After exhaustive discussions with Australia’s agricultural export industries, the Federal Government has agreed to provide $40 million to fund reforms designed to cut red tape.
But as part of the deal, the Government has also finalised the new fee structure for export certification, which will come into effect from July 1 provided the legislation first passes the hostile Senate.
Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the changes to export certification represent the biggest reforms in this area in a generation and would achieve a world-class Australian agricultural export sector.
He said the process of certifying food for export is in desperate need of modernisation, with an outdated IT system and a heavy reliance on time-consuming paperwork rather than electronic processing.
The legislation has not been updated in more than 20 and there are concerns about recent difficulties with recruiting new staff to the inspection workforce, he said.
The reforms include:
· Increasing the use of electronic processing, rather than inefficient paperwork. Under the reforms, more than 89 per cent of the 33,000 clearance certificates to be issued next financial year will be done electronically.
· Removing duplication in auditing and inspection requirements between state, Commonwealth and customers. This will particularly benefit the horticulture, dairy and seafood industries.
· Grains could be cleared for export much earlier in the process. Previously they were cleared at the last minute, which meant exporters had to pay demurrage costs if the loading of a vessel was delayed due to clearance issues.
"We want to help support local jobs in these important export industries by driving efficiencies and cutting red tape," Mr Burke said.
"For years, the Coalition government failed to invest in these reforms and our exporters have been left with an outdated system which puts us at a disadvantage globally.
"Industry has designed the reforms and we’ve supported their view that they deserve a world-class export certification system."
But the Government has also finalised a new fee structure for export certification, following on from a recommendation in the Beale Review that the Coalition Government’s decision to allow a 40pc export subsidy to lapse should not be overturned.
Mr Burke said the meat, dairy, grains, fish and live export sectors have supported the revised fees.
But according to The Australian Financial Review, the Coalition and the Greens are sympathetic to industry calls for the export subsidy be maintained during the economic downturn and plan to unite to block the changes in the Senate if a compromise cannot be found.
The government has made it clear that if the the opposition parties do not pass the fee increases it will no longer be able to fund the reforms that are supposed to improve the efficiency of quarantine inspections and to cut red tape.
While groups including the Australian Meat Industry Council and Australian Livestock Exporters Council have reached agreement with the government, the Australian Horticultural Exporters Association chief executive Maxwell Summers said the fee increases would cost jobs.
Mr Summers insisted his sector would accept only a "complete abolishment of the [fee] changes for the foreseeable future".
"Increasing the cost of exporting when there is a global recession is really bad government policy," he said.
The coalition spokesman on agriculture, John Cobb, accused Mr Burke of trying to blackmail industry and signalled the opposition would block a regulation, expected to be tabled by the government on Monday, removing the subsidy.
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