David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The federal coalition supports the passage of the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. This bill contains amendments which will streamline administrative processes in the Australian Animal Health Council (Livestock Industries) Funding Act 1996 and the Plant Health Australia (Plant Industries) Funding Act 2002 by removing redundant provisions, adding provisions that create efficiencies and improve future levy arrangements and increasing consistency between these two acts regarding the spending of emergency response levies. Simply put, it contains measures that will strengthen Australia's biosecurity system and improve efficiencies in how it operates. Importantly, it will cut red tape for Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia. It's worth noting that the provisions outlined in the bill are identical to the legislation that was introduced by the former coalition government in November last year.

This bill before the House will deliver some important improvements to two very important organisations: Animal Health Australia, AHA, and Plant Health Australia, PHA. These organisations go to the heart of a shared approach to biosecurity, with membership including the Australian government, state and territory governments and industry. Biosecurity is everyone's business, and a strong government-industry partnership is crucial to maintaining Australia's already high biosecurity status, protecting its food security and boosting our world-leading agricultural trade. Both the AHA and PHA help us to be prepared and ready to respond to any animal and plant diseases and pests. They also strengthen on-farm and supply-chain biosecurity practices and foster good partnerships. These activities minimise disease and pest impacts, assist trade, safeguard the livelihoods of producers, support industries and communities and preserve Australia's environmental health. The changes outlined in this bill will each contribute to making the AHA and PHA funding acts more efficient, effective and fit for purpose.

Ultimately, the success of our national biosecurity system relies on the efforts of all parties. Therefore it is important that Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia are both able to operate as efficiently as possible. For Animal Health Australia, this bill will amend the AHA act to facilitate the finding of emergency responses other than the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement, such as the proposed Emergency Response Deed for Aquatic Animal Diseases. A power will be added to the AHA act for the Governor-General to make regulations, which is consistent with the PHA act, and redundant provisions in the AHA act that relate to honey will be repealed as honey related levies are no longer paid to Animal Health Australia.

For Plant Health Australia, this bill will broaden the permitted uses for emergency plant pest response levies. This will also allow greater flexibility, meeting their biosecurity needs, while maintaining response funding for these levies. This is also consistent with the use of levies in the AHA act. Levies will be able to be spent on other biosecurity activities once financial obligations to eradication responses have been met.

A power in the PHA act will be added for the security of the department of agriculture to determine that a body is a 'relevant plant industry member' by notifiable instrument, and a redundant provision in the PHA act that provides for the redirection of excess levies to research and development purposes will be repealed. Australia's biosecurity system is a pillar of our national defence, helping us prepare for, mitigate and respond to risks to our environmental economy and way of life.

Australia has enjoyed a reputation for clean, healthy and disease-free agricultural production systems through our natural advantage of geographical isolation. This has also given Australian producers the edge in a very competitive international environment. In 2020 the value of Australia's biosecurity system was estimated to be $314 billion over 50 years. That's why in government the federal coalition made biosecurity a priority, with more than $1 billion available for biosecurity and export programs in 2022-23, which was an increase of $435.8 million, 69 per cent, from the $630 million expended in 2014-15.

In government we increased fines and penalties for people breaking biosecurity laws. We were also partnered with New Zealand to develop world-leading biosecurity risk detection technologies such as 3D X-rays. The coalition government measures in office ensured that Australia remained a world leader in biosecurity, with strong controls in place offshore, at our border and within Australia.

The Joint Interagency Taskforce: exotic animal disease preparedness report, released at the end of September, found that overall the system is strong and well prepared. It is important to keep the system strong and well supported. During the federal election we committed $10 million for a genetics gene bank to futureproof Australian agriculture, and we encourage this government to take this forward. Countries such as the United States, Germany and the Netherlands have established national livestock gene banks.

It's worth recognising that many of these things we have taken for granted, as a constant of Australian life, are at greater risk than ever before. Exotic pests and diseases are spreading around the world and putting unprecedented pressure on our border, especially with a major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia and lumpy skin disease and varroa mite. Responding to a rapidly changing environment requires the controls, partnerships, tools, processes and networks to manage current and future threats.

