Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, want to make some brief comments, but I will be seeking leave to continue my remarks later because I believe there is a lot more that needs to be said. I just want to thank my colleagues on the inquiry. As to my deputy chair: there is a bit of a bromance going here; we are the odd couple—there is no doubt about that, for those listening! I'll just return the compliment to Senator O'Sullivan: there go your promotional prospects, too; they're down in the S-bend with mine!

But, apart from that, one thing about the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, whether it be the legislative committee or the references committee, is: we have carried this for the 12 years I have been on this committee. This is a committee that prides itself on leaving all the BS politics out of it and getting stuck into doing what is best for rural and regional Australia and our food producers, and I will continue, as long as I am on that committee, to enhance that style. And, if anyone has got a problem with that, they can come and tell me—and I'll move to another committee, if I'm ganged up on. But I tell you what: it'll be a big push.

I just want to say another thing, before I go to my colleague Senator Moore, who has got some really important stuff that she wants to touch on. I've sat through Senate estimates for years on end, and a previous chair of the committee, whether it be references or legislation, and a very dear friend—I'll say that; here's another odd couple—is former Senator Heffernan. One thing about the Heff is: no-one could ever, ever accuse him of not putting the interests of rural and regional Australia first. Former Senator Heffernan came into Senate estimates one day and he had a little parcel in his hand. He'd been banging on for years about the problem that we could have with an infestation of white spot virus in prawns. He pulled out, much to the shock of everyone in the room, a bag of prawns and dumped them on the desk. They were marinated prawns, clearly from South-East Asia. And he said, 'I don't know how many times I have to say this: what is stopping recreational fishers walking in and buying this cheaper product'—from Thailand, at the time—'washing off the marinade and using it for bait, dropping it in our rivers or oceans and infesting either our farmed prawn industry or the wild catch? God help us if that happens.' And you know what? Everyone treated former Senator Heffernan as the old uncle you had to have at the wedding but no-one wanted to sit on the same table with—it was disgraceful, actually, from the bureaucracy down. The ones we charged with our biosecurity treated him as a joke. And, sadly, about six or seven years later, unfortunately, there it was. And, to touch on Senator O'Sullivan's comments, it managed to wipe out an industry. We visited those people in the Logan area, and nothing hurts more than to see decent, hardworking people who are employing people and providing services being put out of business through no fault of their own.

As I said, I would like to pass to Senator Moore. Mr Acting Deputy President, once again, I seek leave to continue my remarks.