within the electorate of Canning. For example, Byford has a training track, and if you were to fly over the area you would see that most of the five-acre lots spread throughout the semirural areas of my electorate have a trotting track in there for exercising by the hobby trainer with one or two trotters. The beaches are not too far away for those who want to exercise their horses on the beaches. Not only that but we have every form of equine activity there. We have the pony clubs, the polocrosse, the polo, the dressage—every form of equine activity is located within the Canning electorate.

So this is very important to my electorate and that is why I wish to speak about this issue. A new initiative is the Coolup equestrian centre, which the Shire of Murray in my electorate is endeavouring to get off the ground, based on the Australian equine livestock event centre in Tamworth, which cost $30 million. You have got to start somewhere, and a covered and indoor dressage area at Coolup is being promoted and is something I would like to get behind, given the opportunity through Regional Development Australia or some form of federal funding to help them continue. I helped open a riding for the disabled arena which had been sponsored by the local people in the shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale recently. On that basis this is a very important industry to me. As a horse tragic, I have just had another ordinary racehorse. I paid a lot of money for it. It won a race and placed several times in the city. But it was a $100,000 horse which I am going to have to give away because it is not of much value anymore, having ran last at its last run. That is the tragedy of being involved in horses. As they say, poverty is owning a racehorse.

Many people whose livelihoods depend on this industry are involved in this industry, right from those who sell feed, veterinary supplies or gear to those who train semiprofessionally as hobby trainers or those who train professionally. One of the leading trainers in Perth, Adam Durrant, operates in my area. Ross Oliveri, one of the best trainers in Perth at the moment, has his stables in my electorate, in the standardbred area. Probably Australia's pre-eminent reinsman, Chris Lewis, an Inter-Dominion winner, has his stud within the electorate of Canning.

All those people are very interested in the biosecurity issues surrounding thoroughbreds. When this EI outbreak first happened in 2007, or it could have been slightly earlier—I stand to be corrected on that—it was a surprise to Australia. We thought that as an island nation we were immune from the equine influenza virus. This is the case with Australia's location in respect of many of the exotic viruses that have been mentioned by the member for Maranoa, whether they be in the agricultural area, like fire blight, or with animals. Let us recall that we have had a long-term industry in which shuttle stallions come to Australia, generally from Europe, and we had not had a problem. We have lifted the quality of thoroughbreds in Australia by selective breeding by Northern Hemisphere shuttle stallions, largely from Britain—thanks to the magnificent breeding industry in Britain. If you look through the Australian on a Monday morning and check out the winners on the British racecourses you will find that many of the stallions that have sired the winners in Britain have sired the winners at Rose Hill or Flemington on the same day.

The member for Maranoa is quite correct: this outbreak happened as a result of a careless error in a quarantine facility. Let us recall the instance. A young track rider working in the facility was not properly washed down or disinfected before he left for the weekend. He then went to a pony club type of event, I believe it was, or a dressage event in northern New South Wales, and that is where the spread happened. As the member has also said, a standstill instruction was then given to all horses around Australia. They could not be moved, even in Western Australia, which EI did not reach. People from my electorate went to campdraft meetings around Carnarvon and were not allowed to shift for days and weeks. They were camped up there with their horses, which they were not allowed to move, and their vehicles were not allowed to move. The disruption to Western Australia was only minor, because we did not have the outbreak there. We did have some thoroughbred and standardbred meetings cancelled, but it was not like in the eastern states, where the movement restricted the breeding opportunities in that breeding season. Mares could not be taken to studs, and stallions could not be shifted around studs, because of the standstill instruction.

So it had a devastating effect, as a result of something as minor as a guy not washing down properly and then going to ride horses in a recreational sense on the weekend. I must say, it was a bit of a cheap shot for the member for Wakefield to say how terrible it was that it happened under our watch. Yes, we admit that, but we quite rightly believed that Australia was somewhat immune from equine influenza. If you recall, just a year before, two Japanese horses quinellaed the Melbourne Cup. That is where the virus is believed to have come from, because Japan has quite a history of equine influenza virus. I recall that the winner was Delta Blues, ridden by a Japanese jockey. I know that because I backed it, and I got the quinella, and because Damien Oliver rode the horse that came second—Alcopop, I believe its name was. It was an outstanding result, but the Japanese horses have not been back since, largely because they are an area of serious equine influenza infection.

I know others have talked to the details of this bill. The measures that have taken place had to happen in terms of the costs associated with not only monitoring but also eliminating this virus and other horse viruses. Of course, the first time this came through there was a knee-jerk reaction: we were going to hit everyone with a levy. Was the levy going to be collected in a certain way, how was it going to be managed, who would be responsible for it, what was going to happen to the interest, how would it be disbursed et cetera? The industry was not very happy about it. The casual recreational rider who has a horse in their backyard and just wants to ride in the bush on the weekend, or wants to go to a local pony club event, was being hit up largely for the standardbred and thoroughbred industries, and they were not happy about it. This measure that the industry now has been consulted on is far fairer and far more reasonable. If there is any outbreak like the equine influenza virus, the government will stump up the money and then, over a 10-year period, collect it back from the industry through a 50c levy on manufactured feeds, wormers and other veterinary supplies. That has been agreed to by the industry and as has been said not everyone is happy, but it is the fairest way. No money is being collected now. The levy is zero now because there is no biosecurity emergency in this area. Should there be one, the government would involve itself in committing to certain levels of payment. I understand, for example, that should there be another EI virus, like this, the government would pay 75 per cent of the levy and the industry would pay 25 per cent.

I would imagine all those details are in the explanatory memorandum of this bill. It has been well consulted and I want to congratulate all those involved. Senator Back, a pre-eminent vet from Western Australia and now a senator, is somebody who had a lot to do with this. I want to congratulate him and his committee members who inquired into this because it really is bringing a resolution to future outbreaks.

There are other issues which surround this. There are brumbies, for example—certainly not the Brumbies that play rugby for Canberra, because I understand they are not going too well. In the alpine regions of our eastern seaboard we have brumbies romantically wandering around the high country. Should they contract the disease, who is responsible for that? I suppose this levy clicks in on that. I was at Kakadu earlier this year. There were a heap of brumbies wandering around the wetlands there. It is a potential time bomb sitting out there for the equine industry because of these feral horses—or any feral animals. I read in the paper this morning about the goat industry—and dare I say, live export industry—involving goats from the sheep stations of Western Australia. The Middle East countries want to put a ban on that at the moment because they are concerned about rabies.

There are a whole lot of exotic and traditional diseases that surround our livestock but in this case, in the equine industry, we need to be ever vigilant. As an island nation we have been well regarded because of our lack of disease and the lack of impact it has had on our industry. It has been managed well until now. I think the mechanism that is in place now and obviously has bipartisan support is fair and reasonable and deals quite appropriately with any future crises that we may have in this industry.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the member for Canning I have an electorate that has a similar spread of equine activities. We who breed, train and race a few thoroughbreds were, like so many around Australia, directly affected by the EI outbreak. We had a mare in New South Wales at that time and were unable to move her so, like for a lot of other people, that incurred a lot of additional costs and a number of challenges. That was replicated right around Australia. There is a very strong equine industry in my part of the world and it very much reflects that of the member for Canning. I commend him on his speech because he talks from very direct personal experience. It is the practical nature of his and Senator Chris Back's experience that is very important in this debate.

This Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011 was really brought about by the outbreak of equine influenza in 2007. It is by way of negotiation that we have got to this point and I commend the government on getting here and getting consensus, which has not been easy and has been quite protracted. However, the various species related influenza viruses have long been known as relatively host-specific but highly contagious pathogens. It is also well known that mutation of the virus is common—and that has been the concern with this—and has resulted in the development of cross-species infection and increases in morbidity and mortality.

Mutated influenza viruses are the ones that are likely to produce the pandemics. Those we have seen in human history—such as the Asiatic flu, the Spanish flu, the Hong Kong flu and even the swine flu—have killed millions. Influenza is also a concern for the threat of avian flu, known as bird flu. So it is a very real threat. This is a genuine threat. It is easily transmitted. It is transmitted through respiratory aerosol. It is also impossible to control where hosts are within range of exhaled air. That is the issue. It can spread so quickly and so easily.

The virus will survive in the environment long enough to be spread by other vectors, including humans, as we know from the EI outbreak which moved from one animal to another. I would think members in this place who have attempted to avoid the flu in here, out in the community or even with their children at school know that it is almost impossible to avoid, as we just heard. In any form, influenza is almost impossible to control once it arrives. It is very difficult.

That was so in 2007 with the outbreak which started at the Eastern Creek quarantine station. Four racehorses were imported from a country that had just experienced the equine flu outbreak from the quarantine station. This is something that does concern us all. It is an ongoing concern for me how we manage this quarantine issue.

I know that former judge Ian Callinan was asked to investigate and his response noted that:

The objective of biosecurity measures at a post-arrival quarantine station for animals, such as Eastern Creek, is to prevent the escape of disease that might be present in the station. It is therefore essential that people and equipment having contact with the animals are adequately decontaminated before leaving the station. That was not happening at Eastern Creek in August 2007. Had such biosecurity measures been in place, it is most unlikely that there could have been any escape of equine influenza from the Quarantine Station.

He said that was a consequence of a number of acts and omissions and that fundamental biosecurity measures were not being implemented in what was the largest government operated animal quarantine station in Australia at that time. It was a very serious breach. He also noted that there were people who needed to take responsibility—the Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine and the person who, under the minister, was charged with the Quarantine Act 1908.

Ian Callinan described Australia's quarantine system as inefficient, underfunded and lacking diligence. It really does concern me. I share the views of the member for Maranoa, of those expressed right throughout the parliament, on our side particularly, and of the member who commented:

This comprehensive report is a disturbing commentary on Australia's quarantine and biosecurity arrangements for horse imports before August last year.

