Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously the government is not supporting the Greens' amendment, and Senator Siewert acknowledged that in her remarks. I would like to reiterate a few points from what we said earlier and to counter some of the statements Senator Siewert has just made.

The government are not taking the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Removing Re-Approval and Re-Registration) Bill 2014 right back to where it was prior to the Labor Party's amendments when they were previously in government; what we are doing is removing the compulsory reregistration process because we do believe there are sound procedures in place with which to manage agricultural chemicals. I do not think we differ from the Greens in requiring them to be safe for use, but we do think it is important to remove the compulsory reregistration process, as we have said before, because it is an excessive layer of regulation.

We can take into account and we do take into account what happens in other countries. I think that is a very important point to reiterate. Senator Siewert would probably know, having sat in estimates, that there are some actives that are not available for use in Australia that are available for use in other countries, so in some circumstances we do actually lead other countries. I recall the quite intensive discussion around omethoate that we had at Senate estimates a couple of years ago. At that time it was still available for use in New Zealand but was being removed for certain uses in Australia because of our concerns about the potential health impact on children. There was large discussion about its use on tomatoes and about our tomato exports to New Zealand.

We do have systems in place in Australia to deal with adverse events. I know Senator Siewert understands that. Given that we do take into account what happens overseas—we can take into account data that is produced overseas and events that occur overseas, such as a genuine prohibition in another country—that provides parameters for safe and sound use of agricultural chemicals in this country. It is important to note that studies have indicated that up to 20 per cent of our agricultural production could be lost without the use of agricultural chemicals. They are a very important element in our food security. Yes, we need to make sure that they are managed properly. Yes, we need to make sure that they are safe and have proper efficacy. The government believes the action it is taking with this legislation actually provides a sound regulatory framework to deal with the proper safety measures for agricultural chemicals but without overregulation.