Interview with Maddelin McCosker, ABC Queensland Country Hour

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW 
ABC QUEENSLAND COUNTRY HOUR
MONDAY, 27 MARCH 2023
 
SUBJECTS: Keeping Australia’s biosecurity strong; Departmental finances

AMY PHILLIPS, HOST: The Federal Agriculture Minister says despite the (Department’s) budget blunder, biosecurity will not lose out on funding. Senator Murray Watt spoke with Maddelin McCosker.

MADDELIN MCCOSKER, JOURNALIST: Despite the cuts, Minister Murray Watt says no money has been taken from biosecurity in order to fix the financial issues.

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: The Federal Department does have some serious work to do around its internal finances and I know that the Department is continuously reviewing its financial performance and takes its financial responsibility seriously. We, of course, got to make sure that savings need to be found so that we can balance the books, but it needs to be done in the right way. And unfortunately, we're now in this situation due to years of poor financial management by the former Government in this department. Unfortunately, what we saw was biosecurity and other costs continue to rise over a very long period of time without costs being passed on to industry. We've also seen contractors and consultants in the Department blow out by hundreds of millions of dollars and that, of course, has an impact on the Department’s finances. So now's the time that we need to get the house in order. We all need to live within our means and so that's why the Department is working through those issues at the moment.

MADDELIN MCCOSKER: So is the Department in the financial position to respond to a biosecurity outbreak?

MURRAY WATT: Absolutely. Again, if we were to experience a biosecurity outbreak, that would be a shared responsibility to manage between the federal, state and territory governments. But I've been very clear in my discussions with the Department that in resolving these financial difficulties the Department's in, we have to keep support for biosecurity as our number one priority. And that's certainly the way the Department has approached this.

MADDELIN MCCOSKER: Can the Department actually afford to implement those plans if it were to happen?

MURRAY WATT: A biosecurity outbreak?

MADDELIN MCCOSKER: Yes.

MURRAY WATT: Yeah. There's nothing that's been done in terms of savings that would prevent the federal Department from dealing with a biosecurity outbreak. And in fact, the work that we requested of the Department after coming to power and faced with the foot and mouth disease outbreak puts us in a very good position to deal with any outbreak. What I found when I became the Minister was that we weren't adequately prepared for an outbreak and that's after ten years of a Coalition Government. But we commissioned a joint exercise between our emergency management personnel and our Department of Agriculture that came up with a report about what we could do to be better prepared and those recommendations are now being implemented.

AMY PHILLIPS: Senator and Minister for DAFF, Murray Watt.