Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately there was not enough time for me to respond to the minister’s statement, so I apologise to those members who had hoped to contribute to the adjournment debate whose time is being denied. But it is important that the opposition have an opportunity to respond to ministerial statements, and I thank the minister for the update that he has provided to the House on the response to the Callinan inquiry. I have read most of the Callinan inquiry report and found it a very interesting document to read. Justice Callinan certainly went about his task very thoroughly. It is a forensic examination. He has gone through the endless possibilities and assessed them one by one. In the end, he could only come to a conclusion about what probably happened. I think that conclusion is not unreasonable.

Australia prizes its disease-free status. Protection of our industries and environment from pests and diseases is a very important priority, but it is a difficult and challenging area. We want to facilitate the free trade of products into and out of Australia—and indeed the movement of people through our airports and seaports—but we also want to ensure that we do that in a way that guarantees that no pests and diseases unwanted in this country come through the net. There are conflicts all along. Airport managers complain about the delays at airports; people complain about delays at seaports, because containers and the like are subject to inspection; and those in this country wanting products urgently can be disadvantaged if those delays are too long. The government comes under almost as much pressure from people wanting the process to be truncated as it does from those who want it to be extended to ensure protection from pests and diseases.

I think the government’s response to the report has been a reasonable one. It is clear that there were breakdowns in the quarantine arrangements, particularly surrounding Eastern Creek. The minister commented in his speech that Labor had expressed grave concern about Australia’s quarantine and biosecurity arrangements. So too did the previous opposition in its time. I have no doubt that the new opposition will have occasion to be critical in the future, because the issues are difficult. But I cannot find any record of anybody ever having complained about Eastern Creek. There was a general perception that it was a reasonably good facility. It had been handed over to the Commonwealth by New South Wales and, while there would occasionally be issues, the only references I can recall to Eastern Creek were of people complaining that it was taking too long to get animals through the process. I can recall on a number of occasions being lobbied by industry organisations, including the horse industry, to find ways to reduce the amount of time that animals should be kept in quarantine.

So whilst Eastern Creek has been out of the news, I suspect that it has not had the scrutiny that it should have had. If there is a message it is this: even if the public have a perception that a facility is going well, and there have been no incidents and no reports of problems, that does not mean that we should not review it from time to time and go and have a look at it. When I was the minister, I never visited Eastern Creek. It was not that high on the priority list. No problems there had ever really been brought to my attention. There were some issues raised with me in correspondence about quarantine arrangements in Melbourne, but this problem did not occur in Melbourne. The Melbourne issue was about whether private vets, rather than AQIS vets, should be used to take initial blood samples. That was clearly not a factor that led to this particular incident. So it is clear that, because there had been little adverse publicity about Eastern Creek, there had not been the attention that there should have been at a departmental level towards the management of this facility.

I compliment Justice Callinan on the work that he did in this report. I think he was a good choice to do the job because he knows a bit about horses and he certainly knows a bit about the law. It is clear from his report that he is also very forensic in the things that he does. It is appropriate that the government should respond, and the message to us all is that we should always be alert to the risks that are associated with entry of animals and products into this country. We should seek always to improve the system and, even when things seem to be going well, be aware that we need to thoroughly examine the processes and the procedures from time to time. We should ensure that we not only have written procedures that meet the criteria but also that they are being followed on the ground. It seems that that was where the breakdown was at Eastern Creek. (Time expired)