1. Home
  2. Hansard & Papers
  3. Legislative Assembly
  4. 24 February 2005
Contact Print this page Reduce font size Increase font size

Consideration of Urgent Motions

Printing Tips | Print selected text | Full Day Hansard Transcript         « Prior Item | Item 21 of 41 | Next Item »

About this Item
Subjects -  Trade; Animal diseases; Cattle; Bribery and Corruption; Independent Commission Against Corruption: ICAC; Australian Labor Party: ALP: New South Wales; Quarantine
Speakers - Black Mr Peter; Brogden Mr John; Speaker
Business - Consideration of Urgent Motion, Division, Motion
Commentary - Procedural debate to determine precedence Virginia Judge


    CONSIDERATION OF URGENT MOTIONS
Page: 14239


    Quarantine Laws

    Mr PETER BLACK (Murray-Darling) [3.21 p.m.]: Yet another product is being imported into Australia with the concurrence of a lazy Federal Government that has the potential to introduce into Australia a disease that would devastate the New South Wales economy, particularly areas that promote beef, including the Murray-Darling. The matter is urgent because on Christmas Eve 2004 Australia was notified that a cow in Brazil failed an initial test for foot-and-mouth disease, which is one of the most insidious, infectious and devastating diseases that can strike livestock. The matter is urgent because just a few weeks earlier Australia received its first-ever shipment of raw meat from Brazil. The matter is urgent because the shipment included 20 cartons of raw trimmings. The matter is urgent because back in 1999 the Federal Government developed a protocol that would allow Australia to receive imports from disease-free zones of other countries.

    The matter is urgent because up until Christmas Eve any imports from the foot-and-mouth disease-free zone of Brazil were processed before they arrived in Australia. Needless to say, the processing destroyed the foot-and-mouth virus. The matter is urgent because 20 cartons of raw meat were allowed into Australia under the same permit as processed meat. The matter is urgent because the Wagga Wagga based processing plant that received two of the 20 cartons checked with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service [AQIS] to determine whether the permit was up to scratch for raw imports, and AQIS said yes. The matter is urgent because for years Brazil has been working to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease and from the late 1990s parts of the country were zoned as free from the disease. However, the matter is urgent because other parts of Brazil and its neighbouring countries continue to have outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

    The matter is urgent because Australia, with our clean and green image, is one of the few countries in the world that is completely free of foot-and-mouth disease. The matter is urgent because we want to remain free of foot-and-mouth disease. We have not had a case of the disease since the 1800s. The matter is urgent because the slack decision of the Federal Government to allow uncooked Brazilian meat into this country could have changed our disease-free status. The matter is urgent because if these so-called zones are not going to work, the Federal Government must act accordingly.

    The matter is urgent because the Brazilian debacle is the latest in a long string of bad decisions by the Federal Government, supported by people like the Federal member for Parkes, John Cobb. The matter is urgent because we must re-establish and maintain a rigorous quarantine system to protect our primary industries from the threat of exotic disease. The matter is urgent because time and time again the Federal Government has shown that it is simply not up to the task. The matter is urgent because, of the 20 cartons that arrived in Australia, 18 were stored in Victoria and two went to Wagga Wagga. The matter is urgent because in January, before we came back to this place, the media reported that the two cartons that went to Wagga Wagga wound up on the Wagga Wagga tip.

    The matter is urgent because media reports have described the shipment of Brazilian beef as a trial shipment, perhaps to assess the possibility of using cheaper imported meat for processing. The matter is urgent because the meat has come into Australia when Australia is exporting record tonnages of beef. It is urgent because we must protect that record export tonnage of beef for all electorates in New South Wales that have feedlots, such as Orange and Murray-Darling. We must protect Australia from foot-and-mouth disease as an absolute priority. We must accept no further beef imports from Brazil that come from other than its declared foot-and-mouth disease-free zone.

    Carr Government Corruption Allegations

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN (Pittwater—Leader of the Opposition) [3.26 p.m.]: My motion is urgent because the time has come for this House to debate the level of corruption within the Carr Labor Government. At the moment the problem with the Labor Party is that we have to find a week for Parliament to sit so that the Independent Commission Against Corruption [ICAC] can hold its hearings on the alternate week. So many members of the Carr Labor Government are currently giving evidence before the ICAC that they have to seek leave to do so. Prior to his appointment to the front bench, the Minister for Housing spent more time at the ICAC last year in conjunction with matters relating to Orange Grove than he did in this House. The matter is urgent because the House is learning more about the activities of a number of its members on the Labor side, particularly the honourable member for Strathfield. I am pleased to see that she is in the Chamber.

