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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know. The Liberal National Coalition has committed to a
major biosecurity overhaul in the Northern Territory if it wins
the federal election. It would include new technology to detect diseases,
scrapping Labour's fresh food tax, and a review of the
current operation aiming to stop illegal boats. The Nationals leader

(00:21):
David little Proud joins me in the studio. Good morning
to you, good morning, good to be with you. Yeah,
good to have you on the show. Yeah, and I
mean we've obviously I've interviewed you several times and haven't
had you in the studio before. So it's good to
see you. I appreciate your time. Now. First off, mate,
when is this election going to happen? We're all a
bit over guessing.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, Well, we go back to camera for the budget
on Tuesday. I suspect it'll be the tenth of May.
It will need to be the third or tenth of May.
But the third of May is a long weekend for
you guys, in for me a Queenslander, So whether that
pushes it back a week to the tenth, I think
we're very close now. Effective. I think people are thinking
of us running around making promises already.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So I think reading Florida exactly what I reckon Elbow
is holding off.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Look, that's something only in his mind. I don't want
to pretend to actually be able to understand that. But
he'll have his own reason. It's at his discretion or
respect that And we're just ready to go. And as
soon as the trig you'll probably see a lot of
policies start to be rolled out very soon. Yeah, from us,
we've been waiting for the starter's gun and that's obviously
about to start.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Very very say, yeah, it can't be far off. Now
we know that you are indeed in the Northern Territory
talking biosecurity, a major overhaul. Talk me through the details,
starting with the new tech for disease detection.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, well, lumpy skin diseases is something that the territories
at the front line of and literally it can blow
in from insects that have it and then they bite
our cattle. So what we've got to do is try
to be a little bit more productive, and we're going
to do a world first here where what we're going
to put together is two million dollars to catch and
then test the insect rather than waiting for the insect
to bite an animal and then we know there's an

(01:56):
outback because the beast has got it, or actually it
will know it soon if we're testing the insects and
we trap them and then test them, so if you
find a positive case, we know that we've got a
problem there. We can move the cattle out of that
area immediately and then try to eradicate. So this could
actually potentially stop us from about having any cattle impacted
by lumpy skin, and that means our producers get more,
the Northern Territory gets more. So this has been devised

(02:19):
by producers about how we could be more proactive and
for two million dollars, it's potentially say billions of dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Is it something that you've met with the Cattleman's Association
about what have they see? What's their feedback being.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, they've been very much at the four of this
because they see it as the biggest threat to them.
So what we want to do is make sure that
we're giving the tools that we need.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
And we're also.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Announced today I've just announced it before for you as well,
is that we're going to look at overall sustainable biosecurity funding.
So what in twenty seventeen that we as a review
and said it should be at those funding levels indexed
every year. So that stage is about seven hundred million.
In today's stage, it should be about nine hundred billion dollars. Unfortunately,
this government spending about a hundred billion. So all we

(03:01):
want to do is say, let's legislate sustainable funding for
biosecurity for these sort of programs at those levels to
make sure that we know we've got the money there
and it doesn't matter what government's in. Governments can't run
away from it. We're protecting our borders. So we're going
to legislate that. We'd hope the government back it. And
that's why we can spend this two million dollars, which
is a small investment to probably say billions.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, and I mean the fact is if we end
up with some of these diseases in the Northern Territory,
it can decimate the cattle industry and it's a huge
exporter for us, you know, a huge industry for us
in the Northern Territory. You can't afford to have those issues.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Now, and unfortunately you are at the front line of it.
And because of our proximity to Indonesia who has lumpy
skin disease, and when we're in government, we send vaccines
over there, but it's very difficult. So and when it
can blow in, there is no way of stopping it
effectively getting in if the winds go the wrong way
and the winds are pointing to your direction. So that's
why we think the Northern Territory, if we don't protect

