Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (3.14 pm): It is clear that the budget handed down for agriculture, fisheries and forestry is lacking in almost all capacities. The estimates process has confirmed what industry is saying about the lack of leadership from the minister for agriculture. Most of the hearing was an exercise in filibustering by Minister Furner and his departmental staff. Rather than giving Queensland taxpayers factual and relevant answers, they indulged in long and irrelevant monologues. It showed a disconnect with the issues facing businesses and workers in these industries. It made a mockery of being answerable to the Queensland taxpayer.
Minister Furner provided a strange recollection of events about why he has failed to deliver $5 million he promised in March to fight prickly acacia. Instead of admitting that he either never had the money or had it reallocated after a federal coalition victory, the minister claimed that the promised co-funded $5 million from the federal government was a bad deal and was an offer from Canberra that is not good for everyone. How can $5 million to fight prickly acacia be a bad deal? Equally frustrating were the non-answers to questions about the success and progress of the 10-year fire ant eradication plan. The targets for eradication continue to be missed and funding for the 10-year plan is being moved forward to try to urgently bring the project back from the brink. These issues were not admitted.
It was very concerning to discover that the minister was not aware of and would not even refer to the Integrity Commissioner’s concerns about Professor Coaldrake’s donation of $1,760 to the Labor Party in June last year. The donation was made just two weeks before the delivery of his report to the minister recommending the closure of the Emerald and Longreach agricultural colleges. It compounds the distrust and anxiousness caused by the lack of certainty in those communities which are dealing with the forced closure of the colleges. This revelation and the decision paint a dire situation. Oddly, the minister even failed to acknowledge that the Rural Jobs & Skills Alliance, an advisory committee which he funds, had provided him with an agricultural education and jobs plan. Rather than answer questions on the progress of implementing the report, he simply described what the Rural Jobs & Skills Alliance was.
There are grave concerns about the management of Queensland’s biosecurity. Revelations that the key industry advisory group, the Biosecurity Queensland Ministerial Advisory Committee, has not met since January 2018 are seriously concerning. Our key biosecurity advisory group has not met for 19 months even though the Biosecurity Act and regulations are undergoing a review. What is even worse is that the minister admitted that the reason the committee has not met is due to its inability to meet gender quotas. What a glaring example of priorities about industry issues in this portfolio!
The most extreme example of Labor’s agenda to undermine our primary producers is the concerted attack on Queensland’s commercial fishing sector. A clear demonstration of this overriding agenda is that the minister’s public comments about the justification for mud crab quota restrictions was contradicted by his own department. The minister’s claims that the mud crab population was in dire straits were confirmed as being entirely false. Given the justification was not scientific, the minister and the department were unable to answer what the actual justification is they are using for these and other quota reforms. The disregard for commercial fishers continues.
The minister refused to apologise for the botched rollout of the vessel monitoring system through the government certified provider of the YB3i option audio. Despite a complaint by commercial fishers to the Queensland Ombudsman that confirmed that no regulatory impact statement or modelling on the impact of the VMS systems were completed, the minister remains unflinching in the delusion that there were no major issues with the rollout.
While some issues were aired in estimates, even with little new information being provided, industry, stakeholders and workers are frustrated that more time could not be spent examining the budget and the government’s activities. Estimates are when we are supposed to examine the use of taxpayers’ dollars. There are many more issues which are confronting this portfolio and the minister is dodging them. On behalf of industry and taxpayers, the lack of openness and transparency during estimates is disappointing. The minister is clearly distracted and more concerned about damage control due to the integrity crises surrounding the government than providing fulsome answers on behalf of Queenslanders.