The provisions outlined in the bill represent another step forward in further strengthening Australia's biosecurity system, and the coalition is pleased commend it to the House.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Animal health is integral to what happens in our nation. Coming from a family where my father was a vet, I grew up with the tuberculosis eradication scheme—and that was imperative to keep our trade going to the United States. We all know about the cattle crisis back in the 1970s. I remember our family taking a truckload of cattle to the saleyards and coming back with two, and me saying, 'Well, what was the purpose of that?' Dad said, 'At $5 a head, there was no purpose in selling,' which was the reason we were there, so they purchased. It shows you how integral animal health and biosecurity are to the economy of regional areas, and it continues on.

I suppose the most pressing things right now are the threat of lumpy skin disease in cattle, screw-worm fly and, most importantly, foot and mouth. If foot and mouth comes in, we have devastation across our nation, and it will cost tens of billions of dollars. Immediately, there'll be the cessation of the movement of stock, right across our nation. This comes into an act that I was a part of, the Biosecurity Act 2016. It's one of the largest pieces of legislation that has ever gone through this nation, and it may be the largest. The shutdown would mean no more transport operators, no sales for farms, no moving of earth—the construction industry, earthmoving industry, roads. Everything stops. This would be devastating not just to the cattle industry but to the economy in general. Our role is to make sure that that doesn't happen.

As foot-and-mouth disease is now prevalent in Indonesia, especially in Bali—and so many people go to Bali—one of the things we have to do is inform the Australian people: if you've got a pair of thongs in Bali, with the Hindu culture and cattle being prevalent, please do not bring them back to Australia. Throw them out; you don't need them. The threat that comes with it just doesn't warrant the expense it would cause. When they talk about threats, they talk now about it being close to 10 per cent, so it's not as if it's out of the ballpark.

What we also have to do is try to vaccinate. Of course, if we do that, we have to bring in a live virus, which straightaway means that you have to test the live virus and whether it's working by seeing how a beast deals with it. That calls into question whether you can call yourself foot-and-mouth-free anymore. So we actually have to go out and—as they say in the infantry—get close with the enemy. If foot-and-mouth was the enemy, we must be doing our part to control it overseas, and it would be incredibly difficult to try to control it within Papua New Guinea.

There are also other things that are very important. In the past we've dealt with such things as rabbits, and successfully with the myxoma virus and later on with the calicivirus and variants of that calicivirus to try to keep at bay what was an absolute scourge of regional Australia and Australia in general. People may not understand rabbits, but luckily in Canberra you've got your own classic example. Down around the flag down there, if you want to look, there's an infestation of rabbits. It is beyond belief what you see around there. That a small part of Australia, and they were everywhere like that. When you go around—I do a lot of fencing; it's probably why my knees are shot at the moment—you see that they actually dug in the netting. How hard would that be, going up and down hills digging in the netting so rabbits couldn't get through it. This was because they tried in vain to control rabbits. Even if you have a good season like right now, you couldn't control it. This is all part of dealing with the issues in the protection of animals and animal health, issues such as strain 19 of brucellosis, dealing with live virus and also protection of the land to make sure you get better production.

One of the issues of animal health that is pertinent to my area at the moment is St John's wort. St John's wort has a chemical as part of its chemistry in the time up to flowering, so that chemical builds up through the springtime. After flowering this chemical falls away again. What it does is it causes destruction of the liver, cirrhosis of the liver, and the beasts, if they've got white skin, become photosensitised, which means the white skin starts to slough off. For Herefords and cattle such as that it can cause real problems. St John's wort is now out of control, and we have to look at things such as biocontrols. That's the only way to do it; you can't get enough chemical to try to spray it—that would be impossible. You need biocontrols to try to deal with that, and one of the great biocontrols of St John's wort is the chrysolina beetle. We should be working towards how we develop this biotechnology so that we can deal with these things in a chemical-free way. That's in line with the sorts of smarts that Australia has had in the past, and there has to be an aptitude and a focus to deal with it in the future.

