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

I move:

That the following matter be referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by the last sitting day in March 2007:

The administration of quarantine by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and its ministers, with particular reference to:

(a)

the effectiveness of current administrative arrangements for managing quarantine, including whether the community is best served by maintaining the division between Biosecurity Australia and the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS);

(b)

whether combining Biosecurity Australia and the AQIS would provide a better structure for delivering the quarantine outcomes that Australia requires;

(c)

the legislative or regulatory underpinning of the import risk assessment process, including the status of the current AQIS Import Risk Analysis Process Handbook;

(d)

the methodology used by Biosecurity Australia for determining appropriate levels of protection;

(e)

the role, if any, of ministers in making final decisions on import risk assessments; and

(f)

any related matters.

One of the most important duties for any government, and certainly the most important duty for any agriculture minister, is to safeguard our primary industries and our native flora and fauna from incursions by exotic pests and diseases. To do this a government must always be watchful for the changing nature of threats to Australia’s quarantine integrity and be prepared to review and modify, where necessary, our quarantine arrangements to meet these threats. When flaws in the system have been exposed a government should be prepared to make changes. It is not a government’s role to merely defend the status quo. A government should welcome an opportunity for a thorough review of important policy areas, particularly one as important as quarantine.

A government should grasp an inquiry as a real opportunity to make improvements where they are needed and, in the case of the management of quarantine by this government and this minister, it is clear that improvements are needed. The performance of our quarantine agencies has been called into question through a series of incidents: the Brazilian beef found at the Wagga Wagga tip that, in the worst case, could have potentially exposed Australia to foot-and-mouth disease; the serious scientific flaws found in the import risk assessment for bananas; the Marnic affair I referred to earlier today in this chamber and exposed in budget hearings, which detailed numerous instances of poor practice by Australia’s quarantine authorities that potentially could leave the Commonwealth and taxpayers with a substantial compensation liability; and the introduction of citrus canker to the Emerald region of Queensland and the subsequent mismanagement by AQIS of the investigation as to how it got there in the first place.

The list of quarantine failures is much longer than that and it continues to grow. Every time the list grows, Australian farmers become more and more concerned about the capacity of current quarantine arrangements to protect their industries and their livelihoods from the ravages of imported pests and diseases. No wonder farmers at last month’s annual conference of the New South Wales Farmers Association voted unanimously to call for an inquiry into quarantine by a committee of the Senate. This is the motion supported unanimously by the New South Wales farmers:

That the Association seek as a matter of urgency a Senate inquiry through the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee into AQIS, Biosecurity Australia and the Australian quarantine system including the accompanying legislation.

The minutes of the conference record 17 pages of motions that were considered by New South Wales farmers. The minutes record that that motion calling for a quarantine inquiry was one of only two motions that were carried with unanimous support of those present. I assume that those in this place who claim to be here representing the farming community are aware of the level of support for this motion from the farming community. Given the strong support from the farming community for an inquiry, farmers are entitled to expect that senators who claim to represent them will be supporting this motion, because it does just what the New South Wales Farmers Association calls on the Senate to do.

I will be interested to see how much support this motion gets from National Party senators and rural Liberal senators. If they need further evidence of the need for an inquiry, I would direct senators to the report commissioned by the New South Wales Farmers Association into Australia’s quarantine arrangements. The report was prepared by respected barrister Tom Brennan. In this very detailed report Mr Brennan says there are structural flaws in the current quarantine system that are in need of remedy. According to Mr Brennan, these flaws include:

Effective, efficient and transparent development of policy has been compromised by the failure to develop effective stakeholder relationships and the structural divisions between policy development and operational functions.

He says:

The establishment of Biosecurity Australia ... as a prescribed agency under the Financial Management and Accountability Act has financially separated policy development (done by BA and the Department of Health) and operations (done by Australian Quarantine Inspection Service AQIS) leaving no capacity for flexible allocation of resources between the two.

He says that the:

Quarantine Act does not support the policy mechanisms for AQIS control of the border as there is no recognition in the Act for the ICON database or Import Risk Analyses ... This exposes the Australian Government to extremely high levels of risk of legal challenge by an importer denied a permit and by Australian producers affected by an import. The lack of legal standing under domestic legislation for a scientific assessment which is required under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement also leaves the Government exposed to challenge by members of the World Trade Organisation ...

That is not a report commissioned by the Labor Party. This is not a proposal that comes from some unknown and insignificant organisation. This is a report which was commissioned by the New South Wales Farmers Association. This is a report which supports the New South Wales Farmers Association’s call for an inquiry. As I said, it will be very interesting to see how the government responds to a call made by an association which is normally a lot closer to the Liberal and National parties than it is to the Labor Party, the Democrats or, indeed, the Greens.