That was said by the then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the member for Watson. He said that, while changes have been made, the commissioner has highlighted serious and systemic failures in the system and that the government is acting urgently to fix them.

The review of biosecurity by Roger Beale was well underway at that time. I am really concerned that the equine influenza outbreak was caused by a failure of quarantine protocols and that the government's response at that time was to basically just focus on the Beale quarantine and biosecurity review. But, by and large, the response has been to ignore the majority of that. There is real concern and not a lot of confidence in the government being able to maintain Australia's biosecurity to keep out pests and diseases in the future. There is no wonder when we address the bill that we see that we will be paying for an inevitable failure when it occurs. I will talk later about the risks to Australian apples and biosecurity beyond this.

The bill apportions the clean-up costs beyond the actual outbreak to various sections of the horse industry by relying on levying feed and worm treatments on the basis that all horse owners need them and use both. Whilst this might not always be necessarily considered a perfect method—and I do not know that there is one—it is a solution that has been accepted by equine enthusiasts and industry bodies, which is very important. The bill is neither groundbreaking nor unique. Many animal and plant industries in Australia already have legislation and schemes in place that have the industry pay for border protection failures. I note that, under the Constitution, particularly in section 69, the federal government and the parliament are responsible in relation to quarantine.

I am very concerned, as is the member for Maranoa, about how seriously the government takes its responsibility. Too often we have seen the breakdown of Australian biosecurity and the incursion of pests and diseases. We have seen government tell Australian businesses, producers and the community, 'We have failed you again at the border and, again, you will have to pay for that failure.' The dereliction of biosecurity duty will be exacerbated into the future as our quarantine policy continues to give ground, and that is what we saw yesterday by way of the recent decision to import New Zealand apples, in spite of the risks of fire blight, leaf curling midge and European canker.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Forrest will stick to the legislation before her, which is about horses.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it is, Madam Deputy Speaker. But it is also about biosecurity and the very great need to protect that and how important that is right across the board. It touches on a range of issues. As we know, the quarantine policy of Australia should not just be about preventing the incursion of diseases and pests; it should not allow, as we saw following the Prime Minister's announcement, what occurred yesterday.

Our policy has been watered down to reduce the risks of incursion and, as we saw unfortunately yesterday— and I take the Deputy Speaker's comments on board—it will not eliminate the bacteria at all. That is an issue for biosecurity and that is what this bill is about. It is about maintaining our biosecurity and maintaining our disease- and pest-free reputation—our so-called clean, green, competitive advantage in a frequently tainted world. That is one of the opportunities we have, but we have to protect it at all costs. We certainly need the types of legislation and support from the government of the day to do so. We must reduce the risk.

Unfortunately, I have seen too much funding removed from our quarantine, Biosecurity and Customs budgets over the last few years. That really concerns me. It was $58 million one year and $38 million prior to that. That really allows me to pause and to think: how can that provide the government and the agencies we charge with the responsibility of managing our border security and issues such as equine influenza and other pests and diseases the capacity to do so? I say to the government: we must value Australia's agricultural and food production, and our biosecurity is a critical part of that.

Again, the government is responsible for quarantine and in this bill we have seen a way through in managing the expectations and the issues facing the industry across the board. While we are talking about equine matters, as the previous speaker, the member for Canning, said, we do have very vibrant industries in our parts of the world. Any outbreak of pests and diseases in the equine sector would and did have a major financial and economic impact.

By way of a final comment, I encourage the Yalyalup Pony Club, which is doing its best to make a bid to run the Quilty endurance event in my part of the world. That would be wonderful encouragement. On the basis of encouraging equine activity and the biosecurity measures to ensure that that can still happen, I support the bill.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest for her ingenious coming together to be relevant to the bill! The question is that this bill be now read a second time.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate all the contributions that honourable members have made in this debate and I certainly acknowledge the passion and interest in their electorates that they have reflected via their involvement in the issue of biosecurity and of course, in particular, the magnificent horse culture that exists in this country. I will comment more on that in a moment. To summarise, we have been talking—and the discussion has ranged widely—about the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011, the Horse Disease Response Levy Collection Bill 2011 and the Horse Disease Response Levy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2011, which provide for a mechanism to impose, collect and appropriate new levies on manufactured horse feed and worm treatments for horses. These levies have been requested by the horse industry, it is important to note, which has decided that the simultaneous application of a levy on worm treatments for horses and manufactured horse feed would provide the most equitable coverage of the industry.

The levies will be payable on the disposal of manufactured horse feed and worm treatments for horses from one party to another, and will be appropriated through the Animal Health Australia organisation. The levies will be set at a rate of zero, but the bills allow for regulations to be made to set a positive rate when required. This will provide the horse industry with a funding mechanism to repay the Commonwealth for moneys expended on its behalf in responding to an emergency outbreak of an animal disease affecting horses. The bills provide arrangements for governments and the horse industry to effectively and efficiently fund a quick, coordinated response to an emergency horse disease outbreak.

Members have made many interesting and passionate contributions—and I acknowledge the honesty of the member for Maranoa, who reflected that the equine influenza outbreak in August 2007 occurred on the previous government's watch. But we have approached the resolution of this issue in a bipartisan spirit. Members have commented on the significance of the horse culture in Australia, and I guess there is no region in the country that reflects that more than my own, as the home of the man from Snowy River. In fact, my family's first farm in Eden-Monaro, back in 1847, was on the Snowy River.

We have a big horse culture and industry in Eden-Monaro, with many equine schools, showjumping and horse racing. It is such a vital part of our community that you could not imagine Eden-Monaro without our horse culture. So that period from August 2007 onwards was devastating. All of our country shows were adversely affected through that period. It was so sad to see the absence of horses at those shows and the scrambling to try and fill that void with motorcycle displays and the like, dog races et cetera. As thrilling as they were, the absence of horses really left a hole for us and knocked a lot of people around across a broad range of activities—not just horse racing but the leisure industry as well. For me personally it was a big issue that we had to confront, and we have confronted it, as I mentioned, in a bipartisan way. As has been commented on by members, the majority of stakeholders do support these arrangements.

Members also commented on biosecurity and whether or not we are adequately addressing that issue, and I feel that I should make reference to what this government is doing in that space, from the lessons that we have learned. It is important to note that, in the 2011-12 budget, the government has committed very high and significant levels of spending—$425.4 million, in fact, over four years, for our border control, quarantine and biosecurity operations, including $205.6 million for Customs. In that budget, there is also $15.4 million for continuing eradication programs, $4.2 million to improve information access and communications in relation to our biosecurity systems and $19.1 million for staged investment for post-entry quarantine arrangements. In addition, there is work in progress relating to the budgeting for and expenditure on future post-entry quarantine arrangements for land acquisition.

This government stands with a proud record of addressing the biosecurity issues that have emerged. I note the comments that have been made in relation to the apple situation, but we are dealing with a decision that has been handed down by the World Trade Organisation. This government has been, as previous governments have been, out there solidly and aggressively advocating for the liberalisation of trade in the agricultural sector. There is nothing that would benefit our country more than the liberalisation of trade, and we were aggressively arguing this case only very recently as I attended the agricultural ministers meeting of the G20; we pushed this case very vigorously. The sole focus of that meeting was on food security and price volatility. The research that was done to underpin that meeting focused squarely upon the issue of trade liberalisation, as did the FAO meeting that we had in Rome following that, where Kofi Annan gave an impassioned speech about the devastating impacts of subsidies to agriculture, now approaching $400 billion—a massive distortion of the trade, and a holding back of countries like those in Africa, which has 60 per cent of the world's uncultivated land. To meet our food security needs pushing towards the huge population expansion we will see by 2050, and to feed a hungry world, we have to break down those barriers and eliminate those distortions, and there will be massive opportunities for our own farmers in that space.

I note the comments in relation to the risk and threat of fire blight. Prior to the last election, Batlow was in my electorate. I have met with great farmers like Greg Mouat and his crew. The concern about fire blight is a genuine one, and the security measures that we will put in place will certainly be targeted at and focused on that threat.

I thank members for their contributions and I welcome the fact that we are now able to step forward on this issue to meet the threats that we face to our horse culture and the fact that we have a mechanism to address it adequately in the future while maintaining our agricultural production and exports as well as the environment and public health.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill and move government amendments (1) and (2) as circulated together:

(1) Clause 3, page 2 (line 23), omit “both”, substitute “all”.

(2) Clause 3, page 2 (lines 27 to 33), omit paragraph (b) of the definition of worm treatment, substitute:

(b)there are instructions for use of the product that:

  (i)   are approved by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority under those Codes; or

  (ii)   accord with an established standard for the product under those Codes, if the product is a registered listed chemical product;

(c)   those instructions:

  (i)   are for use of the product for treatment of horses for internal parasites; and

  (ii)   are not for use of the product for treatment of other animals, except other members of the horse family (Equidae), for internal parasites.

This amendment is a minor technical amendment to the definition of 'worm treatment' in the Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2011. Following the introduction of the horse disease response levy bills into parliament the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry arranged to meet with affected industries, including the Animal Health Alliance, the Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association and the Stock Feed Manufacturers Council of Australia. The purpose of the meeting was to give the organisations an opportunity to discuss any concerns they may have with the proposed legislation. The need for the amendment was identified in discussions with the Animal Health Alliance and the Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association. These organisations provided advice that the original definition of 'worm treatment' was too broad.

