Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Agriculture Legislation Amendment (Streamlining Administration) Bill 2019 and something that is dear to my heart—agriculture and biosecurity. The backbone of our great nation is, and always has been, the people who have ventured away from the urban areas and who have settled in rural and remote areas. These bold people established themselves to be part of Australia's farms and rural industries, a mighty machine that provides food and fibre not only for all Australians but also for our export markets. It was once said that Australia rode on the sheep's back. Whilst those days are long gone, agricultural and primary production remain vital to our economy.

As a measure of success in our agricultural sector, consider that in 2018-19 Australia's total farm output was estimated to be $62 billion, representing a substantial increase of about 28 per cent in nominal terms since this government came to office. The value of agricultural exports is estimated to be $49 billion for this same period. This represents a significant increase of almost 27 per cent, again, since we came to office. Furthermore, we are proud to say that we have strong prospects for dynamic growth in the future, ensuring continued development and opportunities for the hardworking Australians of our rural industries. Make no mistake about it: these are staggering achievements and a testament to the ingenuity and tenacity of our producers.

Critical to the success of the agricultural industry is Australia's world-class biosecurity framework, which has ensured our $62 billion agriculture industry, local communities and natural environment are protected from the incursion of pests and diseases. As our industries develop, expand and grow, we need to maintain our biosecurity standards while fostering an evolution of practices to ensure industries are not placed at risk by red tape. This same evolutionary process must also allow procedures to become more fluid and automated whenever possible in order to achieve greater capacity without compromising our high standards. We also need to standardise these processes. The agriculture legislation amendment bill will achieve precisely this.

Biosecurity incursions of high-risk plants and diseases would have a devastating impact on Australia. We have not always been great at biosecurity throughout our last couple of centuries. Either accidentally or by intention, we have introduced many bacterial, viral and fungal diseases, as well as many plant and animal pest species—things like cane toads, rabbits, lantana, prickly pear, tuberculosis, brucellosis and, more recently, prawn white spot disease, equine influenza and fire ants. Consider the enormous cost associated with eradicating or containing these pests. Across others nations we have seen the oceans of devastation caused by numerous diseases such as swine flu and foot-and-mouth disease. I myself have worked in the UK and witnessed firsthand the effects of foot-and-mouth disease and the immense financial and social toll that that took. Examples we have seen of such outbreaks serve to strengthen our resolve and focus our determination to ensure such events do not occur here in Australia.

This being said, I am concerned that right now we are at higher than acceptable risk levels due to our inability to keep pace with growing volumes of products and people needing to be screened. This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment processes an average of 45,000 commercial cargo referrals each month. This represents huge quantities of products that must be thoroughly and completely examined. This is a monumental task and one that needs to be streamlined. It is critical that the department be innovative in identifying deficiencies and improving all efficiencies that can be made in the operation of Australia's biosecurity framework. Such measures must be suitable for broad implementation, allowing the application across multiple locations throughout Australia and at all ports of entry, while maintaining a uniform level of control and consistency in application. For these reasons the Agriculture Legislation Amendment (Streamlining Administration) Bill 2019 is an excellent means of achieving these goals. Only by legislating these processes and procedures can we be assured that specific standards are achieved.

Another focus of the bill is to promote the efficiency and efficacy of our biosecurity system by authorising automated decision-making for decisions made by biosecurity officers under the Biosecurity Act 2015 and authorised officers under the Imported Food Control Act 1992. This approach will support deregulation and improve the effectiveness of the biosecurity framework and imported food system. A pressing example of where this bill is needed is in our ability to properly inspect and scan vast cargo volumes that potentially pose a high biosecurity risk to Australia. This bill will allow us to immediately make use of current technologies to effectively and efficiently enforce biosecurity controls over this state of affairs, and will be able to do this right across Australia.

Every day we face the constant threat of diseases reaching our shores, with one such current example being the worrisome presence of African swine fever in Timor-Leste, just off our northern coast. African swine fever is potentially the biggest animal disease event the world has ever seen. It is marching south through Asia towards Australia and is now less than 700 kilometres away. Hardening our defence against this threat is no easy matter, requiring multifaceted approaches, which include expedient and effective scanning of products, detection of illegal products and managing cases where offenders are identified. In doing so, we not only protect our 2,700 pork producers, including their families and employees, but we also protect Australia's reputation as a supplier of clean, green, safe and nutritious food. It is a splendid reputation that has taken an extraordinarily long time to earn. When we consider that approximately 50 per cent of pork products detected and seized at our borders tested positive to African swine fever, including a ham sandwich from an airline, we understand the enormity of this task.

A constant threat to our biosecurity is the high volume of international visitors arriving in Australia with undeclared food products. Well over 30 tonnes of illegal and potentially catastrophic product has been intercepted by our vigilant border security personnel in recent months. This bill will enable them to respond not only faster but also with greater efficiency. As diligent as our border security members are, there are limitations on available resources. Working smarter is pivotal to overcoming these.

There are a large number of pests and diseases that currently pose a high risk to Australia's biosecurity, challenging our perpetual state of preparedness. This bill is particularly crucial right now, as we are in peak season for one of Australia's high-risk pests—brown marmorated stink bug. Other high-risk pests and diseases include the copra beetle as well as the continued threat posed by foot and mouth disease. The volume of work associated with preventing biosecurity incursions of these high-risk pests and diseases has increased rapidly in recent months and continues to require considerable amounts of manual effort. Our hardworking border security staff punch well above their weight, and by implementing automated decision-making we can improve their reach by lessening the operational burden during these high-risk times and allowing the department to focus its efforts on other high-priority efforts. Effectively, new measures enabled by this bill will allow us to do more.

This bill supports implementation of computerised decisions, with appropriate safeguards, to provide the department with the flexibility to streamline services, reduce the length of time for decision-making in relation to biosecurity matters, reduce costs and free up resources. We will also have improvement in consistency of decisions and send out a strong message to those who would be reckless with our biosecurity standards and those who would threaten our products and industries. In essence, the measures promised by this bill allow us to keep pace with the changing biosecurity environment and ensure that there is a clear statutory basis for application of automated decision-making under the Biosecurity Act. It will allow wider use of automated decision-making to issue biosecurity directions and notices for imported food control certification. The Director of Biosecurity is able to determine by legislative instrument which biosecurity officer decisions under the Biosecurity Act may be made by operation of a computer program. The secretary can arrange to have automated decision-making for certain sections of the Imported Food Control Act.

If we do not provide Australia's biosecurity framework with all reasonable tools to strengthen our high standards, the entry of a high-risk pest or disease becomes inevitable—something that Australia cannot afford. Australia's agricultural industry, our hardworking producers and farmers, and our world-leading reputation for biosecurity may be irreparably damaged. We owe it to all Australians to utilise new and emerging technology to enhance our surveillance and detection wherever appropriate.