Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's commitment to ensuring a well-resourced and efficient biosecurity system and the importance of this system to the Australian agriculture industry?

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Nicholls for his question, because he understands better than anyone the importance of biosecurity and protecting brand Australia, particularly when the seat of Nicholls is such a significant contributor to our $52 billion worth of agricultural exports. That's why, in the budget, the government outlined as part of our Ag2030 plan that one of the key pillars is biosecurity, protecting brand Australia, in supporting Australian agriculture's ambitious goal of $100 billion by 2030.

We announced $873 million in biosecurity measures. This is some $243 million more than we spent in 2014-15. The reason we spend that money is to provide agility to our biosecurity office to be able to pivot to new threats. One of the best examples of that is African swine fever. We were able to announce an additional $66.6 million to protect a $1.2 billion industry that employs 36,000 Australians. That is through the technology of X-ray machines, surging boots into ports where there are greater risks and putting more dogs on the ground. Since November 2018 we have detected over 42 tonnes of illegal pork imports, over seven tonnes of which has been through our post office systems. That's why we've continued to make sure that this investment invests in the technology. I'm proud to say that with Australian Border Force, as part of the budget, we're also working through how those X-ray machines can use that new technology, that artificial intelligence, to work collaboratively together to identify not only biosecurity risks but also contraband. We're also working with them with respect to the new incoming passenger card, to digitise it. That gives real-time data to allow our biosecurity officers to pivot to where the threats are, making sure we encompass that data into further decision-making processes that we undertake.

We're also saying today to those who want to threaten our biosecurity that we're going to penalise you. In April last year, the immigration minister and I announced that we were giving Australian Border Force and quarantine officials at ports the ability to cancel visas on the spot and to thwart anyone who had their visa cancelled from coming back into this country or applying to for up to three years, sending a strong message. We've also got legislation in front of the Senate, as we speak, to lift the penalty from $444 to $2,664 for those who fail to properly declare on those cards, and to lift the penalty for significant breaches to $444,000 and the privilege of doing 10 years in jail if you breach those protocols. This is a serious message to not only Australian citizens but others who come here that biosecurity underpins the importance of Australian agriculture now and into the future.