Hanson, Sen Pauline

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation) (09:42): I move: That the Senate take note of the minister's answer. I have to say that the minister, Murray Watt, is so out of his depth with regard to this. He could have had more to say on the opposition benches, but, now that he's actually on the frontbench and he has to respond to this in his ministerial role, he's so far out of his depth. He lives on the Gold Coast. He's possibly never even looked a cow in the face. He's never birthed a calf. He wouldn't have a clue what he's talking about. Talking about advice, we've all been through the COVID pandemic. He says he's listening to the experts. Well, experts have actually shut down our country and stopped people from having jobs. He thinks that he knows best what's right for this country. He actually said yesterday that it is the strongest response by any government. Again, he doesn't know what he's talking about. This has not been the strongest response that we've seen from any government to any biosecurity threat in our national history, as the minister said in this chamber yesterday. He's forgotten about the COVID-19 pandemic, where we actually closed the borders to protect our country from COVID. Apparently the minister has no knowledge of history: in Australia's response to the influenza epidemic a century ago, ships were quarantined, schools were closed and millions of vaccine doses were produced here. In his efforts to deflect attention from his misleading the Senate, he's misled us yet again. Foot-and-mouth vaccines stored in the United Kingdom cannot be used to inoculate animals in Australia until they are brought to Australia. Bring them now. That needs to be done. He talks about how there are apparently one million vaccine doses. That is not enough for these figures: 74 million sheep, 26 million cattle, 2.6 million pigs and 1½ million dairy cows in Australia. We knew how many doses of COVID vaccine we had in the country. Why don't we know how many vaccines we have for the animals? Why isn't he telling us that? Oh, for security reasons. Why? I don't understand security reasons here. He doesn't want to be seen to have such a minimal amount of vaccines for the number of cattle, sheep and pigs in this country, because we have nowhere near the vaccines needed to protect us. Let me also tell you that, if this gets out, we have over 24 million feral pigs in Australia. Probably none of you know that pigs are virus factories. When it comes to foot-and-mouth disease, they produce 3,000 times the quantity of the virus that a cow does. They're everywhere. National parks—you shut the national parks down. You haven't culled them; you've done nothing about the pigs. If the virus gets into the pigs, you actually have a real problem in this country. Then you've got the camels. We have over a million feral camels in Australia. We have about 2.3 million feral goats and about two million wild deer. All of these can be carriers of the virus. Yet you're not talking about this. This is an important matter. The minister tells the chamber that he has support from these industries. The NFF? Really? Do they really support and speak on behalf of a lot of these farmers? I don't think so. They don't. I will tell you another thing. I just finished speaking with the dairy corporation here in Australia. They are really concerned about this. They said that, if it gets into the dairy herd, it's worse than it can be for beef cattle, because they will not be able to put dairy cattle on properties for three years. It is very hard to breed the dairy cattle that we need for the production of milk. It takes a lot longer. You have no idea of the damage that can be done to this country if we get foot-and-mouth disease in here. Also, think of the exports. We are, regardless, clean and green. If we get foot-and-mouth disease in here, Japan and other countries won't take our produce. We will lose the dairy industry. Then there's the export of meat. But that's right up your alley—right up the Greens alley and probably the Labor Party's alley too. The fact is that you want to— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: A point of order? Senator Green: Deputy President, I ask you to direct the senator to direct her remarks through the chair. There've been a few opportunities this week for people to shout 'you' across the chamber. I don't think that's appropriate in this circumstance. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Hanson, please take note that your comments come through the chair. Senator HANSON: Sorry, Deputy President, but my response has been nothing other than referring to what is before us on this issue. Anyway, they didn't like the fact that I'm referring to the Greens and the Labor Party; they haven't been supporters of the agriculture industry. Never. They haven't supported it. It's been One Nation and the coalition, with the National Party, that have really fought for the agriculture industry in this country. If it were up to those on the other side of this chamber, they would shut down our agriculture industry. They want to see dairy cows and beef cattle destroyed in this nation. They want to see emissions reduced, whichever way it comes about, because it's going to make them look good. Well, they're going to destroy our food security. This is a pathetic response from you. And I'm sick of hearing: 'But what did you do about it? You didn't speak about this.' What a ridiculous response that is. You're in government now and all you can do is throw it back: 'What did you do? What did you do?' It's like when I move into a house and the electricity bill isn't paid. Do you know what? I have to pay the bill if I want the electricity on. And I just go and do it. So it's got nothing to do with it—blaming the other side because of their response to it. I'll tell you another thing. You say foot-and-mouth is around the rest of the world. That may be the case, but Bali is totally different to other countries, because cattle roam the streets; cattle shit on the ground. People walk in that shit. That shit is then brought back in their clothing and on their person, back into this country. There is a hell of a difference with what happens in Bali, so close to us. Bali is one of the biggest tourist destinations for Australians. Yes, foot-and-mouth disease does need to be considered and looked at on the grounds of the damage it can do this country. The minister said yesterday, 'Well, if it gets into Australia'—if—'then we'll deal with it at the time.' That's going to be too late. Once it gets in here, we will have lost our biosecurity forever. We will not be able to eradicate the disease. You can't just say, 'Well, we'll compensate the farmers.' If that's your answer, then that's ridiculous. The Australian people have had a gutful of picking up the pieces with their tax dollars and with compensation and remuneration paid to so many people because of the bloody mistakes that were made in this place. If we can close the borders to COVID, then we can close the borders to this disease until it is eradicated. Yes, by all means, we are fully supportive of stopping it from coming into Australia. But we also must ensure that it doesn't get here—and it can be brought in very easily. Actually, travellers can carry it up their nose, in their nostrils, for a period of 26 to 28 hours. It can be brought into the country that way. What is the problem with closing borders when we did it so easily for COVID? Why not for this? Why not, until it is eradicated or under control in Indonesia, for a short period of time? Another question I must ask is: why aren't we giving heavier fines at airports for people bringing produce into this country? They make the excuse, 'Oh, I couldn't read English; me don't understand no English.' Yet we just wipe it and give them a chip: 'Oh, well, that's okay.' Or: 'No, my wife packed the suitcase; I didn't know what was in it.' Until we get serious about border security and start charging these people and really being hard on this matter, nothing's going to change, and we are taken like bloody fools and idiots—they can do and say whatever they want to do and say, and we just accept it. The other side, Labor and the Greens, have no idea how serious this issue is. It is so important. It will destroy a lot of our farming sector—the cattle, the industry that we have. And I'd just like to say: if we're propping up Indonesia with this, I hope it is coming out of the foreign aid that we give them—the foreign aid that's well over $650 million. It was about $650 million. It could have been reduced to about $400 million. I'm not sure, but anyway, I hope this is coming out of the foreign aid that we give to Indonesia and is not another handout to them. I'd like to say that One Nation does support this. And we have been cut back in our staff of course, saving moneys and everything like that—$1½ million to save moneys to the taxpayer—but you've just given $100 million to Ukraine; you've given $50 million to Sri Lanka; you've given moneys to the South Pacific. So, for us to actually do our jobs is extremely hard for One Nation— (Time expired) The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I give the call to Senator Nampijinpa Price.