Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

In fact, Senator Macdonald should be embarrassed, because the Newman government has failed to support James Cook University funding for biosecurity, but there is not one word out of them about that issue. What we hear is silence from the coalition when their friends over in the state government in Queensland start cutting biosecurity. We do not hear a word from you about that. I said in my previous answer, on 3 August, that I wrote to the responsible minister to seek an assurance that Queensland remained committed to protecting biosecurity in Queensland and Australia, and Minister McVeigh has failed to respond to the Australian government on Queensland's ability to fulfil its obligations, because there are a range of areas. There are issues around fire ants that we have not heard about. But his failure to respond is really consistent with the coalition's record of neglect of Australia's biosecurity system.