The amendment is intended to more clearly identify the products that will be captured by the levy. The amendment clarifies that the levy will not apply to multipurpose worm treatments that have instructions that the product can be used to treat other animals—this was the issue—such as cattle, sheep and goats, as well as horses. However, the levy will apply to products that have instructions for use for horses and/or other species within the horse family Equidae, such as donkeys—I know you are a big fan of donkeys, Madam Deputy Speaker. The amendment was prepared in consultation with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. Animal Health Australia and the horse industry are aware of the amendment. I commend the amendments to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House with amendments.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to add my congratulations to Cadel Evans on his outstanding, unprecedented achievement in winning the 2011 Tour de France. Since the establishment of the Tour de France in 1903, 98 different cyclists have won the race. Almost exclusively, they come from continental Europe. There are two Americans who have won, Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong, and now the first Australian to win, Cadel Evans, has added his name to that prestigious list.

There are a number of Australians who have distinguished themselves in the Tour de France but never won the general classification. Sir Hubert Opperman, the federal Liberal MP for Corio for 17 years—from 1949 to 1966—rode the Tour de France in 1928, and it is fair to say that his Malvern Star would be light-years away from the space age bikes they ride today. Phil Anderson was the first Australian and actually the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey in 1981, and he wore it for nine days in 1982. I can remember visiting France in 1993, when he was still riding the tour, and having conversations with people in rural France who spoke very fondly of 'Skippy', the Australian they knew who rode the Tour de France. Stuart O'Grady has finished second in the points classification for sprinters of the Tour de France on four occasions. Robbie McEwen is a three-time winner of the points classification for sprinters of the Tour de France and has won several stages of the race.

To win the Tour de France, you have to be an exceptional all-round rider. You have to be able to climb, you have to be able to sprint, you have to be good on the road, you have to be good in the mountains. But you also need a very good mind; you need to be able to implement tactics and strategy. If ever we had an Australian who was likely to win the Tour de France, it was Cadel Evans. He has shown over a long period of time how good he is on the bike. In 1998 and 1999, he was first overall in the mountain bike World Cup, the equivalent of the world champion. In the Tour de France he has had high placings: in 2005, he was eighth; in 2006, he was fourth; and, in 2007 and in 2008, he came second—very close, one of the closest runners-up in the history of that race. In 2009 he won the Road World Championships road race. Watching this year's Tour de France, it was one of the most captivating cycling races I have ever seen. Going into the three-week race, for the first two weeks anything that happened it looked like Cadel Evans had the other riders' measure. The race was completely shaken up in the last four or five days when Andy Schleck took off in the Alps and made two or three minutes on the rest of the pack. In responding to that the next day, Cadel Evans had to deal with mechanical failure but with his team he was able to see that he lost no further time on that stage. It is usually said that the Tour de France is won in the mountains but, while Cadel remained in touch in the mountains, he won it in the time trial right at the very end.

As a South Australian member, one of the great benefits of being South Australian is the exposure we get to professional cycling. It was the idea of former Premier John Olsen and also Olympic champion Mike Turtur that we establish a road race in South Australia, the Tour Down Under. It was established in 1999 and it achieved pro tour status. Over the 13 years that it has been held so far we have seen that race going from strength to strength and most of the professional cyclists have appeared at that race. When Lance Armstrong came in 2009 and 2010, and I think 2011, it took the race to another level. The crowds have been massive. I think it was 780,000 people that turned out on the roads to watch this race. Cadel Evans has raced the Tour Down Under as well. In 2002 he won a stage. He won the mountains classification, such as they are in South Australia, in 2006. I well remember taking my family to watch the race up Willunga Hill and watching Cadel Evans and other cyclists of his calibre charging up Willunga Hill.

Cadel has said that he has not made a decision yet about whether he will attend the Tour Down Under and we cannot be selfish because it may not fit with his program and his training and what he wants to achieve next year, which is much more important. But I know that when he does next appear at the Tour Down Under the crowds will actually rival those which saw Lance Armstrong.

I should also congratulate SBS on their magnificent coverage of the Tour de France. Fifteen years ago watching the Tour de France was probably a bit of a niche activity; it was not as widely watched as it is now. I think over the last three or four years they have seen their coverage double each year. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin come to South Australia every year for the Tour Down Under, where instead of commenting on French chateaux they are commenting on the South Australian vineyards and pointing them out as people go around the tour. The SBS coverage has been compelling and very insightful, and Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin always find something interesting to inform the general viewer about what is going on in the race.

I would like to congratulate Cadel Evans. He is a magnificent Australian and his is really a fantastic achievement and one we should all be very proud of.

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak of a truly Australian story, of a man whose courage, strength and pure determination embodies the Australian spirit. Through Cadel Evans and his spectacular win in the Tour de France, the world's toughest endurance race, all Australians can be truly proud. Cadel Lee Evans was born in Katherine in the Northern Territory, and he spent the first four years of his life in the tiny Arnhem Land Aboriginal community of Barunga, 80 kilometres outside Katherine. When the locals saw him pedalling around town on his BMX, none of them probably foresaw his triumphant rise to the top of the cycling world and his elevation to the pantheon of Australia's great sporting heroes. Evans has lived all across this great land, from the dusty outback to the urban metropolis of Melbourne. He is an everyman, someone whom all Australians can aspire to be.

He describes himself as having been 'completely unsuitable for almost all Australian school sports' while at school, but, despite his small stature and lack of speed, he persevered with cycling. He was originally a rising star of the mountain-biking world, having competed at the junior world championships and finished second. Assisted by his coach, Aldo Sassi, Evans then switched to road racing and continued to excel.

When I was in high school I competed in some triathlons, but it is my brother, Tim Leigh, who is the avid cyclist of the family. He has followed Cadel Evans's journey from the beginning. He is the kind of person from whose bleary eyes you can always tell when the Tour de France is on. I know Tim celebrates the fact that an Australian has finally won his favourite race, the Tour de France, as does Josh Orchard, a sports fan who interned in my office this week and assisted with this speech. I use this chance to pay tribute to the many local cyclists in my electorate who have been inspired by Cadel Evans's win, including Dan Ashcroft, Damien Hickman and Tony Shields, and to the work locally of Pedal Power ACT, an organisation which is campaigning for better bike paths for all Canberra cyclists.

Cadel Evans first tasted success in the tour of Austria in 2001 and again in 2004 as well as in a Commonwealth Games time trial victory in 2002. He followed this up with impressive performances in other road races, including our very own Tour Down Under in the Adelaide Hills. I think that pretty much everyone expected he would go on to compete for cycling's greatest and most challenging prize, the Tour de France.

In 2006, Evans rode his first tour. While noted by many cycling enthusiasts as Australia's greatest hope, his first tour did not garner the media attention now showered upon him. His strong performance ensured that his 2007 campaign was watched by millions of Australians willing him along the road. We experienced the highs and lows of the day's stages and the eventual heartbreak that Evans must have felt after racing for over 90 hours to fall just 23 seconds short of Alberto Contador. After a disappointing race in 2008, Evans regrouped for the next year. However, in 2009, Evans again fell painfully short of the grand prize, finishing second in a strong performance. In 2010, Evans suffered a hairline fracture in his elbow and had to halt his campaign.

This year millions of Australians tuned in to the characteristically excellent tour coverage provided by SBS. We watched Evans battle through the tour as he constantly chased down breakaways, especially on the 19th stage in the French Alps, where Evans launched a stunning fightback after mechanical problems caused him to fall more than two minutes behind. We cheered and we cried when Evans demolished the penultimate stage—a time trial—and took the lead, and we cheered and cried even more as he cycled into Paris. We watched as the man pulled on that yellow jersey and took his place on the podium. For the first time, an Australian had won the Tour de France.

At 34, Cadel Evans is the oldest tour winner in the post-war era. In his acceptance speech, Evans dedicated his win to his late mentor, Aldo Sassi, who died of cancer in 2010 and was the very man who had helped convert Evans to road racing. Evans is a champion of sport, not only because of his success but also because of his perseverance and determination. Even when he has fallen behind, he has refused to give up. In a sport sometimes tainted by doping, Evans refused to accept anything less than a clean win in the greatest tour of them all. He defied age and he defied expectations. He embodies the Australian spirit: a spirit to win, to play fair and to be a proud yet gracious winner.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mia Freedman, whose columns I often enjoy reading on Sundays, has questioned whether it is appropriate to describe Cadel Evans as an Australian hero. When achieving something that no-one else has done before, as Strzelecki did when climbing to the peak of Mount Kosciusko, their efforts do elevate them in the eyes of their countrymen. The only reason Strzelecki would not be called an Australian hero was that he was Polish, but certainly his achievements made him an Australian icon. Cadel Evans has not climbed Mount Kosciusko, but by becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France and by becoming the oldest winner in postwar times at the age of 34 Cadel Evans has climbed Mount Everest.

Cadel Evans was 14 when he first announced his goal of winning the Tour de France; 20 years later he became the first Australian to win the most prestigious prize in cycling. While it is 20 years since a young Cadel voiced his desire to win the tour, it is only 10 years since Cadel switched from mountain biking to road cycling at the urging of the late Aldo Sassi, in part to put Cadel in the position to enter the prestigious grand tours of cycling like the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. It was in the latter that the previous two-time winner of the mountain biking world cup made his mark first in road cycling, briefly holding the magella rose or pink jersey in the 2002 tour.

Fast forward four years to 2006 when Cadel put himself in the running to win the Tour de France, finishing fourth. The next year he improved his position but came up just short, finishing a heartbreaking 23 seconds behind the winner, Alberto Contador, in second place. He repeated this result in 2008, finishing second this time to Carlos Sastre. In July this year, Cadel finally reached the summit, holding the leader's yellow jersey through to the final stage of the Tour de France and winning cycling's Everest. Cadel's magnificent victory came just 30 years after the groundbreaking ride of fellow Australian Phil Anderson, who became the first non-European to hold the leader's yellow jersey, a feat Anderson repeated for nine days the following year.

