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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-26 Daily Xml
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Yamba Quarantine Station

Mr BOYER (Wright) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries. Did SafeWork SA issue any breach notices at the Yamba quarantine station following the implementation of the zero tolerance policy?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:59): I thank the member for his question. As I said, there were concerns that were recorded in a daily diary by the biosecurity officers. There were concerns about public safety and, when that public safety is addressed and the biosecurity officers deem that there is a bank-up of traffic that is deemed publicly unacceptable—that is, if the traffic on those busy days banks up for too long—in the best public interest and in the interests of public safety they would have inspected the cars or the vehicles, confiscated the fruit and pushed them through without a fine. That happened a number of times.

Ms COOK: Point of order: standing order 98.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order because I believe that the minister is speaking about procedure and I believe that is relevant to the substance of the question, but I will listen assiduously to the minister's answer. Minister.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: Thank you, sir. It is an important question because public safety is of paramount importance, particularly when people are travelling on open highways and they do have to line up for extended periods of time. When public safety was deemed that it needed to be addressed—that is, when the zero tolerance was pushed through—we saw that those travelling motorists would have their fruit confiscated and then they would be pushed through back onto the road without incurring an on-the-spot fine. That was enacted prior to 6 July.

Prior to 6 July, we hadn't finished the upgrades, the slip lanes and the extra skilled 14 staff. What I would say is that the biosecurity stations always have a priority for public safety, and when they enacted that regime people sped up the process. However, as I said, once upon a time people were banked up there for two hours; nowadays, it's 40 minutes, and so we are addressing the concerns. Public safety is of paramount importance to this government.

Again, that's why we have put the investment into Yamba, that's why we have employed the extra staff and that's why we've got the zero tolerance—so that we can address public safety, we can address the biosecurity concerns and we can keep our horticulture industry fruit fly free.

Ms Stinson: Were there any SafeWork notices?

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

Ms Stinson: You didn't answer the question.

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is on two warnings. She can leave for the remainder of question time, and when she does the member for Wright will get another question.

The honourable member for Badcoe having withdrawn from the chamber:

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