Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation (Senator Abetz) to a question without notice asked by Senator O’Brien today relating to quarantine arrangements and equine influenza.

We would have to say that this is an issue on which we have a clear failure of this government’s approach to quarantine. We have a system where this government was warned not just once in 2004, not just once in 2005, but on repeated occasions that its system of quarantine, particularly in relation to the disease equine influenza, made us more liable for the incursion of that disease into Australia. And did the government know that the disease was such a debilitating disease and could be communicated so easily? Well, yes, it did.

Indeed, the AUSVETPLAN, the government’s own document, makes it very clear that it is a disease which can spread on the wind over a distance of eight kilometres. It is a disease that can be carried on the bodies or clothes of human beings who come in contact with horses. It is a disease, indeed, which can be carried by animals that have been vaccinated against it. And yet, in August of this year, horses were returned from Japan after stud duties—horses that had been vaccinated and introduced into the Eastern Creek quarantine facility. Those horses, in the presence of other horses, came from a country which, it very soon became apparent, was in the throes of an equine influenza outbreak. What special steps did the government take? Well, none. What new arrangements were put in place in relation to the horses at Eastern Creek? Well, none. What other measures were put in place to ensure that everyone was aware that there was a potential problem because of the horses coming in and the risk? Well, none again.

The fact of the matter is that what we have seen is a massive failure of our quarantine system. Despite the fact that the government will try to paint this up as a matter which is in doubt, the reality is that the overwhelming weight of evidence will indicate that this disease originated from the Eastern Creek quarantine facility, that this disease emanated from there because the quarantine arrangements at Eastern Creek were not up to standard, that this disease occurred because the government was not alive to the real consequences of the introduction of the disease and that this disease occurred because the government was not listening to the Australian Racing Board’s warnings back in 2004-05 about the risks that the disease posed, the very infectious nature of the disease and the damage the disease would cause to the Australian racing and breeding industry.

We have seen racing close down in parts of Australia. Certainly New South Wales and Queensland are bearing the brunt, but of course the racing industry in Victoria are now saying that they are bearing a financial burden disproportionate to that which they should have to carry because of the lack of racing product in other states and the fact that they have to provide a product for other states’ betting mechanisms—the mechanisms which fund the whole industry.

We are seeing in the Hunter Valley major studs being closed down and the movement of animals stopped, including the movement of stallions locked up in Eastern Creek. There is the potential threat to the new foal crop. It is said that this disease can have up to a 40 per cent mortality rate for young horses. That could see not just the crop coming from this year’s stallion services but also the crop from last year’s stallion services being reduced by the spread of the disease. The damage that this disease could do to Australia’s breeding and racing thoroughbred industries could be enormous, and of course the standardbred industry is being affected as well because of movement restrictions. Now questions, questions which I need to further investigate, are being raised about whether the transportation of semen for the standardbred industry—which, unlike the thoroughbred industry, allows artificial insemination—might be affected by some of these horse transportation bans. All of these issues need to be addressed.

Frankly, the main issue could have been avoided. There were warnings in the letter from the Australian Racing Board about the impact of this disease in the Republic of South Africa in late 1986, when the racing industry was closed down. Veterinarians in that sector played a primary role in the outbreak as well, and the suggestion from the Australian Racing Board was that if you did not control the access of people to these horses you had no chance of controlling the disease. We will find in all likelihood that that has been the problem here. (Time expired)