Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I want to follow on and expand on some of the points that Senator Heffernan made on the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee’s inquiry into the citrus canker outbreak. The inquiry was set up in May 2005 to examine in more detail a number of serious issues and allegations relating to the outbreak of citrus canker in the Emerald district of Queensland. Those issues were raised by me, Senator Heffernan and others during the 2004-05 additional estimates and the 2005-06 budget estimates hearings.

These were very serious allegations and issues that go right to the heart of how this government, and especially its quarantine service, AQIS, fulfils its key role of policing our borders to keep out exotic pests and diseases that may threaten important agricultural industries. The issues and allegations also go to how effectively and quickly the government, through AQIS, responds when it is provided with information about possible serious breaches of Australia’s quarantine laws. The terms of reference allowed the committee to examine these important issues and also to look at other areas, such as the cooperation between the Commonwealth and the states in dealing with the canker outbreak, the impact on our citrus industry of the outbreak and how future incursions should be managed.

In June 2004—and I think it is important to put the history on the record—an employee of Evergreen Farms in Emerald sent a sample of material from a mandarin tree that he suspected of being infected with citrus canker to the Queensland Department of Primary Industry for testing. Within four days, the Queensland department had confirmed that the sample was indeed infected with citrus canker and set in motion an emergency response process under the provisions of Plant Plan. The outbreak had a significant impact on citrus growers in the Emerald district and in Queensland generally, as a blanket ban was put on the shipment of Queensland citrus products to interstate markets at the very peak of the 2004 season. And, as Senator Heffernan has said, around half a million citrus trees in the Emerald district were destroyed. The economy of the whole Emerald district suffered, as did the families who rely on the citrus industry for employment.

It was six months after confirmation of the outbreak that both the Commonwealth and the Queensland governments announced assistance packages and then compensation packages. A number of witnesses presented evidence to the committee about the timeliness and effectiveness of the response by governments to this disease emergency. The committee has taken those concerns on board and has recommended that Plant Health Australia reviews the operation of both the national management group and the Consultative Committee on Emergency Plant Pests to improve their performances.

I want to turn to a number of very concerning issues and allegations that were raised at the inquiry and during a number of estimates hearings. The allegations—they have been touched upon by Senator Heffernan—related to a previous incident at Evergreen Farms, the property where citrus canker was discovered in 2004. My concerns go to how the government, through AQIS, dealt with those allegations.

On 12 June 2001, an employee of Evergreen Farms, Mr Wayne Gillies, made a telephone call to the AQIS Redline number alleging that the owners of Evergreen Farms had been involved in smuggling plant cuttings into Australia. Mr Gillies told AQIS that the owners of Evergreen Farms had illegally imported citrus, grape and lychee cuttings, as well as paw-paw and melon seeds, into this country. Over the next few weeks, AQIS officers took a formal statement from Mr Gillies and made a number of routine checks on permits held by Evergreen Farms and on the travel movements of the owners and others associated with the property. However, it was not until the morning of 23 July 2001 that AQIS executed a search warrant on Evergreen Farms. That was, as Senator Heffernan said, a full six weeks after Mr Gillies made his call to the AQIS Redline number.

There is considerable disagreement between the AQIS version of what happened during that search and the version provided to the committee by other witnesses, who were former employees of Evergreen Farms. While AQIS officers claim to have interviewed all available employees on that day, the employees themselves claim that they were either not interviewed or that any interviews that did occur were cursory at best. However, it is clear that only a small portion of the farm was actually searched and—again, as Senator Heffernan said—that a locked room, believed by AQIS compliance officers to possibly be a repository of illegally imported material, was not searched at all, despite the officers having the power to force entry to that room. Testing of the material taken from the farms during the raid did not show the presence of citrus canker but did show the presence of two other citrus diseases, one of which, importantly, was exotic to Australia. Evidence was given of the lack of cooperation by the owners of the farm with attempts by AQIS to manage the quarantine risks they had identified or suspected existed on the property.

Several witnesses were very critical of aspects of the AQIS investigation, and particularly about a perceived lack of vigour in the pursuit of allegations that in the year 2000 one of the owners on Evergreen Farms, Mr Cea, had directed employees to plant bud wood of very doubtful provenance. Subsequently, AQIS entered into a confidential deed of arrangement with the owners for ongoing monitoring of quarantine risks on the property. Under that agreement, the scope of monitoring of the property was quite limited and, in fact, only four inspections took place. Evidence was given that the confidential deed was a unique arrangement and was used in this case because AQIS was dealing with a particularly uncooperative and litigious property owner. The confidential nature of the agreement was of real concern to other citrus growers and grower organisations as well as other members of the Emerald community.

The 2004 citrus canker outbreak clearly demonstrated the sort of impact an exotic pest or disease can have on an important industry and on a community. There are lessons to be learnt, particularly from how government responded to the outbreak in terms of its performance during incursion emergencies. But it is on the government’s response to the 2001 allegations that the most serious concerns are raised. That response should be characterised as slow, timid and lacking rigour. There were concerns about the lack of protection given by governments to quarantine whistleblowers, without whom none of these events would ever have seen the light of day. I strongly urge the government to carefully read the report and to craft a response that deals with the serious issues it raises. I commend the report. I urge the government to carefully consider its recommendations. I thank the committee secretariat and the members of the committee for their work, and I sincerely hope that the work on this matter does not end here.