    Mr Steve Whan: Point of order: The member should be demonstrating urgency and not casting aspersions on the honourable member for Strathfield, whom no-one in this place or outside in any other forum has questioned. I suggest that he is casting aspersions on people with no foundation at all and that he should get back to justifying urgency.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will hear further from the Leader of the Opposition.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: The matter is urgent because the House became aware only recently that John Abi-Saab, the former Labor Mayor of Strathfield and a very close friend of Eddie Obeid, the former Minister for Fisheries—

    Mr Alan Ashton: Point of order. The point of this debate is to decide whether the matter raised by the honourable member for Murray-Darling—

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! I had indicated—

    Mr Alan Ashton: These matters are before the ICAC.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order!

    Mr Alan Ashton: —and as they are before the ICAC they should be closed down.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! I had indicated to the Leader of the Opposition that I would hear him further before ruling on the matter.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: The matter is urgent because a man who was given a $250,000 loan by Eddie Obeid, John Abi-Saab, a close friend of the honourable member for Strathfield, has revealed in the ICAC that he paid $15,000 in cash to a corrupt developer to blackmail the former Mayor of Strathfield, Alfred Tsang.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Bathurst to order.

    [Interruption]

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Bathurst to order for the second time.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: Earlier today the honourable member for Bathurst interjected and called one of the Coalition members a clown. We know that the honourable member for Bathurst shaved his moustache because he looked like a clown when he had one.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will address his remarks to the motion. The honourable member for East Hills will come to order.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: The reason my motion is urgent is that the man who made a $15,000 payment to a corrupt developer to blackmail Alfred Tsang is a very good friend of the honourable member for Strathfield. Indeed, they shared in the receipt of a $5,000 donation from Mr Hassan Harb, who is known as Sam the Paving Man. Sam the Paving Man received over $170,000 in contracts from Strathfield Municipal Council, of which the honourable member for Strathfield is a former mayor, without a public tender. But the good news is that, in good old Labor Party fashion, the honourable member for Strathfield received a $5,000 donation prior to Sam the Paving Man receiving the contract. The way it works is that, in return for a $5,000 donation to the honourable member for Strathfield, she and John Abi-Saab ensured that Sam the Paving Man received a contract worth $170,000.

    Mr Alan Ashton: Point of order: When I took a point of order earlier you said you would hear the Leader of the Opposition further. I ask you again to consider whether unchallenged, untested and unfinished matters before the Independent Commission Against Corruption are appropriate in this debate.

    Mr SPEAKER: Order! The matter is in the public domain; it has been raised in the media on a number of occasions. The standing orders of this House do not preclude the Leader of the Opposition from making passing reference to it in his speech to show why his motion should have priority.

    Mr JOHN BROGDEN: The matter is urgent because the honourable member for Strathfield Virginia Judge, has to tell the people of New South Wales whether she is a crook because she took $5,000 cash from Sam the Paving Man and then used her influence to give him a contract worth $170,000. [Time expired.]

    Question—That the motion for urgent consideration of the honourable member for Murray-Darling be proceeded with—put.

    The House divided.
    Ayes, 58
      Ms Allan
      Ms Andrews
      Mr Barr
      Mr Bartlett
      Ms Beamer
      Mr Black
      Mr Brown
      Ms Burney
      Miss Burton
      Mr Campbell
      Mr Collier
      Mr Corrigan
      Mr Crittenden
      Ms D'Amore
      Mr Debus
      Mr Draper
      Mrs Fardell
      Ms Gadiel
      Mr Gaudry
      Mr Gibson
      Mr Greene
      Ms Hay
      Mr Hickey
      Mr Hunter
      Mr Iemma
      Ms Judge
      Ms Keneally
      Mr Knowles
      Mr Lynch
      Mr McBride
      Mr McLeay
      Ms Meagher
      Ms Megarrity
      Mr Mills
      Ms Moore
      Mr Morris
      Mr Newell
      Ms Nori
      Mr Oakeshott
      Mr Orkopoulos
      Mrs Paluzzano
      Mr Pearce
      Mrs Perry
      Mr Price
      Dr Refshauge
      Ms Saliba
      Mr Sartor
      Mr Scully
      Mr Shearan
      Mr Stewart
      Mr Torbay
      Mr Tripodi
      Mr Watkins
      Mr West
      Mr Whan
      Mr Yeadon

      Tellers,
      Mr Ashton
      Mr Martin




    Noes, 28
        Mr Aplin
        Ms Berejiklian
        Mr Brogden
        Mr Cansdell
        Mr Constance
        Mr Debnam
        Mr Fraser
        Mr Hartcher
        Mr Hazzard
        Mrs Hopwood
        Mr Humpherson
        Mr Kerr
        Mr Merton
        Mr O'Farrell
        Mr Page
        Mr Piccoli
        Mr Pringle
        Mr Richardson
        Mr Roberts
        Mrs Skinner
        Mr Slack-Smith
        Mr Souris
        Mr Stoner
        Mr Tink
        Mr J. H. Turner
        Mr R.W. Turner
        Tellers,
        Mr George
        Mr Maguire

    Pair
    Mr AmeryMrs Hancock

    Question resolved in the affirmative.


Last modified 05/12/2007 16:32:05   :   Update this page