I am pleased to take this opportunity to add my voice to that of the parliament in congratulating Cadel Evans on his great historic achievement. His inspiring efforts and courage are a fine example of what can be achieved if you follow your goals and believe. Cadel will shape a generation of Australians with his courage.

Now we are seeing the phenomenon known as the Cadel effect. Just three weeks after his triumph on the roads of Paris, bicycle stores across the nation have sold out of many lines of stock and cycling clubs are being inundated with new members. None of this is surprising. Cadel is a hero who has made a contribution to Australia by inspiring our youth and genuinely showing them that if you have a dream and if you are prepared to make the sacrifices and if you are prepared to work towards it you can succeed. This is the message that Cadel Evans sends out to young Australians and this is why our nation salutes his efforts.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I realised just two days ago that I think I am finally recovering from the Tour de France. Like many Australians, I was up very late night after night after night—I missed only one stage. It is the same every year, and has been for many years now, and it takes me quite a while to recover—not that my effort was anywhere near as significant as those that actually rode it. I have been watching the tour now for many years and Cadel's victory was particularly sweet not just because an Australian won it but because Cadel won it—and I have been a fan now for many years. Even if he had not won it this time, I have still enjoyed some of the most extraordinary racing in watching Cadel over recent years.

It is worth reminding people who have not been following Cadel of who this man is. Even ignoring the win in 2011 in the Tour de France, this is one of our most extraordinary bike riders. He is the only bike rider to have won the world championship on a mountain bike and on a road bike. He won his first mountain bike world championship in 1998. By that stage, he had already been second in the mountain bike world championship as an under 19 in 1993, he had been third in the individual time trial juniors world championship as an under 19 in 1995 and he had won the Australian mountain bike championship in 1996. So he already had a substantial career. He won the world championship in 1998 and again in 1999. I have to say that the smile he finally gave after he won—after that look of slight punch drunkenness, I would have to say—was amazing. He looked totally stunned for a while and then someone said something and then a smile emerged on Cadel's face. It was the first time that I had seen Cadel smile that way since he first won that mountain bike championship so many years ago. It was a smile of pure joy after the effort that he had put in for all of those years to reach that level.

After the world mountain bike championship, he turned to the road. In 2002, he was first in the individual time trial in the Commonwealth Games. And I am really only reading the highlights here. There are lists of wins every year for Cadel. He was first and King of the Mountains in the Tour Down Under in 2003. He was first in the Tour of Austria in 2004. He was eighth overall in the Tour de France in 2005. For those of us who were watching back then, a top 10 performance by an Australian was extraordinary. In 2006, he was first overall in the Tour de Romandie and he was fourth overall in the Tour de France. He was again King of the Mountains in the Tour Down Under. In 2007 and in 2008, he was second, as we know, in the Tour de France. In 2009, he won the world championship on the road, an extraordinary effort. He was the first Australian to win that one, by the way, and the first cyclist ever to win them both. In 2010, he defended his world championship rainbow jersey in Geelong in one of the most extraordinary races I have seen for a long time. He did not win but the courage that he showed in defending that jersey in 2010 in the breakaway in the last kilometres of the race was absolutely astonishing.

That reminds me of one of the things that I really like about Cadel: he honours the sport and he honours the jersey that he wears. I admire Cadel so much for the way that he rides when he cannot win—when that possibility is over and when the only person he is racing is himself. We saw that in 2010 when he was wearing the yellow jersey and crashed in stage 8. Then in stage 9 he rode up the cul de Madeleine in the yellow jersey, lost the yellow jersey and fell back to the peloton and was dropped on the mountain stage, which is not like Cadel. His management said later that even though he knew by that stage that he had fractured his elbow in the crash the day before he did not feel that it was right to say so while he was wearing the yellow jersey. He honoured that jersey until he lost it, and then the story came out that he had fractured his elbow.

I do not think any of us can imagine what it is like to ride up a mountain with a fractured elbow. But I really cannot understand what it is like to ride down a mountain with a fractured elbow. It was interesting hearing him talk about that descent again in the interviews that he did after he won this year. He picked up quite a bit of time down that same descent this year. He commented that last year he found it very scary because he had fractured his elbow. For those of you who ride a bike, when you watch how hard they brake on those corners you understand how extraordinarily frightening that must have been. This is a man of extraordinary courage who has found a capability in himself that most of us can only imagine.

People say that you win the Tour de France in the mountains, but you actually win it with perfect preparation day after day, year after year. One of the enduring images for me from the whole coverage of the Tour this year was an image of the primary school he went to as a child. The kids there had obviously been following the race and they had created a fold-out/cut-out figures. You know: where you fold a piece of paper up and then you cut the half of the body out and when you unfold it there is a row of figures. They had painted them; there were nine of them. There were four red ones, one yellow one and four red ones. And that is of course Cadel riding in the middle of his BMC team as they rode of that last stage in the front of the peloton. Because it is a team event, I am going to name the team members who gave such incredible support to Cadel in the Tour de France. They were: Brent Bookwalter from the USA, Marcus Burghardt from Germany, Cadel Evans from Australia, George Hincapie—that extremely tall incredible rider from the USA—Amael Moinard from France, Steve Morabito from Switzerland, Ivan Santaromita from Italy, Manuel Quinziato from Italy and Michael Schar from Switzerland. I am sure I did not get those pronunciations right. They were the largely invisible men that were there around Cadel making sure he was safe in the peloton, making sure that he stayed out of trouble and pulling him back into the peloton when he had those mechanical problems on the mountains in the last stage.

There are also a number of Australian riders who should be mentioned in all of this. We had some of the most extraordinary Australian riders in recent years in the Tour de France. We missed Robbie McEwen and Mick Rogers this year. I was very sad not to see Robbie there. Robbie has been one of the joys for those of us who have watched Australians in the Tour de France for many years, seemingly riding without a team and emerging out of nowhere to win stage after stage after stage.

I watched Robbie once down in the criteriums in Geelong. As a bit of a distance athlete myself, every time I see a sprinter suddenly increase the speed of their pedalling my whole body asks how they do that. It is so far from what I am as a past athlete. Robbie is one of the Australian greats and I absolutely admire and respect the way he rode his career for as long as he continued to enjoy it. Robbie, even at the later stages of his career, was still in there as a contender in the final metres of each stage of the Tour de France. An extraordinary rider. Mick Rogers was not there. Mick is perhaps one of our riders who did not achieve what he could have. Back in 2006 and 2007 he was a very real tour contender. In fact, he was a favourite back in those years but crashed badly in 2007 and this took him out of the tour. Again, an extraordinary rider.

Stuart O'Grady, of course, was there. He has been there year after year, often in the front, for kilometre after kilometre, leading—a contender. He is an extraordinary rider. He has now signed with the new Australian team GreenEDGE along with a few rising stars: Jack Bobridge and Cameron and Travis Meyer. We are likely to see them in the tour next year as our first Australian team. Mark Renshaw was there. It is always a pleasure to see Mark, known as the best lead-out man in the game, leading out Mark Cavendish—and making it, I think, much easier for Mark Cavendish by the way. I think Mark is one of the extraordinary gifts to that team. And Richie Porte, who I understand was once a triathlete, was there. I know that every time a triathlete turns up to race with us on Sunday mornings the race organisers warn us that there is a triathlete in the bunch and we look to see who it is and make sure we get in front of them before the corners. I do not think Richie Porte has that problem. I think he has made the transition unbelievably well and he is one of the rising stars in road racing.

It was a great tour overall for Australians. I should also mention Simon Gerrans, who was the first Aussie to win a stage of the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. He is again an extraordinary talent who, while we were all watching Cadel, we might have missed actually win a stage in the 2011 Tour de France. I would also like to acknowledge Aldo Sassi, who was the former coach and mentor of Cadel. I did not know him personally but I would like to thank him, through his family, for sharing a part of his life with Cadel. He was obviously a great contributor to the way that Cadel thinks and rides and I would like to acknowledge that.

It was an extraordinary event. It was one of great joy to watch. I wish Cadel all the best. I hope we see him again. I know we expect to see him again, defending is yellow jersey next year and we should all know from the character of Cadel that he will honour that jersey and defend it with everything that is in him for every day from now until then. He said a week ago that the preparation for next year's tour begins the day after the last one and we should know from this man that he will put everything into that for every day and we will see him absolutely honour that jersey next year. I wish him all the best. We will all be watching it again. Maybe he can do it again; maybe he cannot. Whatever way it goes, we will see an Australian athlete give absolutely everything up to the last moment.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise Cadel Evans's outstanding achievement in winning the 2011 Tour de France. For most professional cyclists, winning the Tour de France means reaching the pinnacle of their sport. It is the equivalent of a footballer winning either a soccer or rugby World Cup, a tennis player winning Wimbledon or a golfer securing the US Masters. This year's Tour de France was held over 21 stages and covered 3,430 kilometres. Many of these stages involved extremely steep climbs and challenged the endurance and strength of all competitors.

Prior to this year's event Cadel had already established himself as an elite cyclist. In his early years he was a mountain bike rider, who won silver medals at the 1997 and 1999 under-23 world championships and bronze medals at the 1995 junior world road time trial championship and junior world mountain bike championship. In the summer of 2000, Cadel switched to road cycling full time but it was in 2006 that he arrived on the world stage of the Tour de France. In 2006 he finished fourth in the tour, which in itself was an outstanding achievement. In 2007 he went two better when he finished second and was named Australian cyclist of the year. The following year, 2008, he again finished runner-up in the Tour—a major achievement in its own right but still just short of cycling's major prize.

