James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government opposes this motion on the basis that the motion contains a number of incorrect statements of fact and misquotes the Australian Border Force commissioner. The motion misquotes the ABF commissioner when it states that 'the detection of imports of building and construction materials that contain asbestos has tripled over the past year'. This is incorrect. Additionally, the motion states that 'the ABF has imposed only three financial penalties on companies for importing asbestos'. This is also incorrect. Preventing asbestos from crossing Australia's border is a priority for the government, and, through the Australian Border Force, we have significantly increased the efforts to stop goods containing asbestos from being imported into Australia through increased targeting and testing.

Question agreed to.