In a similar vein are issues such as blackberries. There are a whole range of variants of blackberries. You'd think there's one, but there are probably about 13 or 14 different variants of blackberries, and trying to get a rust, which is a disease that impedes their growth—it doesn't completely kill them but certainly sets them back—would also take us away from the use of chemicals. This is what we're doing at our family's place which I manage. We're using tens of thousands of dollars of chemicals, which we spray. It doesn't matter how much you use, they always come back. It's a continual task to deal with it. If we can develop that rust, we can reduce the amount of chemicals we use. The chemistry of the pores of the blackberry plant open predominantly in wet, cool weather. In dry areas you don't get those conditions, so you need to get a variant of rust that has a more virulent pathology to deal with issues such as blackberries. Briars is another one.

As a young fellow at home I remember my father going through and saying, 'There's a dead sheep'—recently dead. There's a code for it if they've been dead for too long; it's called TFG, too far gone. But you can do an autopsy on a recently dead animal, and that's what curious people, especially vets, do. My father was saying to me, 'Why did the sheep die?' and I said, 'I don't know, old age? It died of death. It's dead.' He said, 'Nothing just dies. There is not a thing on this planet that just dies; it dies for a reason, and now we have to try and work out what that reason is.' So he did an autopsy, starting at the mouth, inspection of the tongue, removal of the tongue, inspection of the brain, going down through its oesophagus into its gut, and in the end he found it. He went, 'Aha, I've got it. It's called liver fluke. This has died by reason of liver fluke. It was an infestation of liver fluke—which, of course, when you lose your liver, you lose your life.' That is one of the greatest uses of chemicals, to try and deal with barber's pole worm or liver fluke, trying to make sure that you keep these parasites at bay. The life cycle of liver fluke comes also through the process of the freshwater snail, so you have the process of a life cycle going through to the beast.

We're always trying to work out a better form of chemistry. Another issue we have on farm produce is a thing called drug fastness. When you have an excessive use of chemicals, especially excessive use of antibiotics, you by its very nature start to breed medicine resistance within a herd. Especially we see it in the poultry industry. Once you get resistance then you immediately have to find another form of variant or a development of the chemistry so that it can go through its next iteration of being efficacious in dealing with the condition that is before you. These all require research. In the past we had great advances through the CSIRO. One of the things they were noted for was their capacity to develop the drugs that allowed the Australian people to have the incredible agricultural industry it has got.

In closing I'd like to talk about why the agricultural industry is important. Last night I had the pleasure of talking to one of our Asian neighbours at dinner. Australia doesn't comprehend at times the geopolitical consequence of its capacity to produce food. One of the great things that people are interested in about this nation is our capacity to assist them to feed themselves. This is so incredibly important, our capacity to assist them to feed themselves. One of the issues with the protein requirements of one of our near neighbours, Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, is if Australia didn't have the live cattle trade. One of the staples of their diet is called bakso balls. They're made of beef, and they're a part of their diet that they have every day. Of course, in the Islamic faith there are certain meats they can eat and certain meats they can't.

When we ceased the live cattle trade for that short period of time, it was not just a disaster for people on the land; it sent a lot of people broke, and people who'd been doing it hardest in the remote areas who were in the live cattle trade—I'm not, but people up north are—are the ones who were smashed. I remember a lady covered in skin cancer up in the north, and she went, 'I haven't lived a really flash life; I've lived a pretty tough life, and I've done it because I believe in it. Then great opportunity came because of the live cattle trade, and for my perseverance and the privations I went through I had a chance to make a dollar'—and she did. Then she said, 'And you came out and sent me broke, shut me down. So why? Why did I live this life?'

Even in Aboriginal communities—I remember speaking to Fred Pascoe. I know he got himself into a bit of strife later on. He said, 'You wanted Indigenous people to stand on their own two feet and get ahead.' I said, 'I agree with you.' He said, 'We had 60,000 head of cattle. We were making money, good money. Then you came in and closed down the live cattle trade, and now we have a major problem. So what would you prefer—that we go back to the national parks?' He was very direct with me, 'Where do you want to send us, national parks? Or do you want us to go stand in a creek or something? We actually like this industry. It actually is our industry. It actually gives us purpose, it gives us respect, it gives us position in our local community. This is it: we're in the live cattle trade.'

In Western Australia they have the live sheep trade, and this is incredibly important for that. I rarely give a yell out to people of opposing political views, but I will here. Premier McGowan was strong enough just after the Labor Party won the election, when there was a discussion about banning the live sheep trade, to stand up and say, 'No, you won't.' It is emblematic of what Western Australia is. It is absolutely fundamental to how Western Australians see their industry. People who ban it are usually so far away from it that they don't understand it. A few facts: you have less chance now of a sheep dying on a ship than dying in a paddock because the technology that's going into it is always advancing, always getting better.

