Fruit Fly

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:18): You can see that I'm having a very good day today, sir. My question is the Minister for Primary Industries. Can the minister inform the house about fruit fly eradication and the enforceable rules surrounding orchard maintenance? With your leave, and that of the house, sir, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms BEDFORD: As we know, individuals have been fined for carrying fruit when crossing the border, yet there appear to be no enforceable rules to clean up under orchards, and no fines have been placed on individuals who have abandoned orchards and the tonnes of fruit that have been dropped on the ground.

The Hon. D.K.B. BASHAM (Finniss—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:18): I thank the member for the question; it is a very important one. Fruit fly is a very difficult issue to deal with, as we have seen in this current season when seasonal conditions have been very conducive to fruit fly moving around the state. We have seen significant outbreaks across different parts of the state, including here in the city and up in the Riverland.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions is doing everything it can in response to these outbreaks. We have 450 people on the ground, out working both in Adelaide and the Riverland, addressing these outbreaks. We have bait traps out there to trap these flies and get detections. Sadly, we are still seeing those detections and we are doing what is needed to get on top of this. It's in a period of the year when fruit flies go into dormancy when it becomes more difficult to go through that eradication process.

But we are continuing to work in this space. We do encourage people in the city to make sure they look after their fruit trees just like we do in the Riverland, also encouraging those orchard owners to make sure that they operate their properties appropriately. We will continue to work closely with industry to make sure that we get on top of this. It is such an important thing to our horticulture industry of $1.3 billion and the workforce out there to make sure that we get on top of it.