FRUIT FLY

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:14): Today I would like to talk about fruit fly pressures on the food producers of the Riverland and particularly on the Australia Day long weekend.

Every food producer in the Riverland is under siege every day with the added pressure of fruit fly outbreaks in both Victoria and New South Wales, but to hear the results of the random fruit fly roadblock at Blanchetown on the Australia Day long weekend really does beggar belief.

There were 231 vehicles that had fruit detected on that long weekend and of those 231 vehicles, there were 370 kilograms of fruit and not one expiation notice was issued. The people that are coming from the south into the Riverland are putting added burden on the Riverland and putting that region under pressure, particularly the food producers whose markets rely on them to be fruit fly free.

There are 13 of those vehicles that are under review, but it is the added pressure of keeping the region fruit fly free. It is the only region that is totally fruit fly excluded. Every market around the world rests on the market demands to buy fruit, to buy vegetables, out of the Riverland knowing that they are fruit fly free.

I must say that I do commend the team at the Yamba roadblock for their absolutely outstanding efforts, led by Kevin Brown. They work tirelessly to keep all fruit out of vehicles that are coming into the region. But to see a team at Blanchetown not have the powers to issue those expiation notices is again putting at risk the livelihood of every food producer in the Riverland. It is sending, again, a message to all those markets, and, with the release of those numbers, every Riverlander is horrified.

There have been several phone calls made to the Yamba fruit fly team highlighting their concern, and some of them are being quite vocal at the team there at Yamba, and I say to the team at Yamba that they are doing a good job and the people need to understand that the minister needs to put better guidelines in place so that we can actually safeguard the food producers of the river region, up in the Riverland. It is just not good enough. We have the continual risk. New South Wales has thrown their hands in the air with fruit fly, and now the Victorian government is reducing funding. That is putting more and more pressure on every food producer in the region.

It is a jewel in South Australia’s crown that we have a fruit fly free zone and particularly in the Riverland that grows the majority of the fruit and vegetables in South Australia. It is just not good enough. The minister now needs to put guidelines in place. We have seen again and again the long weekend random roadblocks that are letting people off. They are obviously not sending the right message.

For those people of Adelaide, those people from the southern areas, who are coming into the Riverland holidaying, we welcome them. But we need the message to get across to them that they need to buy their fruit, their vegetables, in the Riverland, the fresher fruit and vegetables, and it is cheaper. To buy fruit and vegetables in the Riverland is considerably cheaper than it is buying them in other areas.

Let’s face it, a lot of that fruit and veg is grown in the Riverland, it is fresher in the Riverland and for the travellers that are coming through the region, coming up to visit, coming up to stay, coming up to holiday, there must be a message sent to them to understand that to safeguard our food industry, to safeguard our export markets, to safeguard the livelihoods of every Riverland food producer, we need that message. We need a stern message, and the only way that people are going to get that message is if we have the campaign to make people aware that they can buy fresh fruit and vegetables in the Riverland rather than transporting them in their vehicle up into the region. It is just not good enough.

The next long weekend when people are travelling to the Riverland, I urge them to consider buying their fruit and vegetables locally in the Riverland. If not, and they are going to continue to buy their fruit and veg in their local areas or at their local shops, they must retain the dockets, so that when they are pulled over by the random road block, they can show their docket with their fruit and vegetables, and that will give a sense of relief to every fruit producer in the Riverland.