Senator CALVERT (5:15 AM) —by leave—I do not think I have ever made a speech at this time of the day in the 13 years I have been a senator—I have only just woken up in fact—but I wanted to put on the record that, as the Government Whip, I appreciate the cooperation that I have had from the opposition whips and their staff this year. It has been a particularly difficult year, with a lot of legislation going through this place. In any event, things do not happen unless you have the cooperation of the other side, and I would like to put that on the record.

In February next year, the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee will be conducting an inquiry into the proposed importation of apples and pears from New Zealand, which has become quite a hot issue. Without canvassing all the issues, I must put on the record that it is going to be a very important inquiry as far as one of the major industries in Australia and my home state is concerned. As Senator O'Brien would know, after many years of neglect, those in the apple industry are starting to find their feet again. They are doing that by changing their orchards from the old varieties to the new varieties that are more akin to market demands, particularly in Japan and Taiwan. In Tasmania we have developed fuji apples, a variety which is much sought after. It is pleasing to see that the Huon Valley has revived itself, not just through the salmon industry but also through the changes to the apple industry.

So I look forward to February 2001 when the committee will, I understand, traverse Australia and take evidence from all the apple and pear growing states, and with some luck we might even go to New Zealand. It is going to be a very controversial subject, and I just hope that the Senate can do what it did with the salmon inquiry—that is, show the people of Australia that the bureaucracy does not run the situation and that the Senate plays a very important role, and provide the people of Australia with the opportunity to put their point of view. In the case of the fruit industry, it is very important that the industry itself has the opportunity to put forward its views because the biggest criticism of this inquiry has been that the industry has not had the consultation with AQIS, Biosecurity and the powers that be that it should have had. This is an ongoing problem. I just hope that next year people take the opportunity to put their points of view to Senator O'Brien and me—I do not know whether Senator Murphy will be going—and listen to what other fruit growers have to say. The fact that Shepparton closed its doors and people marched through the streets shows that it is a very hot issue around rural areas of Australia.

I am particularly pleased that we in the Senate have taken the lead in referring this matter to a committee—a committee of which I am no longer a member. The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee was originally called the Senate Select Committee on Animal Welfare. I think I am pretty right in saying that when former Senator Brownhill and the Democrats joined forces to control the debate in the previous government we were able to create a committee that did not exist before. I think the last time the primary industry department was reflected in the Senate was in 1940. So we were able to create a new committee—the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee—and it has become probably the hardest working committee in the Senate.

This committee has had to tackle particularly difficult issues like civil aviation. I see Senator O'Brien walking around the chamber with his hands in his pockets, and I must take my hat off to some of the issues that have been raised by the opposition about transport matters, particularly civil aviation. If that committee had not been created a few years ago—and I take my hat off to former Senator Brownhill who was very instrumental in forming that committee—we would not have the opportunity to reflect in this parliament on the types of issues that are most important to rural and regional Australia. So at 5.25 a.m. on Friday, I make the point that next year the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee will continue its hardworking investigations around Australia, not just into fire blight but into many other issues that may come forward. With those few words, I will sit down and let Senator Murphy put forward his views on the world at the moment.