Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, not those bugs, Senator Scarr—not moreton bay or balmain bugs. They're pretty tasty. I thought it was a joke. In Beef Week 2021 I was up in Rocky enjoying lots of beef, as you do—too much beef in Beef Week. CSIRO chose that week to put out a report on the exciting opportunities for Australians to eat more bugs. As I said, I thought was a bit of a joke back then in early 2021, but I see now that all sorts of people, including Nicole Kidman and others, are all promoting that we need to switch to eating bugs. If we get this inquiry up, we should definitely look at the bugs and look at whether this is something to do. As for me, to each their own; if you want to eat bugs, go for your life. But, as I said, I do think we should look at these health issues properly and scrutinise them.

A recent report from the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations found a number of particular health issues that could arise from using insects. In particular, the pathogenic microbes of insects are considered potential vectors for viruses. Keep in mind that, when you process an animal, one of the first things you do in a meatworks is take out their gut and intestines, because that's where a lot of the microbes and potential bad things that can do harm to humans could be. You take all that out. You can't do that with insects, obviously; they're too small to take out all of that intestinal matter, and that's potentially where this bad stuff is. So, while other cultures have used bugs at different times, there's a lot of risk here in translating that into mass production. It should be examined and investigated, and this inquiry could potentially do that.

I could go on about these issues for a long time, and I think it would have been quite useful for not only the Senate but the entire Australian community for other Senators and me to have the time in a Senate inquiry to ask these legitimate questions and expose some of the issues that have been raised, but it would appear that this Greens-Labor cabal over there will ensure that there is not proper scrutiny in this place on these issues. I don't exactly see why; as I said, I'm not asking that other senators necessarily agree with all the concerns that I, Senator Roberts or others have put on the table, but they are definitely legitimate matters for investigation in an inquiry. It's very sad that the Senate tonight will most likely not do its job to make those appropriate investigations and inquiries. Instead, we will be mere puppets of others, who are presumably making these decisions on carpet that is not red in other parts of this building.