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

I did not avoid the question—these are generally budget decisions and I cannot commit us to what the resourcing will be or how that budget will unfold. I can say that DAFF does have a very strong prosecution section that deals with biosecurity and many breaches of legislation, as people would understand. It has good experience and has people who can investigate the nature of these offences. In respect of a research and development project, it is not something that I am going to commit to on the run. However, there are R&D corporations that could undertake work of that nature and there is a range of industry bodies that may also want to undertake this body of work. Within DAFF there is ABARES and there may also be opportunities for them to consider. We would not want to simply jump to conclusions. You might want them to scope out the nature of the requirement and whether or not that requirement adds value or adds to an outcome. We can do that through discussions with stakeholders during the development of regulations. I am happy to continue to discuss these issues with you but it is important that we rather undertake research that is beneficial to industry, that provides an outcome that is user friendly. Ultimately you will cut the costs of red tape and add to the compliance as well.