Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. The beef industry is significant in both its domestic and export value. There is no argument about that. Approximately 60 per cent of the total $7.1 billion of beef produced in Australia each year is exported. Trade is crucial for our beef industry, and this trade occurs under a rules based system. As members of the World Trade Organisation, Australia is bound to follow these rules and we have to follow these rules. We need to ensure that our rules are based on the best science in the world. Australia is entitled to implement rules to protect human, animal or plant life but must ensure these rules are based on international standards.

There would be adverse ramifications for our beef export trade if the policy remained unchanged or a WTO dispute was brought against Australia, and I think you could relate to that, Mr Deputy President. In particular, the continuation of the 2001 policy under the previous government may have resulted in retaliation, with major markets closing down trade in response to our ban on beef from those markets. Australian beef producers benefit from the access they gain to export markets around the world, and that has been made very, very clear to us in the committee on a number of occasions. The former policy risked our markets being shut down. It risked our industry being devastated.

The Howard government saw the need for change, but simply avoided it because it was all too hard. They had the scientific evidence and they sat on it—two reports, I believe: one in 2005 and one in 2006. The Howard government risked the future of our beef industry because they insisted on a BSE beef policy that was outdated, dangerous and wrong. If there was a single cow found with BSE, all Australian beef would come off the shelves—a blanket ban with no exceptions. If that did happen, imagine what that would do to jobs in rural Australia. Imagine what it would do to our beef industry. The beef industry called on the government to guard against this sort of calamity. The policy change protects Australian farmers and it protects Australian jobs; it protects Australian beef. Now that they are in opposition, that lot over there are running the classic scare campaign: disregarding the science and disregarding the facts. It does not suit them to have the science or the facts. It does not suit them to work in conjunction with the industry.