Mr BRIAN MITCHELL (Lyons) (12:40): Don't come the raw prawn is part of the Australian lexicon, and now, thanks to the biosecurity shortcomings of this Liberal-National government, the raw prawn is also part of Australian legislation. Biosecurity is critical when it comes to protecting both our natural environment and the country's agricultural sector, but for too long this government has paid too much lip service to biosecurity. It's told the Australian public that it takes biosecurity seriously, but its actions have told a different story. For example, as the shadow minister outlined, the Inspector-General of Biosecurity is a crucial position, but the former minister of this government tried to axe it. Thankfully, that short-sighted idiocy was thwarted following outcry from this side of the House. As the shadow minister reminded us, perhaps it was because the former minister saw himself in the role of Inspector-General of Biosecurity—perhaps overexcited by his foray with Pistol and Boo, Johnny Depp's tiny dogs that he managed to have arrested. Perhaps that was his great vision and great dream, to arrest all the Pistols and Boos coming into the country! The importance of the role of the Inspector-General of Biosecurity is illustrated in the amendment before the House today, which follows in the wake of failings identified with the importation of raw prawns. In February last year, the inspector-general commenced a review into the importation of raw prawns, and subsequently made 22 recommendations, 21 of which were accepted by the agriculture department. It just goes to show the importance of the post of the Inspector-General of Biosecurity. The report was handed down in December last year, and this amendment was slated for action early this year, but it's only now, halfway to 2019, that the Biosecurity Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 comes before the House. As I say, this government says it takes biosecurity seriously, but its actions tell another story. Australia's biosecurity bodies have a range of responsibilities, and it is important that they are empowered and resourced to be able to perform their duties. Australia relies heavily upon imported goods, and the projected growth in the volume of goods and people entering our country means that now, more than ever before, we need a biosecurity system that is capable, effective and able to mitigate and manage threats. Every day, we live with the consequences of past biosecurity failures: rabbits, cane toads, feral cats and pigs, wild camels and brumbies, gorse, boxthorn—too many to mention. They have all, in their own ways, inflicted devastating impacts on the environment, native flora and fauna and our agricultural sector. Australia's native flora and fauna never evolved to deal with these threats. My state, Tasmania, understands all too well the risks posed by poorly resourced biosecurity systems unable to manage the threats of introduced species and pests. In Tasmania, we are now dealing with fruit fly, soft-shell clam, blueberry rust, Pacific oyster mortality syndrome and a whole host of other issues. Visitation to Tasmania from tourists and others is through the roof by both air and sea. That's good to see—we're getting a lot more people coming to Tasmania—but it also means a lot more people with potential biosecurity threats upon them, whether it's bringing fruit, flowers or whatever else it is with them. If they're coming by ferry, they might have these goods in their car. If they're coming by plane, they might be in a bag. It's therefore perplexing to me, given the high number of visitations that we get and the incredibly busy time that we have at our ports and our airports, that the state Liberal government in their first term cut $1 million from our state's biosecurity capability. At the very time they should have been putting on more officers and more sniffer dogs at the airports, the government were cutting the budget. I won't pretend to directly attribute the biosecurity budgeting failures of the current state Liberal government to the current incursion of fruit fly—that link cannot be directly drawn—but you've got to think that, if they hadn't cut the biosecurity budget, if they'd taken the issue just that little bit more seriously, if they'd followed through on their election promise to the people in 2014 that they were going to have biosecurity officers and sniffer dogs at every port of entry, maybe, just maybe, the fruit fly incursion that commenced in February this year would not have happened. In February this year our state recorded its first ever outbreak of fruit fly, which led to quarantine zones being set up in the north of the state, including fruit-growing areas in my electorate. The stone fruit industry in Tasmania is worth $50 million a year. It is not an insignificant part of the agricultural sector. For many families, it's their livelihood. We're talking about multigenerational families involved in stone fruit production. Tasmania has got an enviable reputation for first-class, world-class, produce. All of that has been put at risk by the incursion of fruit fly. The consequences were immediate and brutal. Exports to Taiwan were halted. Fruit in quarantine zones could not be sold, except to local residents, who were unable to take it out of the area. Tasmania's $50 million stone fruit industry remains at risk. In recent weeks, I'm pleased to say, there have been no more reports of fruit fly or their larvae emerging. I hope that we are lucky enough to have seen the end of it. I really do. I really do hope that the measures that have been put in place have got rid of this threat. But the fact is fruit flies are from Queensland and, like most Queenslanders, they don't like the cold. We are having a pretty cold winter in Tasmania, but there are fears that when the weather warms up the larvae will re-emerge. We've been lucky in Tasmania. We normally have very cold winters, so in the past if there had been an incursion any larvae would have died off over winter. They just would not survive the cold winter. But the winters are getting warmer. Those on the other side may argue about whether climate change is real or not. We know it's an established scientific fact that climate change is real. Tasmania is warming