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

Before we come to the amendments, I want to ask the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to respond to a question I referred to earlier to which he has not responded. Minister, has there been a tightening of the arrangements for handlers coming and going from the Eastern Creek facility, particularly to the local pub, since the outbreak of equine influenza? The handlers at Eastern Creek have been leaving and re-entering the facility, for the purposes of going to lunch at the local pub, without any appropriate quarantine arrangements. Those arrangements have been tightened since the outbreak, to the extent that those handlers are now required to shower and change both on exiting and re-entering the quarantine facility at Eastern Creek. I would appreciate it if the minister could respond to that question as an initial matter in relation to the committee stage of this bill.