Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (09:38): On Wednesday 27 July in question time I asked a simple, standard, straightforward question of the new Minister for Agriculture, Senator Murray Watt. It was: can the minister confirm how many passengers have passed through Australian international airports from Indonesia since the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Bali was reported on 5 July 2022, and how many of those have been treated with disinfectant foot mats? The minister's reply was: '100 per cent of passengers have been walking through sanitised foot mats.' The minister's answer was wrong. We know it was wrong because the foot mats had only been installed in the major airports in the previous two days. They were nowhere to be seen on 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 July in our international airports, as thousands of returning passengers from Bali were making their way onshore. The minister knew that and was deliberately avoidant, whether he meant to mislead the Senate or whether it was because he was too cocky by half. 'The mats are here. Calm down, hysterical regional Australia. Calm down, hysterical farmers who are incredibly concerned.' And we are reflecting their concern in this place. We are actually reflecting their concern. I am happy for the contributions on this matter in this place and elsewhere from Senator McDonald, who is herself of a beef-producing family, to be on the record, along with those of Perin Davey, Matt Canavan, Jacinta Price, David Littleproud and the National Party more broadly on this substantive issue. We are reflecting the concerns of our constituencies and the industries that underpin our local communities. It's why they sent us here. We wish you all success, Minister, in stopping foot-and-mouth and lumpy skin disease from arriving here, but you cannot come into this place and deliberately mislead the Senate. That is why Australians were shocked as Channel Nine, I think, was on the ground in international airports on a weekend a couple of weeks ago, interviewing returning passengers and saying 'What biosecurity measures did you actually have when you landed?' The response was: 'Nothing. I told them I'd been on a farm. I got waved through.' 'Foot mat?' 'No, the foot mats aren't here.' That was despite the minister claiming that he had it all under control. Then he walked into the Senate and told us that he had it all under control. I wrote to the minister to tell him that I thought he had misled the Senate, and I implored him to do the right thing by this chamber, as a senator of integrity who claims to be concerned about accountability and transparency, and to come and explain himself. I asked him, if it was an accident—it was his first question time, and I understand people can get excited and say the wrong thing at the wrong time—to come in and explain, please, because you cannot stand up in this place and mislead the Senate and, therefore, the broader Australian public on an issue of such concern. The convention in this place is that, if you as a minister feel you may have misled the Senate or said the wrong number in question time, you avail yourself of the earliest opportunity to come into the chamber and correct the record. We often see ministers stand up after question time and put the right percentage on the record or ask to correct the record now that they've been alerted to the fact that they may have given an incorrect response. This minister, in his arrogance and his contempt for this chamber, chose not to do that, not just for Senator Roberts and his question but for me, telling Australians that 100 per cent of passengers had been walking through sanitised foot mats since 5 July. Senator Watt: You know I didn't say that. Senator McKENZIE: It's a direct quote from your response to my question. Senator Watt: You are lying. Senator McKENZIE: Sorry, Deputy President—through you. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Watt, you'll have an opportunity in a moment. A point of order? Senator Watt: Senator McKenzie is lying as to what I said to this chamber, and I ask that she withdraw that. I don't mind being held accountable for things that I said. I do not want to be held accountable for things that I did not say and for lies that are being said against me. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, do you wish to respond? Senator McKENZIE: Absolutely. Mine is a direct quote from an answer. I will quote you the question again and I will quote you the answer. My question on the day was whether the minister could confirm: How many passengers have passed through Australian international airports from Indonesia since the foot-and-mouth outbreak was reported … on 5 July 2022? Subsequently, I asked: How many of these … have been treated with disinfected foot mats … The minister's response is on Hansard. I quote: A hundred per cent of passengers have been walking through sanitised foot mats. Senator Watt: From when? Senator McKENZIE: The question was about 5 July. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: It's not a debate. Senator Watt: You are lying, Bridget. Senator McKENZIE: Oh! Senator Watt: You are lying. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Watt, I'd ask you to withdraw that. You'll have an opportunity to respond in a moment when I give you the call. Senator Watt: I'm happy to withdraw the word 'lie', but Senator McKenzie repeatedly misrepresents what I said in this chamber, and I'm going to pick her up on it every single time. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, and you'll have the opportunity for that because you'll next have the call. Senator Watt: You're better than this, Bridget. You don't need to misrepresent what people say. Senator McKENZIE: 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.