The live sheep trade is also part of our diplomatic capacity to affect other people around us. If you go around Asia, they want to talk to you about the food that you can sell them. It means more to them than many other things we can sell them, because they can't do it themselves to capacity. They can do it some of the way, but then there are the corners that we Australians produce for, and those gives us engagement diplomatically on trade with our near neighbours. This is a very important thing that people should be made aware of: the holistic managing of that industry requires investment in the chemicals and in the biosecurity mechanisms. We have to be always reaching forward and never complacent. We have to clearly understand the realities of what we are. We are South-East Asians. We don't realise it, but we are South-East Asians. That's where we live. We have to understand the nuances and the terms of trade, and what people in South-East Asia want from us.

We are also a little bit Middle Eastern because of our trade to the Middle East. We are at times very Chinese, a tiny little bit from the United States and a tiny little bit from Europe. But we have to make sure, in doing this task—which is a noble task. There can be nothing more noble than feeding and clothing people—not ripping off people by gambling on their weaknesses. Every day when I go to the paddock I think that the fruits of my labour mean that people eat and people are clothed. We raise their standard of living and give them the basic sustenance of their lives.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is of the utmost importance that Australia maintains our food security and protects our agricultural trade. The bill before us harmonises the similar Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia acts, ensuring the two acts work together to sustain the agricultural industry in Australia. This bill increases the efficiency of levy structures and spending, and subsequently improves our country's biosecurity response in the face of this threat.

For many years, Australian primary industries—agriculture, fisheries and forestry trade—have asked the federal government for levies to be imposed in their respective industries. It allows industry resources to be pooled and used strategically. If not for levies, large-scale projects could never be considered, and complicated, industry-wide activities protecting all of those in agriculture could never be enacted. These projects are beyond the scope that small and rural enterprises could enact on their own, and the efficient use of levies means that all those in primary industries can not only be protected from biosecurity threats but also avoid significant pest and disease management costs to producers in the long term.

But the imposition of these levies is not enough. They must be improved, restructured and reconsidered to ensure that they remain efficient and beneficial to agriculturalists in Australia. The entire process is coordinated with input from the primary industries, including whether they need a levy, how it will be charged and collected, what the rate is, and when to review the levy. The structure of the levy system is based on cost sharing. Cost sharing between industry and government allows for the strongest possible response to biosecurity risks.

My uncle Sam spent decades as the president of both the Victorian and the national strawberry growers associations. Over the years we've had many conversations about the importance of levies for that industry. However, he always took the time to remind me that we should always remember that it is the farmers' money that is being spent and it must always serve their interests and be spent as efficiently as possible.

Emergency eradication responses are planned and funded for, ensuring that, if an exotic animal disease or plant pest makes its way into Australia, it will be responded to promptly and accurately and it will not destroy our industries. These investments now will mean savings to Australian producers in the future, with significantly fewer disease management costs.

As an example, Australia has eradicated avian influenza three times from our country. With the potential to devastate millions of poultry and even humans, Australia is thankful to have avoided the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has occurred in Asia, Africa and Europe since 2003. Past successes are not always an indicator of future successes. We must keep up with the changing landscape of biosecurity. At each and every step we must do everything in our power to minimise risks.

The varroa mite has been detected on Australian honey bees. This mite is responsible for the collapse and death of European honey bee colonies wherever it is present overseas. There is currently a movement control order in place to stop the spread of this. This is just one example of the threats to our country that require government and industry partnership to ensure future success in this field.

Australia is home to many world-class producers, and countries all over the world pay premiums on high-quality Australian produce. This demand exists because we have not only some of the best agricultural environments around but also the best farmers. I experienced firsthand this demand for Australian products when I visited Asia when I was responsible for exports at Yarra Valley Snack Foods. We must always continue to protect the brand equity of this country.

Australia currently exports more agricultural products than it imports, with around 70 per cent of Australia's total agricultural production sent overseas. In 2018-19 the value of Australian agricultural exports was almost $49 billion. We must do all in our power to ensure that Australia remains a global superpower in this industry. Unfortunately, this economic growth would all be in vain if biosecurity threats are allowed into our country. It would be devastating for our bees, our cattle, our citrus and our fruit.

