Mr BILLSON (11:04 AM) —The Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Amendment Bill 1998 [1999] before us today strengthens the current legal provisions that implement obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 1973, otherwise known as the CITES convention. The convention seeks to ban international trade in endangered species. Australia embraced the convention and other measures regarding the export and import of wildlife and trade in wildlife products in the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982 that was introduced by the Fraser government.

The amending bill before the House seeks to strengthen the current protection of endangered wildlife by extending the prohibition on products that contain an endangered species by making it a criminal offence to claim that a product contains material from endangered species. Under this bill it will be illegal to import, export or possess a product that claims to contain material from an endangered species.

Why is this important? One-quarter of the world's population embrace traditional Chinese medicines. Beyond that, there are traditional medicines that come with long histories from parts of the world such as South Africa, India and China, and even our own bush medicine traditions of the indigenous Australians. The demand for traditional medicine is rising dramatically as Western industrialised countries, such as our own, have begun incorporating the alternative medicines into our lifestyles and as populations of communities which have historically relied on traditional medicines have steadily grown.

The World Wide Fund for Nature has reported that the World Health Organisation estimates that up to 80 per cent of the world's population still rely on medicinal plants and animals for their primary health care needs. The WWF reports also that the herbal medicine business in the European Union alone accounts for $US4 billion of trade each year. In Australia the alternative health industry is now a billion dollar a year industry which 57 per cent of Australians have drawn upon in the past 12 months. I suppose I would include myself in that with the thankfully odourless garlic tablets that keep the lurgies that you get from Canberra at bay—at least I hope they do.

In 1996, there was thought to be 4,500 traditional medicine practitioners in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland alone and 2.8 million traditional medicine consultations each year. We are not talking about a small area of activity; we are certainly not talking about a small area of interest. This is something that affects a vast number of Australians. In particular, traditional Chinese medicine has become very popular in this part of the world and in Western cultures. It is also estimated that imports of Chinese herbal medicine have increased 100 per cent annually since 1993. As I mentioned earlier, the growing healthy lifestyle emphasis, the interest in non-pharmaceutical health promotion products and dietary supplements contribute to there being approximately 1,500 Chinese medicine practitioners in Australia alone.

Why the growth, Madam Deputy Speaker, in traditional medicines? There are a number of reasons for it. One is that we are interested in trying to put as few pharmaceuticals into our bodies as we can. The long histories that have supported the use of traditional medicines give us something to think about when we look at some of the pharmaceutical products that we tend to consider for our health needs.

It is a fact that the list of threatened endangered flora and fauna is growing ever longer. Some aspects of traditional medicine are partly to blame for increasing the threat of extinction of endangered species, purely because of their popularity. Traditional medicine is not the only motivation for poachers to kill endangered species but, sadly, it can be a significant contributing factor in many nations.

How big is the problem of illegal trade in endangered species? From 1996 through to 1998, there were 3,000 seizures of traditional medicine products in Australia which contained or claimed to contain products derived from endangered species. While the vast majority were plant species such as ginseng, cactus, orchids and I think it is cycads—but someone can correct me if I am wrong there—more than 500 were animal species including some of the world's most endangered or threatened animals such as tigers, bears, rhinoceroses, leopards and turtles, as my colleague the member for Hughes, Mrs Vale, mentioned earlier.

However, there have been no prosecutions under the wildlife protection act that involved illegally imported traditional medicine products containing material from endangered species. Why we have had that vast number of seizures but no prosecutions is the reason that we are discussing this bill today. The major impediment to a successful prosecution is that current forensic technology is unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt that traditional medicines contain material from endangered species as claimed on their packaging. DNA testing cannot identify a specific species once material from that species has been combined, co-mingled, heated and treated at high temperatures to produce the product. It is interesting to think of the US President and the use of DNA technology with some of the recent events surrounding his situation. We have that level of expertise yet when it comes to seeing what is actually combined to produce a so-called traditional medical product, we are not able to identify the component parts.

Other jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, where legislation has been introduced that reflects the evidentiary provisions of the bill we are discussing today, have recorded greater success with prosecutions and that is why we are hoping to go that way ourselves.

How will this legislation help? Growth in traditional medicines and species survival are on a collision course. The greater the popularity of traditional medicines that draw from endangered species, the greater the threat to those endangered species. Nobody wants to see these species wiped out, certainly not traditional medical practitioners or their patients.

I would like to compliment the traditional medical practitioners who have worked very cooperatively with the government to produce this bill, recognising that they have a shared interest and responsibility in what we are discussing today. However, species will be lost unless we can reduce the demand for products from endangered species. Reducing demand for these products is a worldwide responsibility, and the changes outlined in this bill will ensure that Australia will continue to meet its responsibilities under the CITES convention. Similar legislation is being implemented in other countries that are also parties to the CITES convention. It acknowledges that merely representing a product as being sourced from an endangered species adds to the demand for poaching that species, and therefore the vulnerability of that species.

In addition to this legislation the federal government will be conducting an education campaign to complement the new arrangements. Again, I would like to acknowledge the help of those working in this industry who have contributed to that campaign and who will be helping with its implementation. The government is currently preparing a comprehensive booklet which outlines the CITES convention framework and our own legislation. This booklet will be distributed widely amongst the traditional medicine community.

It is not as if we, as a nation, are only looking to others elsewhere to play a role in the traditional medicine field in protecting endangered flora and fauna. I would like to acknowledge the fact that a number of our indigenous communities here have in recent times revised some of their hunting practices and their use of our natural flora to help prevent the extinction of various species. Those species are under threat through no fault of the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are playing an important role domestically by making sure that what we are talking about today is not an area that we think others only have responsibility for; it is an area that we are also addressing on our home soil.

I will have much pleasure in representing the Minister for the Environment and Heritage at the second symposium on traditional medicines and endangered species at RMIT in Melbourne on the weekend.

Mr Slipper —And you'll do it well.

Mr BILLSON —It is very kind of you to say that. I hope that is the reaction of the crowd who are at the symposium where this bill we are debating today will be of great interest to everybody. At the first symposium held in Sydney in August 1997, a number of speakers addressed the issue of alternatives to endangered species and the need for better communication between traditional medicine practitioners and patients, and those concerned with protecting endangered species. This symposium brings together those interests and that is why it is something that I am more than happy to support.

This legislation and other efforts by the government seek to address these issues. We are playing our role as well. Alternatives to endangered species are being canvassed consistently. For example, cultivating alternative sources of the same species is part of the harvesting strategy that many of those involved in the traditional medicine industry are looking at. Also, finding completely different species that have those quintessential characteristics, some of which my colleague the member for Hughes discussed, is also part of the solution. Those different species, not under threat in many cases, are believed to be able to provide the same health benefits. We ought to encourage the investigation and identification of those alternatives. As an example, the Chinese government is currently encouraging the cultivation of medicinal plants as a harvesting exercise and already there are 33,000 hectares under production. Even developing countries are playing an important role. Also, substitutes that have been identified include buffalo horn for the rhinoceros horn, and pig bone instead of tiger bone.

The government looks forward to working with traditional medicine practitioners and patients to find alternatives to endangered species that are in medicines, or said to be in medicines, and to find innovative ways to take the pressure off our endangered species. This is a good day for everybody. This is a win-win proposition. It is good for those concerned about endangered species, it recognises the importance of traditional medicines and alternative medicines, and it embraces the work all of us are doing to try and make sure we have the benefits of those long-established, traditional medicine strategies, as well as looking after endangered flora and fauna. I commend the bill to the committee.