Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, for the purposes of paragraph 48(1)(a) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, the Senate rescinds its resolutions of 15 September 2009 disallowing the following instruments:

(a)

the Export Control (Fees) Amendment Orders 2009 (No. 1), made under regulation 3 of the Export Control (Orders) Regulations 1982;

(b)

the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry (Export Licensing) Amendment Regulations 2009 (No. 1), as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2009 No. 108 and made under the Australian Meat and Live-stock Industry Act 1997;

(c)

the Export Inspection (Establishment Registration Charges) Amendment Regulations 2009 (No. 1), as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2009 No. 109 and made under the Export Inspection (Establishment Registration Charges) Act 1985; and

(d)

the Export Inspection (Quantity Charge) Amendment Regulations 2009 (No. 1), as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2009 No. 110 and made under the Export Inspection (Quantity Charge) Act 1985.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I would like to acknowledge as part of this process the efforts that have been put in to the discussion on the export certification reform program by members of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee and particularly the interest shown by Senator Xenophon, Senator Fielding and the Greens. This has been quite a long, drawn out process. There have been a couple of attempts to resolve this issue and the opposition, during the last sitting fortnight, put a proposal to the government to resolve it. We are quite appreciative of the fact that the government has come back with a comprehensive package which we believe will assist to continue the reform process but which will mitigate some of the issues that we had raised both at estimates and during the Senate inquiry that we conducted into the process.

I particularly want to pay regard to the efforts of Senators Milne, Xenophon and Fielding in this. Despite the fact that we have had some differences in the way that we deal with the process, we have all been fixed on ensuring that there is a genuine reform process. We note that the government has put on the table a significant amount of money, to the tune of $127.4 million, and that importantly the 40 per cent rebate has been reinstated for two years as part of this process. The reform process will continue immediately and issues relating to, in particular, small abattoirs and small exporters will be dealt with both through their inclusion on the industry panels and through providing fee structures that assist them as part of the process. So we thank the government for working with us on this issue.