Without proper protections against the dangers that exist, our industries will be significantly damaged. We saw this in Casey, particularly in the Yarra Valley, where phylloxera took hold in vineyards in 2006, defeating biosecurity measures. It impacted the industry significantly then and it still is to this day. It's causing significant economic harm to our industries and wineries in the Yarra Valley. It's so important that we protect all these industries.

Moreover, this bill removes redundancies from the AHA Act relating to honey bees, with the industry no longer paying levies to the body. Consistent with a similar act for plants, the bill will allow emergency plant pest response levies to be used for anything related to plant health and biosecurity activities. This will provide more flexibility to PHA industry members in meeting industry biosecurity needs. This change is consistent with the use of the equivalent levies in the AHA Act. By broadening the range of possible levy expenditure, the plant industry will be able to devote funds to whatever is most pressing and will not be limited by predetermined limitations on expenditure. Plant industries welcome this change as it will give them greater autonomy on allocated expenditure for what is really necessary to protect their industries. Powers will be granted to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to determine that a body is a relevant member of a plant industry, and redundant provisions will be removed that redirect excess levies to research and development.

As a result of these amendments, we will also see minor changes to other legislation merely to facilitate the amendments. Each of these changes will make the animal and plant funding acts more efficient, more effective and fit for purpose, serving our industries and making sure these levies are spent efficiently. Industries will be able to meaningfully contribute to the biosecurity issues at hand, saving themselves from the debilitating further costs if the protections were not to exist.

The recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia has been a reminder to us all of the biosecurity threats that exist and our need to be vigilant in this regard. The Biosecurity Act 2015, introduced by the previous coalition government, has facilitated a thorough response to that threat. Through this, biosecurity officers have directed all travellers from Indonesia, including Bali, to walk over sanitising foot mats, and there have been other measures, including distributing vaccine to Indonesia. I am thankful that the previous coalition government enabled Australia to be prepared in the face of such threats.

My electorate of Casey is very regional. Agriculture is immensely important for us, not just for the economy but for the community and family connections that are generated and, indeed, our identity as a region. The Yarra Valley is world-famous for its established viticulture industry and produces Australia's best wines. More than 50 winery businesses call our region home and annually bring in $8.5 million of gross production.

But wine is not the only agricultural industry we attract. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, Casey produced around $400 million worth of agricultural products, including strawberries, with $54 million of gross production, apples with $45 million, cherries with 18 million, nursery production with $175 million and cut flowers with $29 million. We also produce broccoli, cabbages, lettuce, herbs, capsicum, beans, tomatoes and so much more. For full perspective, there are 1.2 million apple trees in Casey.

My point is simple. We all know the importance of agriculture in Australia. In my electorate, it is even more important. I am glad to see legislation fostering this in the House. This bill serves to protect the industries so important to Australia and especially Casey. I hope this bill is the first step of many towards even stronger measures cementing Australia as a top exporter of produce and meat around the globe. We have the land. We have the talented farmers. We just have to ensure the health of our produce through measures like this going forward. I commend this bill to the House.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. As previous speakers have outlined, it's a great partnership between government and industry, where we have these schemes that put levies in place to support important industry-specific funded activities that the government can oversee. We obviously understand the principle, which is that the individual producers cannot be expected to protect themselves alone from potential biosecurity risks and other risks to them. Equally, even if they tried, it's something that we have to do cumulatively as a government.

I was involved in the wool industry for a very long time. Most people will know of the Woolmark brand, which at one point in time in the sixties and seventies was the most recognisable Australian brand on the planet. I'm reliably told that a business in my electorate—Penfolds wine—is the new most-recognised brand in certain nations. Woolmark is owned by something called Australian Wool Innovation, which is one of these partnerships that puts levies in place on growers in the wool industry. I've been out of that industry for about 10 years, but that entity undertook a number of different activities on behalf of the industry as a whole. When I was there, they took in about $64 million a year, and exactly half was on the production side—both on-farm and off-farm—and the other half was around marketing and other product development and promotional activities that they would do to help expand the industry.

