Fruit Fly

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Can the minister inform the house about the response to recent fruit fly outbreaks?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:42): I thank the member for Taylor for not only her question but also the advocacy that she performs on behalf of the primary producers in her electorate. South Australia can be proud that we are the only state or territory on mainland Australia that remains fruit fly free, but this January we did have two outbreaks up in the Riverland, at Loxton and Pyap. They were the first outbreaks in the Riverland in 23 years and it meant that we had to pull out the emergency plan.

I was very pleased to join the member for Chaffey up there a couple of weeks ago, on the day before ANZAC Day, to host a celebration that the people on the frontline (that is, the SARDI biosecurity people, the local industry, the exporters and growers) had all come together to make sure that the enemy—the Queensland fruit fly—had actually been eradicated from the area. There was a lot of hard work that went into that, and a lot of anxiety as well for local people.

There was a local fruit fly community group set up, of which the member for Chaffey was a member, and it was great to sit around with that group and go through the things that went well—obviously it went well, because that was the day that the quarantine of the area was lifted—but also to work out what lessons can be learned from this outbreak which, as I said, was the first one in 23 years. I know another couple of sessions are scheduled in for later this month, and people up there will go through those things.

We have also had an outbreak of Mediterranean fruit fly down in the Sellicks Beach area. We are releasing around a million sterile male fruit flies a week down there to make sure that they can try and combat it, and—the member for Goyder is looking at me. Do you know how they tell that they are sterile ones? They have put pink dye in their eyes so that, under the microscope, they can check out that these are the sterile ones. So, a lot of work goes into it.

The government invests about $5 million a year to make sure that we can maintain that fruit fly-free status that South Australia enjoys. To clean up the Riverland outbreak cost about $1 million. We are spending about $500,000 down at Sellicks. Obviously, prevention is better than cure, and we are trying to get the message out to all South Australians travelling into the Riverland or those travelling from interstate not to bring any fruit with them.

I was a bit disappointed at Easter time—they set up a mobile fruit fly station at Blanchetown and about 24 per cent of the people, who were mainly coming from Adelaide into that Riverland area, were caught with fruit in their possession. So, I think all South Australians need to get the message that the horticulture and citrus industries are worth so much to this economy that we can't afford to have fruit fly in our state. The message needs to get out there to everyone who is travelling not to take fruit with them; it is just far too dangerous.

I was at the ag ministers conference last week, chaired by Barnaby Joyce, and we went around the table and I was really pleased to hear that I think pretty much every ag minister listed biosecurity as the number one issue for their state. It is so important, whether it be fruit fly, phylloxera or the imported red fire ant that Queensland is grappling with—we sure don't want that in South Australia. They are doing some great work up there. We need to work with all the other states and territories.

I also had a meeting with Peter Walsh, the Victorian Minister for Agriculture, because they are our nearest neighbours; they are the ones who can have the biggest impact on us, so if we work together we can have a greater sense of security that fruit fly won't enter into South Australia. I want to congratulate the 40 employees who spent 14 weeks out there picking up fruit that had dropped to the ground and really helped us eradicate the fruit fly from the Riverland.