Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As Chair of the committee which held the inquiry into the relaxation of the importation rules—the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee—I have been as close to the issue over the last couple of months as anyone else. I take this opportunity to commend some of my Senate colleagues. It has been a collective effort to get some focus put on this issue. I commend my very good colleagues Senator John ‘Wacka’ Williams, Senator Chris Back, Senator Richard Colbeck, Senator Julian McGauran and especially Senator Bill Heffernan for his efforts. On this occasion Bill and I have both been blowing steam out of our respective ears. It has taken all of us working together as a team to get some impetus on this issue. It was certainly needed because, as people quickly realised, there was no legislation and no regulation attached to the ministerial decision to do this; it was simply a swipe of the pen from the minister. We felt it was entirely appropriate to refer this to the Senate committee for greater scrutiny given that there was no parliamentary oversight whatsoever, other than our Senate inquiry.

I absolutely repudiate the accusation that we have been scaremongering on this issue. That is complete rubbish. What we have done is embark on an entirely appropriate process of scrutiny, through an entirely appropriate committee, to look at this issue. To say that we have been scaremongering is quite appalling. As a committee we certainly reject the accusation that we have ever done that. One of the witnesses, Mr Greg Brown, from the Cattle Council, thought we were being ‘mischievous’ in holding a Senate inquiry to get some scrutiny of this very important issue. All I can say is that I am very glad that the Senate committee was ‘mischievous’. If not for our ‘mischievous’ action this government would not have changed its mind and we would not be embarking on a full, transparent and comprehensive import risk analysis. To say that we were mischievous is quite an extraordinary thing. This comes from a person who was, to all intents and purposes, representing the cattle industry.

What we do know is that producer after producer after producer came to us during the course of this inquiry saying they either had no knowledge the import restriction on beef was being lifted or that they completely disagreed with it. They had no knowledge of it because of the secrecy that was required of the industry body heads during this process. There was no broad community consultation because of this veil of secrecy. Those producers absolutely should have been aware of this and they should have been part of the process—which, with the IRA, they now will be. The Cattle Council’s Greg Brown referred to Senator Colbeck as ‘a germ’. He said the issue had been ‘beaten up by certain members of the Senate determined to destroy this industry’. I am a farmer from the Central West of New South Wales and, while I am in this place, I will do nothing but fight for the agricultural industries I represent right across this country. It is just appalling that a leader of the cattle industry could stoop so low with remarks such as that.

We know that the IRA process needed to be put in place. The government has done a sensational backflip here. Isn’t it interesting? Senator Sterle is accusing us of scaremongering at the same time that his government is doing a backflip and asking what we the coalition knew the government should be doing months ago to make sure a proper process was put in place. The Australian people deserve to know that they were going to have the proper process in place when determining changes in these laws. I commend our media commentators, including Leon Byner in South Australia, Alan Jones and Jason Morrison at 2GB, and Graeme Gilbert. I have probably missed some of them, and I am sorry to the ones I have missed. A range of commentators realised that this issue was important to the people of Australia. Through them, with senators on the coalition side raising this issue, the people of Australia were able to have a voice on this issue. They made their voice heard very loud and clear by the minister and, as a result of their actions, the minister is now going down the path of a full import risk analysis process.