In terms of merino wool, Australia produces about 80 per cent of the world's apparel wool, and it was in the interests of Australian producers to have a levy put on them, at the greasy wool stage, that would be collected by Australian Wool Innovation. They would then use those funds under rules governed by statute—there's an act of parliament that covers them—and they would have an industry led process to select their leadership. There was a board of representatives, and they would determine and oversee the way in which the organisation was run, what its budget was each year and how it would select the various things that it would fund. They would then execute the spend of that levy which had come from the producers, to make sure that it was being used for the best benefit of the producers.

Having the industry in charge of their own levy fund was certainly something that meant there was the best chance possible of the industry supporting and backing the things that the money from their own levy was being spent on. So half of that was on the marketing and product development side, but the other half was on important measures that are not dissimilar to what this legislation goes toward: ensuring that the wool flock was safe from various threats of a biosecurity nature; investing in research and development to look at ways of improving the size and health of the flock; and looking at different techniques that could be used to help wool apply to more and varied uses, both in an apparel sense and in an industrial sense.

Australian Wool Innovation was heavily involved in developing the ways in which wool would be become shrink resistant. A very famous challenge in wool is that, when washed in warm water, the wool fibre does not like to be stretched and spun into a yarn. That's not the natural inclination of a fibre of wool. It's a crimped fibre, and, without appropriate treatments, you have a situation whereby you won't have shrink resistance in the garments. Australian Wool Innovation invested money in superwash technology and in other technologies that meant we could enhance the value of the wool fibre so that it would have a more significant value for growers.

That was the point of these levies: to put in place a levy on production and to use it in a way that would mean the paying of the levy would, hopefully, be less than the increase in value for the sector. The real unknowns in the sector were some of the preventative things that are envisaged within the framework that we're amending with this bill. Obviously, with a biosecurity arrangement in place to keep out potential pests and prevent impacts upon a particular sector or industry, you can never know that the preventative measures have worked but for the fact that nothing has happened to impact your industry. So when you're investing in preventative measures, as long as the prevention doesn't result in what you're seeking to prevent from occurring going ahead, then, of course, it's been a success.

Prevention in my industry, the wool industry, was always very successful. The unique challenges of raising merino sheep in Australia were also ones that that levy was able to help support. It's obviously a very different climate from where the Spanish merino sheep came, and there are some different challenges with local pests and the like. Flies and flystrike, in particular, are a very significant challenge and issue in the wool industry. It's also become a significant animal welfare issue, quite reasonably, but equally it's something that has been a big challenge for the sector to tackle. Thanks to an industry levy, like the one in this bill, individual growers have been able to receive a lot of support from that body to address it.

Mulesing is a well-known practice that is undertaken by farmers going back a long time in this country, because, due to the unique challenges of the Australian environment, flystrike can best be dealt with by crutching the sheep. There certainly have been developing animal welfare concerns about that practice. Australian Wool Innovation, through the raising of a levy that they receive from growers, like the Animal Health Australia levy, were able to look at a whole range of ways in which they could satisfy the important animal welfare concerns and issues that were consistently raised, not just by animal welfare groups but by a lot of participants in the supply chain, particularly out of Western Europe and North America, who were concerned about using merino wool because of the practice of mulesing. There was then this concept of a non-mulesed wool being something of value that you could advertise to animal welfare conscious consumers who would feel much more comfortable in purchasing garments with that sort of accreditation. So I really pay tribute to Australian Wool Innovation, the way in which they've been structured and the levy they raise.

What this bill does, exactly in line with the way AWI operates, is to make sure that there's a really strong, healthy partnership between the government, the industry and the individual participants in the industry to help protect them and respond to emergency circumstances to safeguard and protect the industry. We in the coalition are very happy to support this bill which effectively mirrors a bill that we introduced in the last parliament—it made it through this chamber but not the Senate—and we look forward to it being able to pass before the end of the year so it can proceed to provide the benefit it's designed to provide, to the various industries that rely on it. With those words, I commend the bill to the House.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You learn new things every day in this job. I learned this afternoon that the minister at the table, the member for Sydney, is in fact a beekeeper, an apiarist—a farmer! I'm impressed. Indeed, that'll be the subject of future media releases, I'm sure, when I question the government about certain things agriculture related. But it is good that the member for Sydney does understand the importance of animal health, of insect health and of bees. Let me tell you, without bees, our agricultural industry would be nothing because the pollination—the process that goes on there—is crucial, essential, critical to all agriculture. I have newfound respect for the member for Sydney. I always appreciated our discussions, and, indeed, we've achieved some good things together in the space of health, and I look forward to working with her in the space of water infrastructure, which as the environment minister she's now responsible for.

