FRUIT FLY

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:30): I direct my questions to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries regarding the sterile Mediterranean fruit fly program:

1. Can the minister explain what has happened to the existing arrangement for the South Australian government to work with the Western Australian department of agriculture to develop the Mediterranean fly control sterile program?

2. Can the minister outline why $700,000 was removed from the sterile Mediterranean fruit fly program in the state budget?

3. Is the government planning to import sterile fruit flies from overseas to combat fruit fly outbreaks?

4. What is the cost to import these fruit flies from overseas rather than within Australia?

5. Will there be any risk from importing the fruit flies from overseas suppliers rather than supporting a proven Australian supplier?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions and really value the opportunity to put on the record another fabulous success story for PIRSA's biosecurity agency. Indeed, we know how important the use of sterile fruit flies is as one of the means of helping to combat fruit fly infestation, and this has been a technique that we have used for some time. If honourable members have kept up with their reading, they would be aware of the most recent research which involves another form of sterile fruit fly as well that which involves an antidote that can be switched on and off. When that male fly mates with female fruit flies, the offspring all die when this antidote is turned off.

In the pipeline we even have further developments on the sterile fruit fly front. It will be well worthwhile watching this space carefully in the foreseeable future because we may even have other alternatives at our fingertips. In the meantime we use sterile fruit fly. We have purchased them from Western Australia in the past. They are very expensive. It is an extremely expensive process and quite a lengthy one as well.

PIRSA has been able to negotiate with, I think, a South African company, although I will double-check that. It is with a company overseas that caters for a large segment of the international market in providing these sterile fruit flies. They are extremely efficient and they are much cheaper than what we have been purchasing in the past. Of the financial adjustments that we have made, at least some of that is associated with the cut in costs by purchasing through this overseas company compared with Western Australia. So, not only is it much cheaper for us, but we can obtain the fruit flies much quicker and they are far more responsive to us. They have economies of scale that cannot be achieved here. But as I said, further work in research and development is occurring in this space, so hopefully we will even have other options at our fingertips in the foreseeable future.