After the 2007 and 2008 results his supporters hoped that 2009 would be his year. However, despite winning the 2009 men's world championship road race in Mendrisio, Switzerland, he struggled in the Tour later that year. It was a tremendously disappointing result which was compounded in 2010 when he again finished well down the field. As a result, in the lead-up to the 2011 event there were some detractors. Despite his finishing runner-up on two previous occasions, some experts wondered whether Cadel was past his best. At 34 years of age some experts questioned whether Cadel was too old to win one of the planet's premier sporting events. But he stared down his detractors with a display of cycling which is now part of Tour de France history. Indeed, those who watched Cadel Evans over the final days of this year's Tour were treated to some of the most outstanding cycling in Australia's history.

On the Friday evening Australian time, Cadel overcame mechanical failure to stay within reach of the leaders and set up an absorbing match race in Saturday's time trial. Starting the last full day of competition almost one minute behind the leader, Cadel showed the strength and determination which have been the hallmark of his cycling career. He finished second overall in the time trial to smash his opponents and secure a remarkable victory. Cadel's victory will inspire many of the current crop of young cyclists as they make their journey through the international ranks. He has demonstrated that if you have the focus and commitment you can win a Tour de France, regardless of where you are from. The victory is also a boon for cycling in general across Australia. Whether it is kids riding to school, adults riding on a Sunday or competitors seeking to improve their results, Cadel Evans's achievements are certainly an inspiration to all cyclists. As someone who cycles regularly, it was of great interest to me to see Cadel Evans's victory and the impact on the sport.

Of course there will be ongoing debate from the sporting pundits over whether Cadel Evans's victory is Australia's greatest sporting achievement.. He is up against some strong competition from the likes of Bradman, Cathy Freeman, John Bertrand and the crew of Australia II and a host of other champions. But the fact is that victory in the Tour de France is considered in the context of a huge international event.

The Coffs Coast area of my electorate has a history of association with some of Australia's most elite sports men and women. Triathlete Emma Moffatt, rugby league player Greg Inglis and cricketer Philip Hughes are three of the more well-known athletes who are currently competing at the top level of their respective sports. But there are many others who have once called the Coffs Coast their home before pursuing their international careers, and I am proud to say that Cadel Evans is one of those great sports people. In the 1980s he attended Woolgoolga High School and worked at the local cycling shop, Woody's Wheels. Cadel's father, Paul, still lives at Corindi just north of Woolgoolga. One can only try to comprehend how proud he must have felt when he watched his son win the yellow jersey on that Saturday night and become the first Australian to win cycling's Holy Grail. Although Cadel moved from our area when he was quite young, many local people still remember the promising young cyclist who enjoyed what our region had to offer. But, regardless of whether they met him or not, the fact is that north coast residents have all been thrilled by Cadel Evans's achievements. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate Cadel on winning the Tour de France. As much as the victory is his to savour, I know that many of my constituents celebrate in connection with his great effort on the world stage.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Go Cadel—allez, allez! I want to pay tribute to and congratulate Cadel Evans on winning the greatest bike race in the world, the Tour de France. It is the most difficult and complex physical endurance race anywhere in the world and by any measure a truly heroic and great sporting achievement. What Cadel Evans has achieved ranks alongside any other great sporting champion in Australia—or, for that matter, the world. Cadel, of course, is the first Australian to win the Tour de France and also the oldest person as a first-time winner ever at age 34, which is an incredible feat in itself.

In the history of the tour there have only been riders from 10 other nations that have ever won and that places Australia very high on that list of cycling achievement. The Tour de France is undoubtedly the most well known and most widely followed cycling event in the world, and this year was undoubtedly the best ever followed by Australian audiences. It is much larger than the world of cycling as an event—it is one of the world's most prestigious sporting events—with a long and difficult road not just in terms of the tour itself but for the journey for those who embark on the race.

Cadel's efforts in winning the tour cannot be overstated by any measure. In terms of remarkable sporting victories by Australians some commentators are ranking it alongside Cathy Freeman's gold medal at the Sydney Olympics and Kieren Perkins's famous swimming wins. Some have even likened Cadel to the great Don Bradman. Cadel Evans may be a humble man and a little embarrassed I think by all the attention, but in our view he is a great sporting hero—somebody who has achieved greatness through sheer hard work and gritty determination in true Australian spirit.

I know—and I suspect that Cadel understands, or I hope he understands—that he shares this victory with all Australians, not just cycling fans but with all Australians. What amazed me this year were the phone calls, the emails and comments from people who had never followed a cycling race in their life, but they just understood how important this was.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A bit like the America's Cup!

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, a bit like the America's Cup—exactly. This is something truly great for Australia, great for Cadel and great for cycling. Cadel's victory is a victory for every Australian and particularly every Australian rider who has ever travelled to Europe to create a future at the top of the cycling tree to eventually have one day an Australian winner—people like Phil Anderson, Stuart O'Grady, Neil Stephens, Bradley McGee, Robbie McEwen, Baden Cooke and Simon Gerrans just to name a few great Australian riders. Another great Tour de France rider to make a huge contribution was Stephen Hodge, who is based here in Canberra and is a great friend to so many people here. All of these riders had the belief that a small country so far away from the focus of elite cycling in Europe could one day win this very difficult and great event, and after so many years, so much hard work, we can all be rewarded by the win of Cadel.

The Tour de France commenced in 1903. It has a great history and a great tradition but it was only the 98th tour this year, because it did have some short breaks—interrupted, of course, only by war. The race lasts for an incredible three weeks. This year it covered more than 3,430 kilometres in 21 stages. It is a long way to push a bicycle. Every year many Australians who are not necessarily dedicated cycling fans actually sit up all night to watch the tour. Many actually travel to France and enjoy the circus that is the Tour de France. They marvel at the pace of the riders, their endurance, their determination, their sheer guts, particularly through the mountain stages, which are complete spectacle. It is something that is quite incredible.

While there have been many great Australians who have competed in the tour and won individual stages, there has never quite been a competitor like Cadel Evans who was ever rated with a serious possibility of winning the tour. For many people it just seemed impossible—how could a small country like Australia so far away in terms of the competitive level of cycling ever possibly compete? That was, of course, until the world heard of Cadel Evans and the bloody mindedness I think of somebody determined that nothing would ever get in the road of achieving that. I read a piece where he said that he had been dreaming of this for 20 years, ever since he was 14 years old—that one day he would win the greatest bike race in the world, the Tour de France. Of course, he is a high-achieving rider—he has not just won this race—but for many this is the pinnacle. This was Cadel's seventh attempt in a long and successful career in a whole range of other global cycling competitions, as we have heard from other speakers. All Australians know that he came very close to winning the Tour de France on a number of occasions, and twice in a row he came second. While that in itself is a phenomenal feat, it must be a huge disappointment to have worked so hard for so long and to have given 100 per cent of everything you could possibly give on every moment of the ride. Given that you are riding about 3½ thousand kilometres, with the possibility of mechanical breakdowns and flat tyres, and the fact that anything that possibly can go wrong will go wrong, to win consistently and finish in No. 1 place is a phenomenal feat.

This year was Cadel's year and, like many other people, I watched, sitting at the edge of my seat, gritting my teeth and biting my nails, thinking the closer and closer he got the more that, potentially, something could go wrong for him, even the fact that he could just have a bad day, if nothing else. He could have slipped going round a corner. As we saw, you can get knocked off your bike by an overexcited media guy in a car. There are just so many possibilities for things to go wrong.

He was well placed right throughout the ride. He had a great team and everyone did a remarkable job. Right through, with all the attacks he sustained, the pressure and the different strategies that apply in this very complex race, Cadel maintained a cool head, a great strategy and an incredible feat of athleticism. When he was within striking distance of the best riders and the best climbers in the world you just knew that he could do it, that this was it, that this was Cadel's year. It was an incredible feat.

Of course, as we all saw on the penultimate stage, Cadel put in probably one of the greatest stage rides of the Tour history. He rode like a man possessed and at an incredible pace, something that I do not think any of us have seen for a very long time. There are some great stages and great heroes of the Tour de France because of the sheer physical endurance in the contribution they have to make, but watching Cadel on that 20th stage was really something to be seen, probably over and over again because I am sure it will be on television. Then we saw that fantastic win for him, and you could see it in his eyes when he put on that yellow jersey. I am almost certain that Cadel is responsible for having the Australian national anthem sung by an Australian on the Champs Elysee for the first time, certainly for the first time at a sporting event, which is quite an incredible achievement.

Cadel is a true champion. He is also humble and respectful, and in a sport that has been tainted with the spectre of doping he is an absolute cleanskin; no-one doubts it. He actually did it the hard way. He had years where he could have won but did not because other people had cheated and he did not. He is a real champion because of all those things. I want to pay tribute to all the other Australians who competed in this year's Tour as well. They are great riders, and racing over three weeks over the sort of distance we are talking about is a great achievement. They are all champions and champions for Australia as well.

I am a keen cyclist, as many people in Canberra are. I am a passionate believer in the benefits of cycling, certainly not at the level of Cadel—none of us could even come close to mentioning our own names in the same sentence as his. With everything that cycling can bring, it truly is a great sport that transcends competition. It is a way of life for many people and I see it as a great benefit for so many people in Australia and around the world.

I want to say thanks to Cadel for what he has done for cycling generally and for cycling in Australia. Congratulations, mate. You are an absolute champion.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As there is only one minute until the adjournment of the debate, does the member for Forrest still wish to speak?

