O'Connor Damien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Damien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8618. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Labour—West Coast - Tasman) 
: 
 A little over 2 weeks ago we had a very revealing document tabled in this House that says more about the Government’s management of primary industries than anything else. It came from the Auditor-General which is probably the organisation with the most credibility across this nation and that document was very revealing. Of course it stated the obvious—that our country is more dependent on biosecurity than any other developed country. It stated: “it is my view that MPI is under-prepared for potential incursions from some high-risk organisms.” The response of the Minister in the chair the Minister for Primary Industries was that since the year 2000 funding for biosecurity has doubled. And do you know what? That is the truth. What he failed to say was that all of that funding occurred under a Labour Government and that the first thing that the National Government did on coming in was to slash $2 million from front-line biosecurity services. 
I will quote part 3 of the document: “The Ministry has lacked a strategic approach to capability. This includes workforce planning and with some exceptions its approach to information and information technology. Both of these areas represent serious risks for the Ministry.” Well they are greater risks for the country particularly when you go over the page where you read again: “The lack of realistic business planning also affected the preparation of new response plans … Insufficient resources have meant that many of the plans have not been completed or tested to ensure that they are fit for purpose.” Each and every day we are under huge threat from biosecurity incursions that could cripple this economy. 
Yesterday the Minister’s department fought the pork industry to allow pork imports from countries that have PRRS—porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome—a disease that costs the US industry $600 million every year. The ministry fought the pork industry to lower the import health standards to allow pork that might satisfy a few supermarkets and a few pork industry traders. It is simply not good enough that the National Government slashes funding for biosecurity and allows and oversees a ministry that is ill-prepared for these. It states in the report that we are ill-prepared for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease let alone the increased risk from things like porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. 
It is a shocking indictment on a National Government that claims to be the representative party of the primary producers that it has stood by and ignored the realities of this report which we have known about for some time. It has been slashing funding for biosecurity and for the Minister to get up and say that funding has doubled since 2000 but fail to say that almost every one of those dollars occurred under a Labour-led Government—not National—is an insult to the good people who run biosecurity services up and down this country. They know full well the risks that we incur from visitors from imports and from everyday trade let alone the determination by the Ministry for Primary Industries to allow in pork under reduced import health standards and to allow Australian honey with the diseases that might come from that. 
We have facing us every day an example of the failure of a ministry that gave us reassurance time and time again that it was world class through Psa. We have a kiwifruit industry that has been devastated by Psa and by a Government department that failed and was incapable of assessing the risks. The Auditor-General has said quite clearly that unless something is done to increase the resources—it is stated here in the report—there are insufficient resources to carry out the planning necessary. The Government must put more funding into biosecurity. It must raise the bar because of the increased levels of visitation by people from countries like China or you name it. We have every day coming into this country palm kernel expeller or PKE which is needed for cows. That is understandable as we have droughts and we have shortages of feed. But the ministry is in no way prepared to assess and prepare for the risks that might come through foot-and-mouth disease.