Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the opposition for their questions to Senator Watt on the very serious foot-and-mouth outbreak in Indonesia. The Albanese government is taking this threat extremely seriously, very seriously, just as Australian travellers are. What we are doing is taking the very best advice on managing this risk, and the very best advice on protecting Australia's trade as well. We're very grateful to those travellers who understand the seriousness of the disease and are complying with the measures that we're putting in place. We're very grateful to Australians for understanding the seriousness of this disease, which is more than we can say about those on the opposition benches. Those on the opposition benches have demonstrated today that they have been infected with something themselves, and that is a dose of absolute hysteria on this issue. They have been infected with a dose of confected hysteria on this issue.

Let's talk about the opposition's response to this issue. We've had the opposition leader, Mr Dutton, calling for the borders to shut. We've had the Leader of The Nationals, Mr Littleproud, immediately back away from that call. We've had the former Nationals leader—remember him—Mr Joyce, calling for the borders to be closed. And, of course, we've had Senator McKenzie wanting to wash people's feet—and making that offer again today.