up. The winter soil is not as cold as it used to be. I truly hope that no fruit fly larvae have survived the winter, but there are fears. We'll see when the warmer weather kicks in again whether they are truly gone. The incursion of fruit fly into Tasmania is evidence of what a slashed biosecurity budget can result in. Since fruit fly emerged, the state Liberal government has invested $5 million in combating it and the federal government has kicked in $20 million. I'm from Tasmania and it's great to see the funding, but it's typical action after the event. Rather than prevent the problem occurring, this is funding that has been put in place to try to address a crisis that need not have occurred. So it was very short-sighted not to have those measures in place already. Tasmania's agricultural industry, which includes the export of fruit, makes up more than nine per cent of Tasmania's gross state product. It is a market and reputation that is heavily reliant upon pest-free status. I can't express enough how important Tasmania's reputation is for the value of our products overseas, whether they're fruit, meat, dairy, wine—it's increasingly wine; we're winning all sorts of world awards—gin or whisky, and the list goes on. We have a world-class reputation in Tasmania, and it relies on being seen as clean and green. When pests like fruit fly and others get in, it takes the edge off and makes overseas markets that used to look at Tasmania as a premium market think, 'Maybe we'll look somewhere else.' The last thing that we need in Tasmania is our customers looking elsewhere. We've already seen Taiwan suspend fruit imports, and other countries across Asia have expressed their concern about imports as well. This region in the north makes up upwards of 75 per cent of Tasmania's fruit export market. The quarantine zone largely affects parts of Bass, the northern parts of my electorate of Lyons, and some of Braddon, which Justine Keay is seeking to represent again. Three-quarters of Tasmania's fruit export market is affected by this incursion. It's an ecological and biosecurity catastrophe and it will have dire consequences for our ability as a state to negotiate with existing and new markets. Justine Keay, as members will be aware, was the member for Braddon until she had to resign the seat, which she's now recontesting at the 28 July by-election. A measure of what a fantastic member she was for Braddon—and I hope she will become the member for Braddon again—is that she got on to this straight away. She was on this so quickly. In February, just days after the incursion, she was calling upon the state and federal Liberal governments to take this issue seriously. She said: Biosecurity staff do an amazing job but under the Liberals they have been stretched to breaking point … The Liberals are just not doing enough to respond to this unprecedented biosecurity threat. It's not a stretch to say that without Justine Keay's immediate intervention on this issue getting it onto the front page of The Advocate in the North West and making sure this was front and centre, this federal government—and certainly the state government in Tasmania—would not have taken this issue as seriously as they have. Justine Keay is a big part of why this issue has been taken so seriously in Tasmania. That contrasts so vividly with the former member for Braddon, Brett Whiteley, who she replaced. He did nothing in the three years he was in this place. He did nothing about biosecurity. He was very happy to see all the cuts and to see no resources put into biosecurity. He did absolutely nothing to get on top of this issue. Perhaps Brett Whiteley was too busy voting six times against a banking royal commission to deal with biosecurity issues. That's the difference between those two people: Justine Keay was a fantastic representative for the people of Braddon and was looking after the interests of the people of Braddon; Brett Whiteley looked after the interests of the big banks. That's fruit fly. Further down in my electorate, on the east coast near Orford, we've had a number of soft-shelled clams found in the Prosser River. They're not indigenous to Tasmania. Their discovery in this river is believed to be the first instance of these clams being found in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm not an ecologist, and I don't pretend to be an expert in this area, but I have to think that the warming of the waters plays a big part in this. It's not like government can just wave a magic wand and stop all this from occurring. We know that warmer waters are bringing introduced species south. We're seeing fish species off the east coast now that we've never seen before, which is great for fishers but also brings threats. Government's job is to make sure that biosecurity systems are resourced well enough to deal with threats when they emerge. There are some threats that should never get into the state. The fact that fruit fly was not stopped at the border, but was allowed to get in through the massive gaps in the biosecurity network, is one thing. It's not like we can have frogmen swimming through the waters of the Orford River and the Prosser River every day trying to catch these things, I understand that. But we should be on top of these things. We should make sure that we have the biosecurity systems in place to deal with these threats when they are found. I fear that neither this government nor the state government in Tasmania treats biosecurity with the importance that it deserves, particularly given the central role that agriculture has in Tasmania. It's so vital that we look after making sure that biosecurity is protected. I just don't feel that's the case at the moment. There are soft-shell clams. There's blueberry rust. In late 2014 we had our first case of that. It's unlikely that we'll eradicate that now. I think the plan now is just to manage it, which is a great shame. There was a short window there, I think, where we could have gotten rid of blueberry rust, but it's just too well entrenched now. I think there's a general acceptance amongst most that the best method now is to manage that threat rather than seek to eradicate it. I'm very happy to support the bill, but I do think we need to take biosecurity incredibly seriously.