(03:59):
the beef industry here, it won't be just the producers
that hurt. It's the community. Darwen ll hurt. You've got
an export for sure that would lose millions, hundreds of
millions of dollars. So we need to make sure we
protect the jobs in Darwin as well as the jobs
across the North.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
When you look at this technology, is it something that
is being used elsewhere in the country. No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
So this is something that in terms of working through
the scientific data, is how do we actually be more
proactive rather than just waiting for it to happen. Is
that if we can identify that and if we know that,
if we can catch these insects. So it's literally just
about putting traps out of course, and then you go
and test the test the insects we've caught and if
they've got LSD in them, then we know that we've

(04:43):
got it blown in and that's when you can take
those preemptive measures to move the stock away, eradicate and
then do more testing before you let caliback in so
that we don't actually get it now.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
I know as part of the discussions that you've been
having in the announcement that you've been doing today in
the Northern Territory, you're also looking at a review of
Operation Luna, which targets illegal fishing off the Northern Territory.
What changes are you wanting to see in this space.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and there were some extra resources put into this
because we're seeing literally the number of boats just exponentially
increase from illegal fishing from Indonesia. But it's not just
about trying to stop the illegal fishing. What those boats
bring as they've been bisecurity risks. So with Border Force
and Department of Agriculture, we're saying let's review this, and
in fact not just review it, but put more money

(05:30):
into more resources to make sure that we can intercept
these boats. And there's more work done by quarantine officials
in understanding the threats that are on those.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Boats, So what kind of resources are we talking like
additional indigenous ranges and things like that.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And it's people in boats intercepting them as they're in
the illegal fishing grounds and making sure that we're collecting
the data of what's on those boats, understanding the biosecurity
threats that they pose if those threats came to Australia.
So it's about making sure we're working with Border Force
in a coordinated approach, not just stopping them, but when
they're here, understanding the threats they've got and potentially what

(06:08):
could be brought to Australia. When we've seen some of
these boats wash up on the shore of Australia. That
opens up a bi security risks as well as well
as a people risk.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
One of the other things that the Coalition is planning
to scrap is Labour's fresh food tax. You're looking at
replacing it with an import container Levy. Can you break
this down for us? I mean, how it's going to
work first off, but then I guess how it's going
to well, who it's going to benefit, and I guess
for me. I think one of the big things that

(06:38):
we hear about as we lead into the federal election
is the cost of living is enormous, so is something
like this actually going to help in that space?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
You're going to someone has to pay to process these
containers through a port to make sure there's no pest
or diseases on them. What was previously happening is that
the government is saying here they're going to charge farmers
one hundred and fifty million dollars to process their competitors'
products through our ports to compete with them on the
shells of Australian supermarkets. What we're saying is that cost

(07:08):
should be on the burden of the importer because they're
the ones that pose the risk of bringing in their
commodities and bringing in pest and disease, so they should
pay because when we export our goods, we get charged
it when we put it through a port in China
or the United States or anywhere else. So what we're
saying is we're recovering the cost that the Australian taxpayer
has to pay to make sure there's no baddies on
those containers, and we're asking the importer to pay that

(07:29):
at what the government was trying to do, Anthony Albernezi
was saying, let's charge the Australian farmer. Now, in what
parallel universe would a government charge their own farmers to
help their foreign competitors having a competitive advantage on the
shells of Australian supermarkets. You just don't do.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
That, do you, reckon it might see some of those
importers not wanting to do business with Australian and so on,
intern potentially seeing the cost of things go up.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
No, because we actually produce a bit of a ninety
five percent of food what we consume here. Because our
climate's so so diverse across this big continent, there's only
about four to five percent of what we import we
can't produce here in this country. So it effectively just
means that they're going to have to pay to make
sure that their containers are clean. We're not having to

