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

Australia’s biosecurity protection and the likes should not be determined on the supermarket shelf, Senator Nash—through you, Madam Acting Deputy President. That is not where it should be done. It should be done at our borders with our border control. So there is another mistruth to stir up the population to think that the tag on the shelf will solve everything. It will all be done with the correct protocols. To listen to that lot on the other side say that all of a sudden on 1 March we were going to be bombarded with beef from countries that had mad cow disease was just totally misleading. It is not hard to upset the public—just chuck out a scare campaign and that will have the desired effect. We have to cut through all that and get to the truths.

We were talking about the National Livestock Identification System, which I know Senator Williams quoted. I will check the Hansard that Senator Williams, quite rightfully, said that other countries should have the same procedures as us from birth. That is not a problem. I just want to clear that up because the NLIS does not require animals to be tagged at birth. If you listen to that lot on the other side you would think that every time a calf was born it would have a plastic tag on its ear. That is not the case and I will stand corrected if I am wrong. I do not hear Senator Nash attacking me now. I do not hear the good Dr Back attacking me now. If I am wrong, prove it.