Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (18:14): This is not my first speech. In response to the lack of response from the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry—I got nothing, zero, the inside of a doughnut—I asked why the government is targeting the beef and sheep industries. No response. I asked which agricultural industry would be targeted next. Nothing. I asked: will imported beef from somewhere be labelled correctly? Still nothing. So, when a farmer asks me about this, my response will have to be, 'No-one knows.' What a sad state of affairs. It is of the utmost importance to understand the reason that the ban on the import of beef from the USA was put in place: because they cannot trace back to the farm any beef originating in Canada, which has mad cow disease, or Mexico, which has foot-and-mouth disease. The ban is absolutely essential for our biosecurity. Here's what we do know: foot-and-mouth disease could be an $80 billion hit to our agricultural industry. BSE, or mad cow disease, could harm Australians. Here's the quiet part out loud: it seems the Prime Minister is happy to sacrifice Australia's biosecurity to get a meeting with the President of the United States.