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Main Committee do now adjourn.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a very special day for our nation. On 18 August we commemorate Vietnam Veterans Day and we also commemorate the Battle of Long Tan. Regardless of whether you supported the Vietnam War, or whether you support or object to war at all, our veterans deserve recognition for the sacrifices they have made, particularly when that sacrifice was made through national service. At the time, the Vietnam War was the longest war in which Australia had been involved. As we all know, it was also one of the most controversial. It was the first war broadcast live on television, witnessed from the comfort of our homes. It was a tragic time, a confusing time, with public opposition to conscription and the war itself often overshadowing what members of our Defence Force went through. I commend the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke who ensured that Vietnam veterans were finally acknowledged, as they should be, in 1987, with the first official Vietnam Veterans Day.

Vietnam Veterans Day is commemorated on 18 August each year, the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. This year, this day is particularly important as it is the 45th anniversary of the battle. This afternoon, at the Gallipoli Barracks in my electorate of Ryan, members of Delta Company 6RAR will be presented with a prestigious unit of citation for gallantry, as well as a medal of gallantry for retired Lieutenant David Sabben. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the unit's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith, whose tireless efforts have finally seen this belated recognition achieved.

There is no doubt that these servicemen deserve recognition for their gallantry. On 18 August 1966, 108 ANZACs unknowingly found themselves pitted against a Vietcong force estimated to be between 1,800 to 2,500. The battle is one of the best known and heaviest conflicts of the war and one of the very few battles in recorded history to be won against such odds. We lost 18 Australians in the Battle of Long Tan, with 24 wounded. The Vietcong lost 245. The conditions were terrifying. Servicemen recalling the battle tell stories of chest-height mist, torrential rain and of course shots that came out of nowhere. Six men were lost immediately upon first contact and backup companies were delayed for over an hour. The low forest ceiling prevented any air support. Despite this, under Smith's command, our forces fended off a numerically superior force, showing unquestionable bravery under circumstances most of us cannot fathom.

I am proud that the men of Delta Company are being recognised today. It is unacceptable that many of the men who were on the ground at Long Tan, putting their lives on the line in terrifying conditions, had their gallantry awards downgraded. I commend former Prime Minister John Howard for being the first Australian Prime Minister to visit Long Tan and acknowledge the poor treatment Vietnam veterans had received. Thankfully, in 2006 many of the awards that had originally been downgraded were upgraded to properly reflect what these brave men deserved. Today the final piece of the battle for Long Tan is being put in place at the ceremony at Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera.

I feel privileged to have the opportunity to publicly commend our service men and women, past and present, from the Boer War to those serving around the world today. I hope our defence forces never again face a conflict like the Battle of Long Tan, but, if they do, their gallantry, their sacrifice and their trauma must be recognised.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This August, Muslims around Australia mark the holy month of Ramadan. Like Lent for Catholics, the 30-day period of fasting and prayer is a time of personal reflection and an opportunity for those of faith to focus particularly on the needs of others. In the Moreton electorate, nearly 5,000 people identify as Muslim. They come from places such as Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Iraq and Pakistan, to name but a few. The Ramadan fast takes great commitment from Muslims. I used to marvel at the Bulldogs rugby league player, Hasim Al Masri, as he would go off to football training and play during Ramadan, having observed the dawn till dusk fast. All Muslims still go about their work, care for their children and often participate in Taraweeh special night prayers at their mosque.

The Moreton area has six mosques, including at Holland Park, which, at 102 years of age, is the oldest mosque in Queensland. We also have a very progressive Islamic school—admittedly, it is just over the road in the electorate of Rankin, but I claim it as mine—and the Griffith Islamic Research Unit at Griffith University. It has a network of scholars who research Islam in Australia and seek to bridge the gap between Islam and the West. I have spoken in this place before about how the Muslim community responded to the floods in Brisbane. In the days after the January floods 400 volunteers turned up at the Kuraby mosque to offer help and financial support to flood affected people. They raised more than $50,000 for the flood effort and were hands-on distributing meals to flooded households, to police and to emergency workers out on the streets. I saw many muddy burqas in the clean-up process. Together, my Muslim community cooked more than 2,000 meals. Twenty Muslim tradespeople came up from New South Wales to help out in Queensland—and that is when the State of Origin score was only 5-0! The Islamic Womens Association of Queensland is also doing good work in the Moreton electorate through aged care and other community services.

All of this contributes to our healthy multicultural community. But as we saw, sadly, in Norway, extreme views about multiculturalism do exist. I think we are all still shocked by the tragic death of 77 mostly young people in Norway at the hands of a madman with a vendetta against multiculturalism and Islam. This attack was so outrageous because it was not only an ideological assault on multiculturalism but a bloodthirsty crime against young people who belonged to our sister party, Norway Labour. Multiculturalism and Labor are intrinsically linked in my own personal world view, so this attack really rattled my core beliefs. That is why in the week following the attack I called my Christian, Buddhist and Muslim groups and school representatives together in my electorate office for a special service to honour the victims of the Norway shooting. It was also an opportunity for all of us present to recommit ourselves to tolerance and understanding. I will never forget the impact this service had on a young Norwegian social worker, Maryanne, who was on exchange at Sunnybank State High School. Until that morning she had felt helpless and isolated, so far from her grieving nation, but the ceremony helped.

Tragic events like this cause all of us to reflect and wonder how one person could get it so horribly wrong. How could one person's fears, insecurities and prejudices lead to such a horrible tragedy? I realise there are different issues at play, but the riots in Britain were another example of those who feel society has forgotten them responding in extreme and violent ways. And of course there was a fair smattering of opportunistic criminals lacking a moral compass. I read an article a few days ago in the London Telegraph which said that in many cases it was Britain's ethnic communities, including the Muslim community, who courageously held back the mob to protect people, property and communities.

I think politicians have a responsibility not to incite extremist views in our community. I am not for a minute suggesting that we impede our rights to free speech, public demonstrations, protests or rallies. They are a healthy part of our democracy, but we must be responsible and ensure that demonstrations of public opinion do not become overheated. In my experience people, including politicians, are not always moved by lots of noise. Minds are more likely to be moved by quiet, rational engagement.

Finally, as a side note, next month the Prime Minister and federal cabinet ministers will travel to Yeronga State High School in my electorate for the Labor government's community cabinet meeting. I am thrilled to be able to welcome Prime Minister Gillard to Moreton and I encourage all of my community to register and come along to meet with ministers and have their say.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the Vietnam War and to thank our war veterans on this important day, Long Tan Day. As you would be aware, Long Tan Day commemorates a battle that occurred on 18 August 1966. In this battle Delta Company 6RAR, which consisted of 105 Australian men and three New Zealanders from 161 Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery, fought an encounter battle against enemy forces in Long Tan rubber plantation, which is located only a few thousand metres from the 1st Australian Task Force, based at Nui Dat.

The soldiers battled against over 2,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops and suffered 42 casualties, more than one-third of its strength. Eighteen Australians lost their lives and 24 were wounded. They fought in torrential rain for four hours. They were nearly overrun but were saved by a timely ammunition resupply, accurate artillery fire from the nearby Australian base and the arrival of reinforcements by armoured personnel carrier. The two 9 Squadron RAAF helicopters negotiated torrential rain and almost zero visibility to drop cases of ammunition wrapped in blankets down to the embattled soldiers.

On 19 August, Delta Company 6RAR, together with 6RAR's Alpha, Bravo and Charlie companies and Delta Company 5RAR, returned to the area with APCs to search for the Australians who were killed in the battle. They found two of the missing men from Delta Company alive and 13 Australian bodies were retrieved. After the battle, the bodies of 245 enemy soldiers were found, but there was evidence that many more bodies had been carried away. It was apparent that the Vietcong commanders had failed to appreciate the effectiveness of artillery fire and had paid dearly as a result.

The battle of Long Tan, a courageous battle, has achieved symbolic significance for the Australian military and indeed for the Australian community, in the same way that Gallipoli did for World War I, the Kokoda Track for the Second World War and the Battle of Kapyong for the Korean War. We now properly commemorate this day, 18 August, every single year. On this day we remember and reflect upon the courage and the sacrifice of all the men and women in Australia who served in Vietnam.

In my electorate of Aston, Gerry Turner, president of the outer eastern Melbourne sub-branch of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia, with his members, friends and other local residents, commemorated Vietnam Veterans Day this morning at a dawn service locally. Were I not required here in parliament, I would have been at that ceremony. The guest speaker this morning was a remarkable Vietnam veteran who lives locally, in Boronia: Mr Jim Bourke. He served as a platoon commander in Vietnam in 1966 and established Operation Aussies Home, which sought to return the bodies of six Australians listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. I commend Mr Bourke and Operation Aussies Home for their work in successfully returning four of those soldiers. I understand they remain hopeful that the last two of the six Australian servicemen missing in action in Vietnam may be returned home soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to all of the Australians who served in the Vietnam War, the men and women who served in Vietnam and also those who served in supporting roles back home. They deserve our honour, our thanks and our respect as much as any other person who has contributed to Australian campaigns abroad. I understand that they were not treated well when they returned home. In fact, I hear terrible stories of people who were literally spat at and were verbally abused; they did not get the respect they deserved. Thankfully, we as a nation have moved on from that and we recognise that they served our nation and made a tremendous sacrifice, despite the war being unpopular in many quarters at the time. We should honour their sacrifice and their courage as much as we do for any other war veteran. Today we stop and reflect upon the Vietnam War; we say thank you to the men and women who served and we honour their sacrifices.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Aston. I believe I speak for all honourable members when I say that I associate myself with the sentiments expressed by the member. I believe other members would join me in doing that as well. I now call the member for Melbourne Ports.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 9 July, the world welcomed South Sudan to the international community of nations. After 60 years of struggle against the Islamist regime in Khartoum, the people of the new republic of South Sudan are free. Representing Prime Minister Gillard and the people of Australia, I had the honour of travelling to Juba, the gritty capital of the south, to participate in the independence celebrations. What I saw in Juba gave me hope. The road to independence has not been easy for South Sudan, with five decades of internecine war with the north which have seen the death of 2½ million people. I want to thank Team Australia, who hosted me while I was in Juba and Nairobi; Australian Ambassador Geoff Tooth; his deputy, Paul Dziatkowiec; Sue Graves from AusAID; Simon Wall, Third Secretary; Michael Collins, Second Secretary; and Dr Angelique Burguez, Second Secretary from Cairo.

