Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse and congratulate Senator Siewert for her remarks. This is an urgent issue and has not been taken seriously by successive governments. To put it bluntly—and I know you will pull me up on this, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle—if we do not sort out the problems we have with our bees, Australian agriculture is stuffed. Bees are important for pollination for so many sectors of the agricultural sector. It is not good enough for the government to simply say that we will leave it up to the states to work this out. This will affect agriculture across this country. It is a federal issue. The Commonwealth has a key role to play in this.

We know that honey production and pollination industries are worth billions of dollars to the Australian food-production industry. The importance of bees to the agricultural industry and the need for better labelling, from the consumer point of view, are important. Senator Siewert talked about pesticides and environmental issues. These are key issues to ensure that we do not destroy this important link to our agricultural production. My fear is that we are seeing risk of colony-collapse disorder, fewer bees and, with it, greater issues and problems with pollination. This is a key issue that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

The Australian Government considers all industries when it negotiates free trade agreements (FTAs). The impact of tariffs, quotas and the rules of origin that facilitate the free flow of trade between the Parties are integral to the final provisions of all FTAs. The beekeeping industry is free to make submissions to the government when the intention to negotiate a new FTA is announced, …

With respect to the government—and I am not singling out this government, because I think that previous governments have failed on this—that is not good enough. If we do not do something about this before it is too late we will see catastrophic consequences for our agricultural sector. There have been a number of previous reports. The More than honey: the future of the Australian honey bee and pollination industries report back in 2008 was very comprehensive. It was sidelined by the former government and I fear that this government will sideline these recommendations.

I particularly want to thank the beekeepers of Australia who made submissions to this inquiry, particularly people like Lee Duffield in South Australia and many others who made submissions in respect of this inquiry. If we do not get this right the consequences will be catastrophic.

If I can just finish off with an issue in respect of Sichuan province in China? They are pear growers there, and they have to pollinate because their bees have had colony collapse disorder. Pollination by bees just does not exist anymore. They have to pollinate their pear trees using sharpened bamboo sticks with feathers attached—dare I say it?—because there are no bees in the province anymore. That is the consequence of that. I wonder whether some sharpened bamboo sticks might be used to prod some of our bureaucrats to deal with this issue, fundamentally, because otherwise we are facing a catastrophe in Australian agriculture unless we act on this with utmost urgency. The government's response is very poor indeed.