E&OE

DON BURKE: Now the Callinan Report on equine influenza, EI, was released and it’s been examined and if you were listening yesterday you would have heard me say that I in fact have been appalled at the way the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service were reacting with horses and the import of them. I brought in one myself and spotted them breaking their own rules quite flagrantly – and this was particularly in relation to Eastern Creek.  In the newspapers today it says that High Court Judge Ian Callinan has been very, very critical of AQIS in this and there is all sorts of implications. To talk about this now we have Federal Agricultural Minister Tony Burke on the line. Welcome to the program, Tony. 

TONY BURKE: Good to be. Good to be here with you don. 

DON BURKE: Or should I say cousin? 

TONY BURKE: I have been asked about that for a lot of years now. 

DON BURKE: For what it’s worth our names are spelt the same way. Obviously this has been a festering sore. For what it’s worth, I went to Canberra with my local member which was Alan Cadman. I was there to brief Federal Parliament on genetically engineered organisms and while I was there I popped in to the head of quarantine with Alan Cadman and I really pointed my finger at him and told him what a failure the Department was and how sloppy their procedures were, how they were placing Australia at risk and I said, “Clean it up, or I’m in the media, I’ll nail you people.” I really regret now I didn’t name them in the media but where do you come from in all of this? 

TONY BURKE:  Well, the report that we’ve had is a scathing assessment of our quarantine and biosecurity arrangements, particularly with respect to the import of horses. Without reading tracts of the report to you. Just some of the language that’s in here – and this is from a High Court Judge – this is someone who chooses his words very, very carefully. 

DON BURKE: And they’re cautious people. 

TONY BURKE: That’s right, ‘systemic failures’, ‘understaffed’ and ‘impenetrable maze of bureaucratic confusion’, ‘a place of ignorance, misunderstandings, misconceptions about fundamental matters’, ‘inertia, inefficiency’, ‘incompetence’, ‘lack of diligence’. To get that sort of language from Justice Callinan, says that we have to drive some really serious change through our quarantine and biosecurity agencies. 

DON BURKE: Well be aware I said fairly similar things to the head of AQIS. It was in the early 1990s with the accompanying threats that I would expose them in the media if they didn’t lift their game. I suppose you, like me, would take the view that at all costs you have to support and protect AQIS because they are an essential group for the well-being of Australia into the future. That was what made me hang back but I seriously regret it now. 

TONY BURKE: Yeah well you look at what has ended up happening from horse flu arriving in Australia. The figure was raised with me as to whether it’s a billion dollars’ damage to industry and I just said, “I don’t think we will ever know the full extent of how much pain this has caused, because it’s not just the people directly involved in the horse industry.” It’s everything from the people cooking the fast food at the races through to milliners, people making hats for the spring carnivals. 

DON BURKE: Through to the disabled kids and the only fun in their lives and a bit of exercise is Riding for the Disabled. All of these things were hit so hard. Through to some people, hobbyists who have invested whatever pennies their life has accumulated into their horses. This brought them all to their knees. 

TONY BURKE: That’s right. It goes way beyond the dollars themselves but even the dollars I don’t think we’ll ever be able to accurately assess just how much this has cost people. So what I’m trying to do – because I was invited during the media conference to sort of reflect on the previous government – I’m just trying to focus on:  it’s a risk management system, how can we absolutely minimise the risk? How can we fix this? So for the report we got today from Justice Callinan, that I released today, he has made 38 recommendations. We’re accepting every single one of them. We’ve got the former head of the Prime Minister’s Department, Professor Shergold who is going to oversee the implementation over the next two years to make sure there is no slippage in our determination to implement it all.  

As well as that we’ve got the overarching review of quarantine by Roger Beale which reports to me in a few months. Out of that I just want to be able to drive the sort of changes we need, because you would know better than most Australians, Don, about how it can be the tiniest little pest or what might seem like an inconsequential disease. 

DON BURKE: Or a handkerchief like one of the ones that I saw that I was outraged at was when the horses arrived at the airports. It’s not just at say, Eastern Creek, when the horses arrive at the airport anyone can wander up to the horses, touch them, rub them and then put their hands on their handkerchief and they could easily spread a number of these diseases.  

Not only diseases but also possibly, as you say, insects and all sorts of things. It was just so sloppy and I kept asking their veterinary officer, the AQIS veterinary officer at the airport, “What can I do?” because I could just see how dreadfully sloppy it was and he was just saying you can just go up and touch the horse, you can do what you like. I was thinking they have no idea so one thing I would beg of you, and I am sure you are going to do this Tony, is to make sure that you track the system through.  Because there are holes in it, not just in the quarantine stations but all the way along. The whole trip of the horses leaving from one country, preparation for leaving that country, leaving that country, arrival in Australia, moving around Australia and then other issues while they are in quarantine in Australia. 

TONY BURKE: I’m really glad you raised that Don because Justice Callinan, a lot of the talk is about Eastern Creek, but he also goes to what we need to improve at the airports as well. And he also goes through for all the focus on quarantine that’s there, the concept of shared responsibility that we all have to play a role in fixing this and refers to the grooms, the farriers, even some of the vets. People trained as vets, not decontaminating when they left the quarantine facility.  

DON BURKE: And the follow up too as someone who does import the odd horse. I keep our horses under very strict observation for some months after they arrive and if they so much as hiccup, we get onto a vet who is involved with quarantine, bring them back in and that puts our own horse property at risk in terms of it being shut down or whatever, but we always call them back in and say can you check this out. 

TONY BURKE: Yeah and it’s where that level of caution is so important. Some diseases can come into the country from migratory birds. You know there are some things that you just can’t control but what you can do with your quarantine services, do everything you can to just minimise the risk. As an island continent there’s a whole lot of diseases and pests around the world that we luckily don’t have and it’s our quarantine services that are the front-line that are making sure we keep that privileged position.  

DON BURKE: And the other one which I was ropable about was when the previous government was looking at passing on a lot of the costs of all of these issues to do with equine influenza onto people who had horses. I thought this was so outrageous when the entire issue was caused by government. 

TONY BURKE: Well without getting into the causation issue, because the shared responsibility issue is part of it as well, but on the specifics of whether there should be a levy: most livestock industries have some sort of mechanism in place where they start to build up contingencies and things like that for the future. But in the particular circumstances of this one, I thought it was important yesterday that I come out in advance of this report coming down and just make clear that there would be no attempt by us to retrospectively claim the levy back from horse owners.

DON BURKE: (inaud) in the future. Look I think that’s perfectly reasonable and I would just like to say thank you for acting as I understand that the Executive Director of AQIS and that has been accepted? 

TONY BURKE: That’s right. So he’ll be standing aside from that position. 

DON BURKE: Congratulations on what you’re doing. There is a lot of change needed. The only thing I beg of you is don’t let them be heavy-handed just for the point of bullying of people. We have to just make this work.

TONY BURKE: That’s right. I just want to get the focus straight back onto the future. 

DON BURKE: Fantastic. Thank you very much for coming on the program.

TONY BURKE: Thanks Don, Bye. 

ENDS