Australia's early recognition of South Sudan and the announcement of our grant of $16 million over two years to support and deliver services such as education, maternal health, sanitation and support for rural livelihoods have made a strong impression with the new South Sudanese leadership. The security situation in South Sudan remains extremely fragile. Over 40 per cent of foreign aid—I might say not from us—is reportedly spent on the armed forces of the new nation. In June this year the governments of the north and the south signed an accord to demilitarise one of the border provinces and to allow in a United Nations force of Ethiopian peacekeepers to patrol it. But since 5 June there have been clashes in which 73,000 people have had to flee their homes. This is particularly important because in the provinces of Abyei and Kordofan are the oil resources of the new government, the Republic of South Sudan. That is why it is important that we try and re-establish peace there, because this is an extremely poor country. There are 50 kilometres of sealed roads in a country the size of France. There is 42 per cent female literacy and it is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is an enormous task building a state like this. The infrastructure is worse than in East Timor under Portugal and Indonesia. Only 15 per cent of people are educated. Prior to South Sudan's independence, 470,000 barrels of oil were pumped per day, three-quarters of which came from the south. However, all of the oil flows north, through Khartoum.

Significantly, despite UN indictment by the International Criminal Court for activities in western Sudan, President al-Bashir attended the celebrations in Juba, which I think is an indication of the fact that he and his regime would like the international community to concentrate on potential peace moves between the north and the south rather than his activities in the west of Sudan. Border demarcation is particularly problematic as 20 per cent of the border has not been agreed on.

There is an incredible role for Australia in the potential for this country. One of the things that I absolutely celebrated when I was there was that so many other South Sudanese elite speak with broad Australian accents. That is because under the humanitarian program 30,000 Sudanese people have been admitted to Australia and many of them are returning, hopefully with Australian commerce and mining companies, to develop the former country. They are certainly making a great connection between Australia and South Sudan. I note that the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have an excellent scheme which is going to take place in Perth for international training of people in openness and transparency of mining operations, which are completely underdeveloped in Southern Sudan, so we have got a lot to impart there. Eventually, beginning at the October meeting of the Commonwealth, I expect that South Sudan will become a full member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Despite two million lives being lost in the struggle over the last decades, the mood there was inspiring and positive. It was heart-warming to witness the people's belief that the day after tomorrow will be better than the one today. As South Sudan's President Kiir said at the celebrations:

Never again shall South Sudanese be oppressed for their political beliefs. Never again shall our people be discriminated against on account of race and religion. Never again shall we roam the world as sojourners and refugees. We have reclaimed our permanent home given to us by God as our birthright. As we bask in the glory of nationhood, I call upon all South Sudanese to put the long and sad history of war, hardship and loss behind them and open a new chapter of peace and reconciliation in our lives.

We can all say 'Amen' to that.

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to highlight an often overlooked aspect of the current resources boom. The view of many across this country is that the resources boom is about numbers on a page, about dollars on a budget paper, and about the economy and prosperity. But for families in and around mining regions, particularly in Queensland and Western Australia, the mining boom is also about people. It is about making an honest living, putting a roof over your family's head, putting food on the table and building a better life. These people, these families, in mining are rightfully concerned about how the boom has and will affect them.

As the state government in Queensland considers mining company BMA's application for a 100 per cent fly-in fly-out workforce at its Cavell Ridge mine near Moranbah, it should consider the people behind the numbers and the dollar signs. Yes, mineworkers in the Bowen Basin should have the right to live where they want to live, but more importantly they must have a real choice—whether that be in Brisbane, Mackay or one of the hinterland coal towns. There must be a real mix of options.

The town of Moranbah, a two-hour drive from Mackay, has been home to mining families for 40 years, and certainly 100 per cent fly-in fly-out poses an economic and social risk to that town. But a 100 per cent fly-in fly-out workforce also would harm the regional centre of Mackay, which is the city of choice for many mining families and workers in the Bowen Basin who choose the drive-in, drive-out option. If the state government allows it, mining companies will fly their workers in from Brisbane and elsewhere almost direct to the mine site, completely bypassing Mackay.

Services and facilities like schools, hospitals, sporting clubs and shopping centres in the Mackay region rely on the growth in mining families choosing to live close to their employment. A 100 per cent fly-in fly-out workforce will bypass and undermine these services, particularly in the smaller towns closer to the mines. The potential outcome here is to kill communities and remove a great lifestyle choice for mining families—this being one where they can live in a real community and work with a minimal commute.

Mining companies do rightly complain about the lack of a local workforce to fill the jobs that the need. Well, part of the problem here lies with the state Labor government, which has done nothing to make mining regions, which are creating the wealth of the state, more liveable communities. Almost $1.1 billion went into the state coffers in the 2010 financial year through royalties on the coal that was exported through the ports of Hay Point, Dalrymple Bay and Abbott Point—all of which are in the Mackay region. And that was in the middle of the global financial crisis. The year before that, we contributed more than $2.2 billion and in the last financial year, just ended, there will have been another multibillion dollar bonanza in royalties from our region for the state of Queensland.

But the Queensland Labor government siphons off the majority of these royalties to benefit the south-east, where it can purchase more votes for the dollar. It has neglected the regions and does not have the common sense to invest in the necessary infrastructure and social needs of regions that service their big cash cow of mining. And Anna Bligh's Labor mates in Canberra will not only back her up; they will try to outdo her with their mining tax.

What will happen to all the revenue the Labor government's mining tax will generate? If Canberra gets its hands on mining dollars, does anyone seriously believe that a fair share is going to come back to places like the Mackay region where the money is being generated? The reality is that it will go to Sydney and to Melbourne and to the next big budget black hole that results from Labor's continual spending sprees.

I did have to laugh because in the Weekend Australian on 23 July the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government pointed out how Labor had helping mining communities with—wait for it—an increase in the remote area allowance, which tops up welfare payments for people in those areas. If you get a job in the mines and you move your family to a mining town, it must be comforting to know that if you lose your job you can collect just that little bit more from Centrelink than if you stayed in Sydney.

The same minister in the same article maintains that there is 'no role' for government to prescribe a precise formula for fly-in fly-out. I reject that statement. It is government that issues mining permits and sets the conditions for mining activity. It is government that collects billions of dollars in mining royalties—or perhaps the mining tax. Government has a role to play in supporting the interests of mining regions and the families who work in the industry. If weak state and federal Labor governments continue to neglect the regions driving this economy, they will ensure that fly-in fly-out is encouraged and we will all endure the pain and see absolutely none of the gain from this boom.

Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the winter break a number of organisations and schools in my electorate started to hold an event called the DisabiliTEA, which is a morning tea or afternoon tea to raise awareness of the NDIS, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I acknowledge and congratulate these groups, who were involved in the Every Australian Counts campaign. I was very proud to get invitations to some of these morning teas, to go along to them to help raise the awareness of this campaign and to be seen supporting the I Count campaign. I had the great opportunity to go to an event organised by Multicap. The service coordinator of Multicap Petrie Day Services, Victoria Phelan, organised one at Old Petrie Town on 2 August. It was well attended by many of the people whom Multicap cares for, as well as by the carers themselves. Deception Bay State High School also held a DisabiliTEA event, which was organised by Kate Eunson, who is the year 9 coordinator, special education teacher and senior transition coordinator at the high school. The students at the special education unit catered for and served us at that morning tea and were in charge of taking photos and looking after the special guests who attended the event. I thank the principal, David Friis, Kate and all the students who were involved in that morning tea.

I also mention the broader work of Multicap. I know that they are raising lots of funds to build homes, a program they call Build a Home4Life, and I know that one of these homes is opening very shortly in my electorate in the suburb of Bracken Ridge. These are homes where people with disabilities can come together and live a normal life in a normal home environment while still getting the care they need 24/7. I have lost count of how many parents I have met who are also carers and who have talked to me about their concerns about the future of their children. They talk about—for example—their 20-year-old son who loves going to the movies and the shopping centre with his mates but is in a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy. They want him to have one of these homes, where he can live with other young men in their 20s, go on outings and have a good quality of life. I have a very small number of homes in my electorate that are set up for young people with disabilities. Predominantly they have been started by families who have put up the money because their child has a disability. The child may have passed on, but the family through multiple generations has continued to support the home, and governments, where they can, provide the full-time carers and grants and other assistance to help to set up the family's minibus with a hoist and so on.

I will not even start going through the list of all the groups that do so much work in my electorate—I will save that for another day, because I need more than five minutes to do it—but I raise these issues because I could not have been more proud of being part of this federal Labor government when, on 10 August, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs handed down the Productivity Commission's final report into the long-term care and support of Australians with disabilities and acknowledged the Productivity Commission's finding that the current disability support system is unfair, underfunded, fragmented and inefficient. I do not think you would find any parent, carer or person with a disability who would disagree with that finding of the Productivity Commission.

I am very proud that this government has said, 'We support establishing a national disability insurance scheme, and we are going to work to see that happen and we are taking action right now.' There will be $10 million this year to build the foundations and start the work. So my congratulations go to the minister, the Hon. Jenny Macklin, to the Prime Minister and to the previous Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, Bill Shorten, for his work in this area.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity in the small amount of time we have left to place on record my appreciation for the dedicated, devoted and hardworking staff, both nursing and medical, at St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital. They performed miracles on the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and my own father has recently undergone an operation there. I think it is timely that we recognise the efforts of these wonderful people who not only look after their patients around the clock but also look after the many anxious members of their families who are always concerned when a family member is admitted.

