Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

No disrespect. We represent the people in this parliament.

Instead, the next day, 28 July, the minister wrote back to me and still did not respond with the answer to my question. I gave him the opportunity. I implored him in my letter to, if he'd misled or if he wanted to add to his answer, actually give me the answer that I asked for. How many passengers arriving at Australian international airports had walked across the foot mats from 5 July when the outbreak was announced in Bali? Let me know the number, Minister. That was in the letter. The minister chose not to answer the question again. Instead, he chose to dig himself in further and further, deeper and deeper. In the letter to me, the minister conceded, and I quote, 'Sanitised foot mats started being installed in international airports on Monday this week.' Hoisted by his own petard.

Misleading the Senate—knowingly giving false information to the Senate, seeking to sidestep your way around being accountable—is a very serious issue. It's a simple question. You could have said, 'Actually, we got the mats in on Monday; 1,500 have gone through in Sydney and 800 yesterday morning in Melbourne.' But you chose not to do it, because it showed how flat-footed you'd been on your response to calls by industry for foot mats for many weeks before they actually arrived.

I understand the minister is sensitive about tardiness of action and the fact that tens of thousands of passengers had arrived home from Bali without having their shoes, thongs or sandals sanitised. In fact, as we speak right now, we don't even know if their luggage is being screened for meat products. Industry has been very clear that the most likely way that this catastrophic disease will enter our country will be through meat products being imported, getting into our food supply chain, probably through the pork industry. So we need to be vigilant. There is still more to be done. Just because it's not on the front pages of tabloids or the Courier Mail doesn't mean this minister or the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment still do not have more work to do in ensuring this threat is actually dealt with in an appropriate manner.

I again invite the minister to answer the question. Please answer the question. How many passengers returning from Bali from 5 July have actually walked through a sanitising foot mat? That is the question I asked. You refused to answer it on the day. You chose to sidestep and mislead the Senate instead. I wrote to you requesting you to update the Senate in an appropriate way, to answer my question, and, in your response to me, you again refused to.

So today I stand. I know you're going to have an opportunity to respond during this debate, to answer the question, not just for me but for every cattle producer and regional community in Australia, every sheep producer, goat producer, livestock producer and abattoir worker that would be impacted and devastated, and the veterinarians that would have to deal with the outbreak. I spoke to veterinarians on the weekend who had flown over to assist the UK in their response. They are still devastated by the magnitude of the impact that they are to deal with on the ground in the UK, decades later.

This will have not only an economic impact, as you know now, Minister. You are taking it much more seriously, I think, than your earlier comments on the outbreak portrayed in June. But the impacts will be economic. They will be social. They will be emotional for those that will have to deal with this should it reach our shores. We wish you all the best and all strength in dealing with this. We want you to succeed. But you actually need to treat this chamber, the people of Australia and the industries you're privileged to represent and work with as a minister with respect and, when you're asked a question, to answer it to the best of your knowledge and not sidestep.