Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Senator Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Milne today relating to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation wool scour at Belmont in Victoria.

The issue here is that we have a very substantial industry around Australia in rare and natural fibres. There are more than 8,000 people involved in value-adding from their rural enterprises through developing, breeding and achieving in the field of rare and natural fibres. But because of the small volumes involved they need a scour in order to clean and process the wool fibre and get it back to them so that they can value-add the product. The cuts to the CSIRO have meant that the CSIRO’s scour at Belmont in Victoria is to be sold. That was devastating news. It is devastating firstly in terms of CSIRO research into wool and, secondly, it is devastating to the 8,000 or more producers around the country who are dependent on it to value-add.

After a huge amount of pressure from the industry around the country, the minister gave an undertaking that when they put the scour to tender they would look to ensuring that it would be operational for five years and would continue to support these people in their endeavours. In the meantime some of them have been told to get their wool processed in New Zealand, which would double the cost of the yarn. Others have been told, ‘With regard to the alpaca, pack it up and send it to Peru and get it back from there,’ which of course would double costs. This is unacceptable from the government.

However, the industry understood the minister had given them an undertaking that an audit would be done before it went to tender, so that when it did go out to tender people looking at the business would consider exactly the nature of these 8,000 businesses around the country. That audit was not done and I have spoken to Senator Carr since question time and he says he never gave an undertaking to do the audit. He was asked to help find some money for the audit to be done and there was no money forthcoming. The result is that the industry has not had the audit for the benefit of those who might be interested in the tender process. It was always understood that the dryer would be part of the tender process. Now we find that the tender documents did not include the dryer. That means that whoever tenders for it is going to be up for at least another half a million dollars to buy a dryer because there is no point in having the scour without the dryer. I do not know why the government put to tender a facility without the dryer and that has to be clarified.

It seems to me that the government has not had a successful tenderer because no-one could meet the terms of the tender document and it should now readvertise. I have been told of at least one business interested in the scour that did not apply because it did not include the dryer and they knew that it would cost them another half a million dollars to be able to put a dryer in there to make the business operational and viable. The government needs to go back and put it out to tender with the dryer associated because without it that just makes a mockery of the whole thing.

I make the point here as well that we in this country have dropped the ball entirely in terms of wool research. We used to ride on the sheep’s back. It seems now we are content to be stuck in the coal pit and we have let the wool industry go. The wool industry needs to really think about what it is doing. Over the last couple of days New Zealand has announced the development of new fibre as a result of their agricultural and research program. They now have a stab resistant and flame resistant fabric based on wool. They have their non-woven, windproof fleeces as well as their natural, easycare, 100 per cent wool shirting and suiting fabrics. Our neighbours across the Tasman are committing to long-term research and it is not happening here. So I say to the minister and the government: we want the dryer with the scour put out to tender again with some real consultation to keep the industry viable around the country.

Question agreed to.