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

Quite simply, it is the truth: all meat would have had to have come off the shelf. The policy has not changed. I think it is very important that, while we congratulate Minister Burke for implementing an IRA, the government have made it quite clear that they will do whatever they can to expedite the time. Quite simply, let us not be fooled by those opposite: so far there have been no applications to import beef—none at all; not one. I know that upsets that lot over there but, anyway, that is the truth of the matter.

As I say once again, this is all about looking after our beef industry. To quote Mr Greg Brown from the Australian Cattle Council—and it is on the Hansard record—when I asked him whether he has been a producer for long: ‘Four generations’ was his answer. I find it disingenuous that a couple of farmers on the other side could think that someone with four generations of history in the beef industry would do anything to jeopardise a $7.1 billion industry. Sixty per cent of that $7.1 billion is export. As I have said, it has been a major scare campaign from those opposite.