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

My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Is the minister aware of the Senate committee report into the citrus canker outbreak that was tabled yesterday? Does the minister accept the committee’s bipartisan conclusions that the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service’s investigations were ‘at best, poorly handled’, and that the case has shown ‘how poorly prepared AQIS has been to deal with a disease outbreak’? Is the minister also aware that the committee chair, Senator Heffernan, yesterday described the initial response to the citrus canker outbreak by AQIS as ‘pathetic’? Wasn’t that pathetic response at least partly to blame for destroying 490,000 citrus trees and wiping out overnight an industry worth $70 million a year? Is the minister now able to explain why AQIS did not act earlier to try to prevent the outbreak from destroying an industry? Can the minister provide an assurance that in future AQIS will be able to secure Australia’s borders against exotic pests and diseases?