(08:14):
spend more resources on cleaning them once.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
They get here.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
So it's what happens to us when we export. And
we're just saying this is a protection of our environment.
The consumers already paying for it anyway, We're just saying
that should come on the importer, not on the Australian farmer.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
If you have just joined us. David Littlproud, the leader
of the Nationals, joining us in the studio David this morning.
The big news is, of course, the eighteen billion dollar PBS,
the Prime Minister saying it is not for sale. Anthony
Albanezi declaring the nation's eighteen billion dollar pharmaceutical scheme is

(08:47):
not for sale amid concerns that American pharmaceutical companies pressuring
US President Donald Trump into imposing will tariffs on Australia.
It'd have a big impact, wouldn't it. It would.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean tariffs are at tax on consumers. Someone has
to pay for it, and that's why a rules based
trading order has served Australia well, it served the world, well,
it's served actually the United States. Well, so it's a
tax on consumers and so we don't want to see
retaliatory measures because that just escalates. And when the United
States actually has a trading surplus with Australia, I think

(09:25):
we have a compelling case for carve out not just
on what potentially a beef what could come as well,
but also for steel and aluminium that's been put on
it because about two months ago we handed over a
check for eight hundred million dollars for our first installment
on Virginia Class submarines when we got a carve out.
When we were in government, we didn't have that. We've
got even more compelling case for President Trump to look

(09:46):
at Australia differently. But we have This is a principle
of our Australian people being kept safe and healthy, and
the PBS is something we'll protect just as much as
the Labor Party. It has bipartisan support, and we want
to make or that we're able to have those conversations
with President Trump. But at the moment, President Trump won't
even pick up the phone.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, so how would a coalition government do things differently
with Donald Trump? Because I think it's a really different
ballgame and like a really different world that we're living
in right now. Well it is.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
We've proven we've got that compelling case where we're actually
partnering with the United States in defense with orcast that's
a huge investment that we're making. So we have a
compelling case to actually get President Trump to pick up
the phone. He won't. He won't even let Anthony Albanezi
in the front door of the White House while Australia's
going out the back door. Literally and so what you

(10:36):
need to be able to do, and we had a
very close relationship with not just the Obama administration, but
the Trump administration and the start of the Biden administration.
We're in government and you've got to be able to
leverage those relationships. But when you look at you've got
a prime minister and you've got an ambassador who have
made personal disparaging remarks against President Trump, you have to
question why President Trump won't pick up the phone. I

(10:58):
suspect that he's aware of that, and he's not overly happy.
You need to be able to reset that relationship.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
We've got to have difficult conversations no matter what, and
we're prepared to have that.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
I mean, we've disagree with President Trump on a number
of things, but he respects strength, not weakness. And I
can tell you whatever you think about Peter Dutton, he's
a strong character and he has strong relationships in the
United States. PA's first trip overseas we'll be to the
United States. It'll be to eyeball President Trump and to
make sure he can articulate not just the generational relationship

(11:28):
we've had, but the financial relationship we've got and how
pivotal that is in terms of a geopolitical situation that
the investment of the Australian government and the Australian people
are making and defending the United States and defending Australia
is real and tangible in dollars.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
So David Little Proud you reckon, Donald Trump will open
the door for you.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
And Peter Dutton, well, I think we've got more chance.
We've got those strong relationships and Peter Dutton is a
strong leader and what President Trump respects is strength and
strength in leadership. He can smell weakness and Peter.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Do you reckon? He thinks elbows.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, I think what you can say is that Peter
Dutton's had a record of dealing with administrations of all
persuasions in the United States as is Vibe when I
was Agriculture Minister. And the respect is there if you
are able to be able to force your way in.
And when you've got a prime minister that where a
president can't even pick up a phone and he's made

(12:20):
disparaging remarks about the president, it's time for reset. And
this is a changing environment and you need strong leadership
that will say it as it is, but be able
to cut a deal because we have that compelling case
and we can grow on the relationship we've got, on
the resources we've got here, and what's needed in the
United States to prosper together. Well.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Leader of the Nationals, David Little Proud, really appreciate you
joining us in the studio this morning. Thanks so much
for your time.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Thank you.
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