COMMITTEES

Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (18:05): I want to indicate the coalition will support this motion. But I actually want to point out that we do share your concerns, Deputy President, that you raised in your contribution on this—that the risk of this inquiry is that there will be fearmongering and scare tactics being used against what we know is an important tool in the arsenal of farmers who need products like Paraquat to ensure an efficient ecological best practice on their properties for food production.

Our position is that we recognise that actually there's an opportunity with this inquiry to deal with some of the issues. We should face the truth. There's no problem with that.

There's an opportunity with this inquiry to be able to myth bust any of the concerns and the fearmongering out there. For those that are using this product safely with all of the precautions advised on the label, this is an opportunity for the truth of best practice when it comes to using chemicals that, as we've heard, are inherently dangerous—herbicide is—so there must be proper handling of these products.

This inquiry brings the opportunity to be able to hear all the evidence both for and against and then deal with it in a calm way. I trust that the committee will deal with that—it's chaired by a fantastic chair—efficiently and sensibly. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The question is that the motion be agreed to.