Mr PERRETT (Gympie—LNP) (2.42 pm): Managing biosecurity issues is critical to agriculture
production. It should always be at the forefront of the minister’s attention—always. It is a real and serious
issue, not just a media issue or a political issue. Current threats of foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin
disease, Japanese encephalitis and varroa mite, amongst many, pose a serious risk to our rural and
regional communities. A biosecurity outbreak would be catastrophic with wide-reaching effects. It would
devastate our agriculture industries and environment and shut down rural and regional Queensland.
These threats are already causing uncertainty. The fluctuating price for livestock shows an industry
anxious about what lies ahead.
I have repeatedly said that the state government must be ever vigilant to handle an outbreak.
Plans must be ready to protect and safeguard our industries from serious threats. For several years I
have been concerned with the government’s slowness to tackle biosecurity issues. The Premier and
the agriculture minister are habitually slow to act and the department has been underfunded and
understaffed on their watch. They exhibit little genuine understanding. The minister’s record has left
biosecurity vulnerable over successive years.
In 2016 I secured bipartisan support from the Labor members for Ipswich West and Gladstone
to investigate the spread of invasive weeds. It looked at three levels of government, including the
management of state-owned land. Despite extensive investigations and proposed recommendations,
two years later I had to ask the Labor dominated committee to finalise the report. It was reported to
parliament but never debated. It showed contempt and disdain. The minister did not regard the serious
biosecurity risk worth consideration, yet his colleagues did. It shows the minister just does not
appreciate the magnitude of the problem.
The estimates hearing showed the government is losing the war on fire ants. The government’s
spin doctors have reinvented the eradication program into a suppression task force. Eradication and
suppression have totally different meanings and actions. Less than two weeks after the minister boasted
that despite staff cuts Queensland is well prepared in terms of biosecurity, the Premier announced on
Twitter 10 additional staff for Biosecurity Queensland. Within a few hours that 10 became 15 because
the spin doctors realised that it would not even match the 2015 staff levels. The Premier’s
announcement made the minister’s boast a hollow one, simply designed to avoid questions about how
prepared we are for biosecurity threats. The government only made an announcement because people
are asking what it is doing.
The government’s flippant commitment to biosecurity is shown by the facts. The agriculture
minister advised the parliament that since 2015 animal welfare and biosecurity positions have reduced
by 13, from 64 to 51—13 full-time staff members cut under Labor. In May we learned the government
had also failed to fill five vacant departmental positions. Industry comment in today’s Queensland
Country Life newspaper supports my view that it should not take a threat of such proportion for the
government to take action. The government prefers mere show over substance. There is no planning
and no vision. Rural and regional communities deserve better on biosecurity.
