Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The great state of Tasmania's combined agricultural, forestry and fishing sector employers almost 13,000 Tasmanians and this year saw a 3.7 per cent increase in our agricultural exports. In 2016-17, Tasmania's agrifood production had an estimated gross value of around $2.4 billion. Our beef, lamb, seafood, potatoes, fresh vegetables, fruit and flower products have been responsible for some truly remarkable export numbers. Tasmania is triple the national average in export growth and double the international rates.

Tasmania's primary producers are leading the nation when it comes to agricultural exports, and I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone involved in our sector. In particular, I'd like to recognise and congratulate Karin Luttmer. Karin recently won the 2019 Women in Export Award at the 2019 Tasmanian Export Awards. She owns Hill Farm Preserves in Sisters Creek on the north-west coast of Tasmania, and has been exporting her condiments and preserves to Japan since the early 2000s. She expanded this into South Korea in 2017 and into Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka in 2018. Hill Farm Preserves is a great example of the success of Tasmania's agricultural growth. It's little wonder that Tasmania is being hailed as the turnaround state and is the envy of the nation.

But our pristine environment, clean water, fertile soils, isolation and clean atmosphere are not things which our state takes for granted. Lurking around every corner are threats to our ongoing prosperity, threats that come in the form of pests and diseases. Tasmania's biosecurity posture is paramount to our ongoing fortunes and underpins our agricultural sector. As an island state, our unique biodiversity, our relatively pest-free status and our reputation as a producer of clean, green produce must be maintained at all costs. However, the challenge of keeping the Tasmanian mainland and its many smaller islands pest-free is continually increasing in complexity. Globalisation of trade, online commerce and the sheer number of people moving around the world all contribute to the challenge.

The work of the federal government to protect our nation's pest-free and disease-free status underpins our international reputation in the export trade. In particular, I welcome the strengthening of our Biosecurity Act and its recent application that resulted in the visa of an overseas visitor being cancelled for attempting to bring pork and other items into Tasmania and Australia. This delivers a loud, clear message that we will not tolerate anybody—whether you're an overseas visitor or a returning resident—putting our environment, our industries, our economy and our way of life at risk. I also congratulate the Tasmanian Liberal government, particularly their agriculture minister, Guy Barnett, for the work that he's undertaken at state level to strengthen our biosecurity posture. They've consulted widely, and they recently updated legislation to ensure that the Tasmanian economy continues to address modern risks and that our state, our produce and our freight remain pest and disease free.

Finally, I take this opportunity to highlight one of the north-west coast's innovative and proactive agribusinesses that's taking a leadership role in biosecurity. Recently I met with Andrew and Pam Langmaid and the great people at Cherry Hill Coolstores at La Trobe. This state-of-the-business is developing and implementing world's-best-practice techniques when it comes to combatting biosecurity threats. They have developed a testing and monitoring system to combat potato disease, which is rife on the mainland. Thanks to the hard work they do each day, they play an important part in eradicating this disease from Tasmania. Effective biosecurity legislation and enforcement as well as our communities, all levels of government, industry and individuals working together will ensure that our magnificent environment and our envied way of life are preserved for future generations to come.