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Mr PETER DRAPER (Tamworth) [12.50 p.m.]: The announcement this week that Biosecurity Australia's Import Risk Analysis [IRA] Appeals Panel rejected several producer appeals seeking severe restrictions on imports of uncooked pig meat will, indeed, be the final nail in the coffin for pork producers, not only in my electorate of Tamworth but across New South Wales. Today I inform the House that comments made by the New South Wales Minister for Primary Industries in relation to the devastating effect of allowing imported pork meat into Australia could not have been more accurate. Ian MacDonald described the IRA appeals panel decision to uphold a ruling allowing pig meat into Australia as effectively signing a death notice for the industry.
Essentially, producers have two well-justified fears. This decision will not only allow countries that subsidise their pork producers to undercut Australian producers already hamstrung by drought and high feed prices, it could well expose Australia's stock to exotic disease. The spectre of this prospect has forced one of the industry's biggest bacon producers, who happens to be based in my electorate, into demise. The opening of Australia's doors to internationally grown pork has slammed the lid on production for Rod Hands, a Tamworth producer who has invested 20 years in the industry—and his father invested 40 years—to build up a family business with an annual turnover of $7 million. Mr Hands told me this week that his family will exit the industry because of the risk of disease from these imports compounding the effects of drought and the rising dollar's impact on the export market.
Mr Hands has halted his 1,500 sow breeding program so that by January next year the 17,000 pigs on his three farms, which employ 15 people and subcontract several families in towns like Walcha, Bingara and Gunnedah, will be gone. Let me stress this fact: an enterprise generating a turnover of $7 million in the Tamworth region will simply disappear as the farm will be sold stripped bare of stock. The Federal Government has literally sold out Mr Hands, his family and 15 employees. Those additional families who relied upon the extra income generated from growing out the Hand's pigs have also been hung out to dry.
The impact of this decision will be felt by every one of the 800 pork producers in New South Wales, 95 of whom are in my electorate. Down the road near Scone a major producer at Parkville is also in the process of closing down an operation of 2,500 breeding sows. To put it in perspective, the total sow population in Australia stands at around 300,000, and I am told the industry's breeding companies are predicting an estimated 100,000 sows will exit the industry in the next 12 months as a result of this decision. In a submission in the recently handed down report of the inquiry by the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Committee into Biosecurity Australia's risk analysis of pig meat imports and Australia's decision to approve them, Australian Pork Ltd pointed out that the pork industry nationwide generates over $1.1 billion in household income while Australian pork export markets are valued at over $228 million per year.
In its inquiry report, the committee recommended, first, that the animal and plant quarantine director withdraw the determination to allow pig meat imports and, second, that the director be asked to invoke a precautionary clause under the world trade rules because the risk of the exotic pig disease post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome [PMWS] is too great. Australia is one of only four or five countries that do not have this disease. In a submission to the inquiry Australian Pork Ltd suggested that the Australian industry would be expected to lose about $81 million in sales revenue and $6.4 million in household income, and forego almost $17.6 million in value adding, based on the devastating economic impact of PMWS in the North American and European pork industries.
The published facts show that the science on PMWS is incomplete. There is no real scientific answer as to how it spreads and the agents that allow it to spread. Producers like Mr Hands take absolutely no comfort from assurances by David Banks, the General Manager of Biosecurity, that any countries with cases of pork respiratory or wasting disease would have to cook their meat prior to export. In their inquiry the Senate's Rural and Regional Affairs Committee could not accept that risk management protocols such as cooking the meat would lessen the risk of an outbreak of PMWS. I also take the view that it is a disease risk not worth taking. There should be absolutely no risk to the pristine status of Australia's pork industry.
Biosecurity Australia has made this decision with absolutely no consideration for the livelihood of producers and the communities they support. It is a case of the pig industry being completely sold out. On a national scale the impact will be significant but its effects will be most keenly felt in country communities, especially in the electorate of Tamworth. Rural New South Wales cannot afford this loss, and I call on the State Government to leave no stone unturned in making a contribution to having this decision reversed.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Paul Lynch): I shall now, in accordance with the sessional orders—
Mr Peter Debnam: Mr Acting-Speaker—
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Paul Lynch): Order! Pursuant to the sessional orders I will now adjourn the House. The only way the honourable member for Vaucluse can avoid that is by seeking to move, under Standing Order 405, that standing and sessional orders be suspended. However, that would require the leave of the House, and it is unlikely that leave would be granted. I have no option but to do precisely what the sessional orders direct me to do, that is, leave the chair upon the conclusion of private members' statements.
Private members' statements noted.
The House adjourned at 12.55 p.m. until Tuesday 1 June 2004 at 2.15 p.m.
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