Fruit Fly

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Why are fruit disposal bins for motorists travelling along the Sturt Highway into South Australia from Victoria located several kilometres inside the border rather than at the border? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms BEDFORD: Everybody supports and acknowledges the importance of a fruit fly free Riverland, yet on approaches into the Riverland fruit fly quarantine zone departmental information indicates it is only on the Sturt Highway that fruit disposal bins are located inside the fruit fly zone. This means travellers disposing of fruit at the bins are just as culpable of a technical breach of the Plant Health Act as those who surrender fruit at the quarantine station.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:43): I thank the member for Florey for her very important question. It is an important question because we do have our fruit fly free zones here in South Australia, particularly around the Riverland. As the member might understand, we have bins at Bede Road, between the South Australian border and the Yamba roadblock or the border control centre. We also have a bin south of Blanchetown and bins that are at the border of what we call the quarantines zones. Those bins are strategically placed there so that it complies with our strict regime of fruit fly control within the Riverland compound.

I must say that those bins have been put at Bede Road for a number of reasons. They give those motorists the opportunity to pull off the Sturt Highway and deposit or voluntarily put fruit into those bins. There are two at Bede Road. There is one at Blanchetown. There are also bins on the Swan Reach road, there are bins on the Pinnaroo road and there are also bins on the Broken Hill road. There are bins on a number of strategic roads that come into the region so that fruit is deposited into those bins in accordance with fruit fly compliance.

Just last week, I visited the Victorian border. I didn't go over the Victorian border, to comply with isolation guidelines. We have installed one new very large sign to reassure people that we are giving them every opportunity to deposit fruit into those bins so that they don't come to the border crossings and incur a $375 fine. Again, I think it is important to acknowledge that the zero tolerance approach is a piece of legislation that was introduced by the previous Labor government. We are only enforcing that legislation.

Zero tolerance is such an important part of protecting horticulture not only in the Riverland. Many of you would understand that at the moment metropolitan Adelaide is going through a significant fruit fly outbreak with Mediterranean fruit fly. There are 180 suburbs in metropolitan Adelaide, from Cross Road down to Salisbury and from the coast up to the base of the foothills, that are currently in a restricted zone. That just typifies the vulnerability of South Australia being the lens between the west, from Western Australia, coming into South Australia and heading east with Mediterranean fly. It also gives us an understanding of the pressures on our borders from the east with Queensland fruit fly.

Queensland fruit fly has been a long-term pest. It's one of the world's worst, most destructive pests for fruit and vegetables and our fruit production areas. Again, I make no apology that here in South Australia the zero tolerance approach is there for very good reason. The enforcement with the zero tolerance approach is there to protect our industries so that we have a market advantage and so that people in Adelaide metropolitan areas can also have fruit trees and pick fruit, unlike in Victoria and New South Wales, which currently are having those trees removed due to the endemic Queensland fruit fly, and unlike in the west due to the Mediterranean fruit fly.