Senator BROWN (4:11 PM) —by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I will not delay the Senate, but I do not want a report as important as this to go without notice. This is about managing pest and disease emergencies in Australia and the enormous impact that pests and diseases can have on this country. Indeed, the report itself points out that an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, which, as we know, affects cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, could cause a fall of about 3½ per cent in gross domestic product, a one per cent increase in unemployment and a loss of $2 billion a year in export earnings if it were to occur. I think the report is important reading for people who are involved not just in agricultural industries but in the protection of Australia's environment because the two things are inseparably vulnerable to the import of pests and diseases.

Two aspects of this, I think, are incredibly important. There are moves being made to deal with ballast water but, if you walk to Constitution Dock in Tasmania—and I know you have done that often, Mr Acting Deputy President Watson—and look at the bottom, at the moment the shallows are littered with massive, carnivorous sea stars. They are now called Pacific sea stars. They have come from Japan. They are eating everything else in the vicinity, and they will end up eating each other. They are cannibalistic when the food supply is down. It is apparent that those sea stars were introduced in ballast water on a woodchip ship some time in the past—and this is not the first time it has happened. It just shows how vulnerable we are to increasing world trade and the movement of people, and how industries have a wider responsibility in the movement of goods and stock into and out of the country.

I think it is incredibly important also that we look at the potential for disaster coming out of the deliberate importation of species to this country. The CSIRO can speak for itself on this but, in the past, it has been the agent for introducing, quite deliberately, species into the country which are now costing millions, if not billions, of dollars per annum to try to control. I understand that, for trial, grasses are still being brought into various parts of northern Australia to see how they will go in our arid climate. The problem is that, if they are no good for stock, they can very well get away, compete with native grasses and create havoc not only for natural ecosystems but ultimately for the economic wellbeing of industries dependent on the grasslands.

The precautionary principle there needs to be absolutely employed. There is no room for experimentation any longer in this country. We have seen the disasters too frequently, and to get a quick potential advantage out of trying some new species brought in for commercial reasons is simply unconscionable in this day and age. I am glad this report is out but I would like to see even stronger measures than those recommended here to bolster the improving way in which we deal with our rapidly increasing problem, the movement in and out of the country of goods and people, threatening ecosystems and our economic wellbeing.