Australia's biosecurity system is an absolute pillar of our national defence. I'm not overstating it or overplaying it; it is our national defence. Our biosecurity helps us to prepare for, mitigate against and respond to risks to our environment, our economy and our very way of life. Australia has long enjoyed a reputation for clean, green, healthy and disease-free agricultural production systems. May that long continue, because the moment that it is put at risk—the moment it is jeopardised and falls apart in even the slightest way—is the moment that those products which proudly carry the kangaroo symbol may well be spurned by international markets.

We are heading towards a hundred-billion-dollar agriculture industry by 2030. That's our goal, and it was very much the government's objective when we were in power. I know that those opposite share the same view. It's certainly shared by the National Farmers Federation. We acknowledge, as previous speakers on the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 have stated, that our farmers are the very best in all the world. Make no mistake: they know the critical importance of this bill in improving their lives, their livelihoods, the lives of their animals, and their plants—the crops they grow. Australia's biosecurity has given Australian producers an edge in what is a very competitive international environment. We need to keep that edge, and anything that we can do, say or pass in this House and in the Senate to enhance that is to be commended.

That is why the coalition have said, as we've said with other legislation: 'If it's good legislation, we'll support it. We'll be very much in favour of it.' Not a lot of people know this, but even in those years when Julia Gillard was Prime Minister 88 per cent of legislation, or perhaps even a bit more, was passed in a bipartisan way. As I have for the member for Sydney, I've got the utmost respect for Julia Gillard. Indeed, she's been an exemplar in public life post-politics. A lot of people outside of parliament and some of those in the fourth estate like to make out that it's always argy-bargy and there's never any consensus or bipartisanship, but if good legislation is brought forward by the new Labor government we'll support it.

In 2020 the value of Australia's biosecurity system was estimated to be $314 billion over 50 years—314,000 million dollars. That's a lot of money. Many of the things that we take for granted as a constant of Australian life are now at greater risk than ever before. Exotic pests and diseases are spreading around the world at a faster rate. This is putting unprecedented pressure on our borders. I know recently we had a foot-and-mouth disease scare. I thank the government for what it did. We did call on the government to act sooner and harder.

Indeed, that outbreak in Indonesia, and people travelling to and from Bali in particular, made my farmers in the Riverina and the Central West very nervous. There were calls to ban travel to and from Bali. I wasn't against those calls, because if you get FMD in this country it's all over for many farmers. Indeed, it's all over for our abattoirs, and I've got some very big abattoirs in my electorate. I've got Chris Cummins at Cowra Breakout River Meats, the abattoir at Bomen in Wagga Wagga, abattoirs in Young and the meat-processing plant in Junee, where Heath Newton processes much of the sheepmeat that ends up on shelves throughout our supermarkets in Australia. An outbreak of FMD or lumpy skin disease or, indeed, any other disease would cause those meat processing plants to close just like that.

I should have also mentioned the Barton brothers at Gundagai. I know Will Barton is so short of labour that he was on the kill room floor not that long ago. He sent me photos of himself in a white coat and all the proper protective gear.

Our abattoirs, along with our farmers, are the best in the world. In my electorate, I have the two largest saleyard stock operations in Australia, if not the southern hemisphere: No. 1 is at Wagga Wagga and No. 2 is at Forbes. I was pleased as the infrastructure minister, in the glory days of Australian politics—

I got a laugh from the current minister for infrastructure, but it was true. I was pleased to provide funding for those Forbes saleyards. It meant the world of difference for them. And I know Steve Loane, who's the general manager of Forbes Shire Council but who's also had a lot to do with the stock and freight industry over the many, many years, was pleased to get that funding.

We need a strong biosecurity system. This legislation further enables and enhances that, and I'm pleased that it's been brought to the parliament.