Main Committee adjourned at 13 : 00

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, in writing, on 1 March 2011:

In respect of reward payments for schools:

(1) What total sum of funding is currently available.

(2) What total sum of funding has been allocated to (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, and (e) financial years beyond 2013-14.

(3) In respect of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification—Remoteness Areas (RA), will there be a limit by (a) number, (b) dollar value, or (c) share of available funding, to the projects funded under this program in: (i) non-capital city RA1, (ii) capital city RA1, (iii) RA2, (iv) RA3, (v) RA4, and (vi) RA5.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) Total administered funding currently allocated for the Reward for School Improvement initiative from 2010-11 to 2014-15 is $252.094 million.

(2) The administered funding allocated for each year is as follows:

In line with the Government's announcements, it is intended that $86.250 million in funding for reward payments will be available each year for 2015-16 and 2016-17, totalling $172.500 million outside the current forward estimates.

(3) As part of the Government's agreement with independent MPs, of the total $388 million in reward payments to be made available through the Reward for School Improvement program, at least $125 million will go to schools in regional Australia, defined as schools located in all Australian Standard Geographical Classification – Remoteness Areas except RA1-major cities.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister forSchool Education, Early Childhood and Youth, in writing, on 1 March 2011:

In respect of the Government's policy to empower local schools:

(1) What total sum of funding is currently available.

(2) What total sum of funding has been allocated to (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, and (e) financial years beyond 2013-14.

(3) In respect of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification-Remoteness Areas (RA), will there be a limit by (a) number, (b) dollar value, (c) share of available funding, to the projects funded under this program in: (i) non-capital city RA1, (ii) capital city RA1, (iii) RA2, (iv) RA3, (v) RA4, and (vi) RA5.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) The total sum of administered funding currently available is $466.870 million over 2010-11 to 2016-17.

(2) The total sum of administered funding allocated to (a) 2010-11 is zero, (b) 2011-12 is $63.440 million, (c) 2012-13 is zero, (d) 2013-14 is zero, and (e) financial years beyond 2013-14 is $403.430 million. (2014-15 is zero, 2015-16 is $403.430 million, and 2016-17 is zero)

(3) In respect of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification-Remoteness Areas (RA), the Government has made a commitment that around 330 schools in regional areas of Australia will be the first to benefit in Phase One of the Empowering Local Schools election initiative. Around $15 million will be made available to regional schools in Phase One.

Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, in writing, on 3 March 2011:

(1) How many personal staff are employed by the Minister.

(2) What is the (a) total cost, and (b) breakdown of costs, of all capital works and acquisitions in the Minister's private office since 3 December 2007.

Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

The answers to these questions were included in the response provided to questions 249, 262, 265, 277 and 278, that appeared in Hansard on 14 June 2011 at page 6035.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 26 May 2011:

Further to the Minister's answer to question in writing No. 178 (House Hansard, 10 May 2011, page 54), will the amount of downstream capacity per end user on the Gigabit Passive Optical Network fibre optic link be 77.8 megabits per second if the number of end users assigned to that link reaches the maximum permitted under NBN Co.'s design rules.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

As referred to in the answer to HQIW 178 (b), the downstream capacity of a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) link is expected to be 2.488Gbps. This capacity is available and is shared dynamically amongst the connected users active at any point in time. Addition of an end user to a link does not assign a specific "block" of capacity to that user. NBN design rules ensure there is sufficient flexibility so that all end-users can access the bandwidth ordered via their RSP. Should demand for aggregate bandwidth amongst end users connected to a GPON link prove likely to exceed link capacity, the design of the NBN allows the option to reallocate end users to another link.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 26 May 2011:

Further to the Minister's answer to question in writing No. 78 ( House Hansard , 10 May 2011, page 47), what is the estimated sum of the residual costs incurred by USO Co. that will be met by the industry.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

On 23 June 2011 the Australian Government announced that it had entered into an agreement with Telstra for the ongoing delivery of the Universal Service Obligation for voice and payphone services and other public interest services. At this time the Government also provided detail on the new arrangements through the release of a policy statement, Universal Service Policy in the National Broadband Network Environment, available at the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy website.

The residual costs that will be met by industry are the costs of the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency, or TUSMA (previously referred to as USO Co), minus the Government ' s dedicated funding. These costs will include the costs of agreements with Telstra and NRS providers that will be managed by the CEO of the TUSMA in accordance with the proposed TUSMA legislation.

As outlined in the policy statement, the agreement with Telstra will cost approximately $290 million annually (for the delivery of the standard telephone service USO, the payphones USO, and the Emergency Call Service), plus costs relating to migration of voice-only customers from the copper network to the fibre network, and costs if necessary for developing technological solutions for public interest services (public alarm systems and traffic lights).

To facilitate the smooth transition to the new arrangements the Government and Telstra have agreed to interim funding arrangements for the first two financial years to provide certainty to industry. This interim arrangement will mean the aggregate levy contribution that is made by telecommunications firms other than Telstra will, for the first two years, remain at the amount non - Telstra contributors are assessed as being required to contribute under the USO and NRS schemes for the 2011–12 period .

As part of the announcement the Government also stated that it will review the industry levy arrangements and the need for any additional Budget funding, over and above the Government's committed base funding, during the course of the first two financial years of the Telecommunication Universal Service Management Agency's operation.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 26 May 2011:

Further to the Minister's answer to question in writing No. 78 ( House Hansard, 10 May 2011, page 47), will USO Co. be responsible for the continued operation of the copper network serving all parts of Australia which are not served by the fibre to the premises network owned by NBN Co., and what are the likely costs of such operation.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

On 23 June 2011 the Australian Government announced that it had entered into an agreement with Telstra for the ongoing delivery of the Universal Service Obligation for voice and payphone services and other public interest services. At this time the Government also provided detail on the new arrangements through the release of a policy statement, Universal Service Policy in the National Broadband Network Environment, available at the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy website.

The Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency, or TUSMA (previously referred to as USO Co), will not be directly responsible for operating or maintaining telecommunications networks.

As outlined in the Government ' s policy statement, Universal Service Policy in the National Broadband Network Environment , the TUSMA will administer the agreement with Telstra, which requires Telstra to deliver the standard telephone service universal service obligation (the STS USO). The agreement also requires Telstra to continue to operate its copper network in areas outside of NBN Co ' s fibre footprint for 20 years. Under the agreement Telstra will be paid $230 million annually (not indexed to CPI) for the delivery of the STS USO. The policy statement also notes that payments may vary if standards or requirements are changed, or if cost savings are identified.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 15 June 2011:

How many retail customers signed up for fixed-line National Broadband Network services in the week ending 10 June 2011, what services did they sign up for and at what speed?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

NBN Co Limited (NBN Co) has reporting obligations defined in the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997, the Governance Arrangements for Commonwealth Government Business Enterprises June 1997 and the Corporations Act 2001. The NBN Co Annual Report will include details of progress towards meeting its coverage objectives and expenditure in doing so. NBN Co is required to submit its Annual Report to Shareholder Ministers for tabling at least 4 months after the end of the financial year. NBN Co will be including updated information in its Corporate Plan in line with the timetable established by Government.

The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network (NBN) has been appointed to inquire into the NBN rollout and report every six months to the Parliament and its Shareholder Ministers. Information on progress with the NBN rollout will be provided for the Committee's six-monthly report.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 22 June 2011:

How many retail customers signed up for fixed-line National Broadband Network services in the week ending 17 June 2011? What services did they sign up for and at what speed?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

NBN Co Limited (NBN Co) has reporting obligations defined in the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997, the Governance Arrangements for Commonwealth Government Business Enterprises June 1997 and the Corporations Act 2001. The NBN Co Annual Report will include details of progress towards meeting its coverage objectives and expenditure in doing so. NBN Co is required to submit its Annual Report to Shareholder Ministers for tabling at least 4 months after the end of the financial year. NBN Co will be including updated information in its Corporate Plan in line with the timetable established by Government.

The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network (NBN) has been appointed to inquire into the NBN rollout and report every six months to the Parliament and its Shareholder Ministers. Information on progress with the NBN rollout will be provided for the Committee's six-monthly report.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 4 July 2011:

How many retail customers signed up for fixed-line National Broadband Network services in the week ending 24 June 2011, what services did they sign up for and at what speed.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

NBN Co Limited (NBN Co) has reporting obligations defined in the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997, the Governance Arrangements for Commonwealth Government Business Enterprises June 1997 and the Corporations Act 2001. The NBN Co Annual Report will include details of progress towards meeting its coverage objectives and expenditure in doing so. NBN Co is required to submit its Annual Report to Shareholder Ministers for tabling at least 4 months after the end of the financial year. NBN Co will be including updated information in its Corporate Plan in line with the timetable established by Government.

The Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network (NBN) has been appointed to inquire into the NBN rollout and report every six months to the Parliament and its Shareholder Ministers. Information on progress with the NBN rollout will be provided for the Committee's six-monthly report.

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, in writing, on 6 July 2011:

When will he respond to my correspondence dated 17 May 2011 on behalf of two of my constituents, requesting a response on: (a) their dissatisfaction with his department's relocation contractors, Toll Transitions; (b) his department's failure to remedy the issues raised by them in their contact with Mr Merv Dicton, Defence Relocations and Housing Manager, Personnel and Business Services Branch, Defence Support Queensland; and (c) his department's perceived lack of support to Defence personnel and their families in the relocation process.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(a) to (c) I responded to your letter of 17 May 2011 on 4 July 2011.