Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, I know that I probably don't do your promotional prospects much good as I continue to remark on the great work that you have done in chairing our beloved Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry into white spot. I want to put some things on the record about the committee's inquiry and its report, Biosecurity risks associated with the importation of seafood and seafood products (including uncooked prawns and uncooked prawn meat) into Australia. Firstly, I mention the aquaculture community, particularly in my home state of Queensland, which was so affected by this. From memory, there were nine growers or nine farms affected. There is simply no question that the negative economic impacts and the stress visited on their lives as a result of this outbreak of the white spot disease or virus will take many years for them to work through. They are a very resilient community and they worked diligently and patiently with government, both at a state and a federal level, until we were able to bring about something of a compensation package to support them financially, not only to deal with the impacts of the outbreak but also to ensure, to the best of our ability, that their businesses remained viable until they were able go back into production.

Just for the record, briefly what happened was that there was an outbreak of a virus that got into the wild. There were any number of pathways, but, unfortunately, and I might say embarrassingly for our government, one of the potential pathways resulted from failures in our biosecurity system. I need to be careful because at least in one case there are people before the courts and I think there are another four briefs pending with the Director of Public Prosecutions. I'll be very careful in my language, but the assertion is that there was behaviour on the part of some import traders, which, coupled with a failure on the part of some of our biosecurity people at the coalface, created an environment where, over a long period of time, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of infected prawn—and I doubt the volume will ever be well known—made their way into the retail chains around our country. The prawns were being sold in retail outlets for human consumption and, it was clear from the evidence that the inquiry took, there were recreational fishermen—and I don't blame them for this—who bought the prawns and used them as bait. Whilst we'll probably never know what the established pathway of the infection in the Logan River was, it was felt, certainly by the people affected, that recreational fishermen using retail prawns was probably the pathway.

There is some good news around the story, and I would like to say, without trying to embarrass him, that Senator Sterle drove a very probative inquiry, supported by colleagues from this side and indeed others, as we went in search of the truth around these biosecurity vulnerabilities that I've identified. Consequently, I think it is fair to say that, by the time the report was published, the department of agriculture had well and truly gone down the pathway of reviewing their practices and procedures and putting in place new architecture, you might say, that would minimise this happening in the future.

So it disrupted the supply chain. It disrupted trade. There were implications for imports of prawns that are still playing out. I think we're in strained relations with a couple of nations who haven't been happy about the increase in the testing regime that's been implemented. The test is now a more sensitive test than in the international standards—it is world's best practice—and I think it's fair to say that, as long as everybody does their job, and as long as importers act in good faith, we may well have at least mitigated the risk that might come from imports.

I don't intend to take all of my time. I want to congratulate the chair of the references committee, Senator Sterle, and his colleagues and my own colleagues. It was a very collegial inquiry. We were very well received and there was a high level of confidence that this wasn't going to be just some sort of a brush-over on the part of a federal government references committee. We really did establish good faith, I think, with most people in the industry. So congratulations, Senator Sterle and others. I just wanted to have the opportunity to speak on this, given all the work and effort that had been put into it.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, want to make some brief comments, but I will be seeking leave to continue my remarks later because I believe there is a lot more that needs to be said. I just want to thank my colleagues on the inquiry. As to my deputy chair: there is a bit of a bromance going here; we are the odd couple—there is no doubt about that, for those listening! I'll just return the compliment to Senator O'Sullivan: there go your promotional prospects, too; they're down in the S-bend with mine!

But, apart from that, one thing about the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, whether it be the legislative committee or the references committee, is: we have carried this for the 12 years I have been on this committee. This is a committee that prides itself on leaving all the BS politics out of it and getting stuck into doing what is best for rural and regional Australia and our food producers, and I will continue, as long as I am on that committee, to enhance that style. And, if anyone has got a problem with that, they can come and tell me—and I'll move to another committee, if I'm ganged up on. But I tell you what: it'll be a big push.

I just want to say another thing, before I go to my colleague Senator Moore, who has got some really important stuff that she wants to touch on. I've sat through Senate estimates for years on end, and a previous chair of the committee, whether it be references or legislation, and a very dear friend—I'll say that; here's another odd couple—is former Senator Heffernan. One thing about the Heff is: no-one could ever, ever accuse him of not putting the interests of rural and regional Australia first. Former Senator Heffernan came into Senate estimates one day and he had a little parcel in his hand. He'd been banging on for years about the problem that we could have with an infestation of white spot virus in prawns. He pulled out, much to the shock of everyone in the room, a bag of prawns and dumped them on the desk. They were marinated prawns, clearly from South-East Asia. And he said, 'I don't know how many times I have to say this: what is stopping recreational fishers walking in and buying this cheaper product'—from Thailand, at the time—'washing off the marinade and using it for bait, dropping it in our rivers or oceans and infesting either our farmed prawn industry or the wild catch? God help us if that happens.' And you know what? Everyone treated former Senator Heffernan as the old uncle you had to have at the wedding but no-one wanted to sit on the same table with—it was disgraceful, actually, from the bureaucracy down. The ones we charged with our biosecurity treated him as a joke. And, sadly, about six or seven years later, unfortunately, there it was. And, to touch on Senator O'Sullivan's comments, it managed to wipe out an industry. We visited those people in the Logan area, and nothing hurts more than to see decent, hardworking people who are employing people and providing services being put out of business through no fault of their own.

As I said, I would like to pass to Senator Moore. Mr Acting Deputy President, once again, I seek leave to continue my remarks.