I know the member for New England talked a lot in his contribution about the live trade export, and I know there are diverging views, both here and outside the parliament, about the live trade. I know, as the minister of transport, I did provide a tick-off to a sheep-carrying ship outside of the months of the year considered the best for the welfare of the sheep. Rest assured, I know those operators are under such strict and stringent conditions now that they cannot afford to not provide good welfare for the sheep. Indeed, in the system we have in place—going from paddock to plate, through the whole supply chain—animal welfare is first and foremost for our farmers. They get very upset when people suggest otherwise, when people suggest that they are not doing the right thing, whether it is sheep or cattle.

Our farmers, as I say, are the best environmentalists in the world. They're the best for animal husbandry. They're the best growers of crops anywhere in the world. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of those importers of our products. I was only talking to the ambassador for the United Arab Emirates yesterday, and he talked about the great products that come from Australia. The UAE wants to import more, and that's to be admired. I know when we took government in 2013 the percentage of trade under free trade arrangements was somewhere in the 20 per cent area. When we left, it was closer to 80 per cent. The markets that we opened up—even when there were changing conditions with the Chinese market and we had to look for other markets—led to our farmers being given more opportunities and different opportunities. That's going to need to be even more in place in the future, because our markets are not assured in the geopolitical situation that we have right across the world.

I'm visiting Africa next week and I'm very perturbed and confronted, as the shadow minister for international development and the Pacific, by the famine in Kenya, in Ethiopia and in Uganda. It has not been declared yet, yet tens of thousands, particularly children, have died already. This is always the case, and then they declare the famine, and then the United Nations and other NGOs act more swiftly than they would have otherwise. But this is a tragic situation, and it's largely being brought about, not by three years of drought in some of those countries I mentioned in the Horn of Africa, but by the war in Ukraine. I don't think we can quite understand fully here in Australia—we're a very lucky country—what it's like to go without food. We should thank our farmers three times a day every day. When we get food on our table, it's taken for granted. But those in Africa don't have that luxury. I know that what I'm about to see next week, on a bipartisan tour with the Save the Children fund, is going to be very distressing and very confronting.

I look forward to going to the Pacific the week after, with Minister Wong, Minister Conroy and shadow minister Birmingham, to look at the situation in Micronesia and Palau and elsewhere, because, in some of those Pacific nations, they have drought. It's hard to believe that they have drought, because we are in a La Nina and it simply will not stop raining. It had rained every day in my electorate, and it actually stopped two Sundays ago—the day after my daughter Georgina's wedding. She was really happy when she had to make alternative arrangements for her outdoor wedding! It was a lovely day, though, Member for Mallee, as I'm sure you know.

But the point of this legislation is important, and we need to make sure that our biosecurity system is what it needs to be and is even improved upon. I do thank the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Murray Watt, for bringing this forward and for his endeavours to make sure that Animal Health and Plant Health and biosecurity are what they need to be. We need to take every step, use every measure, to ensure that we stop harmful pests and diseases entering Australia, through whichever way—whether it's via cargo, sea vessels and aircraft, international travellers, post and mail or natural pathways—because our farmers expect nothing less. They deserve nothing less. And we need to do everything we can to protect the clean, green standards that have made us No. 1—No. 1 in the very best produce in all of the world. I commend the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank all members for their contributions on the Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022—particularly the member for Riverina, who has just concluded his speech, and the member for Sturt, who seems to be popping up on all manner of bills towards the end of the speaking list today.

The Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia Funding Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 of course amends funding legislation for Animal Health Australia and Plant Health Australia. The bill will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of legislation dealing with the payment and use of biosecurity levies, which these organisations manage on behalf of their industry members. The bill will facilitate industry parties to future emergency biosecurity response deeds using the same levy arrangements available to industry parties to the existing plant and animal deeds. It will offer increased flexibility to plant industry members in the spending of their emergency response levies.

The bill will reduce administrative burden and improve clarity by removing redundant provisions. It will simplify and give an appropriate level of oversight to the process of identifying relevant plant industry members for a particular leviable plant product. These prudent and needed changes will contribute to the ability of industries to sustainably fund their biosecurity plans, contribute to eradication responses, and, of course, ensure that Australia's biosecurity regime continues to protect Australia's unique agriculture, environment and way of life. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.