Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Can the minister explain why it is so important that biosecurity remains part of his portfolio responsibilities within the Department of Agriculture?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Hunter knows, it is vitally important that we keep our edge in the new markets of the world and the markets we are developing, because we have a clean, green image. We know that, if foot and mouth were to come in, it would cost our nation in excess of $50 billion over the next 10 years. We know that, if rabies were to come in, it would change the lifestyles of not only our Indigenous communities in the north but also communities all the way down into urban environments as well. We know that screwfly is extremely important in the whole of the animal industry. We know that, if papaya fruit flies come in, each year we have to push this disease back out of the Torres Strait.

We also know that we have to work as seamlessly as we possibly can between agencies. I can tell you right now: we are already doing that. Myself and Minister Mr Dutton, on health, in our actions make sure that we keep Ebola out of this nation and work seamlessly as we speak. I would like to commend the Minister for Health for the great work that he does in keeping this nation free of diseases such as Ebola. I know that the work that Mr Morrison does has been incredibly effective in ridding our nation of the scourge of people just making their own way into this nation, and there are all those who drowned on the water by reason of the lack of attention to this portfolio by those opposite. But I know that our nation will have, as one of the premier items of our agricultural soft commodities, strong biosecurity.