MYPOLONGA FRUIT FLY TRAPPING GRID

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:16): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries a question about the Mypolonga fruit fly trapping grid.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The Lower Murray Horticulture Action Committee and the member for Hammond recently met with the minister and PIRSA representatives to discuss the cessation of funding for the Mypolonga fruit fly trapping grid. Local growers recently agreed to continue to fund the trapping grid through a voluntary levy; however, cost estimations leave the local growers short.

The Lower Murray Horticulture Action Committee has requested government support of $5,500 to continue operating the Mypolonga fruit fly trapping grid until July 2014. PIRSA representatives agreed to this; however, no further communication has been received to date. My questions are:

1. Will the minister provide an update on the funding promised by PIRSA to continue to operate the Mypolonga fruit fly trapping grid to ensure that the industry and South Australia stays fruit fly free?

2. Is the minister willing to make necessary legislative changes to upgrade the Mypolonga area from fruit fly free to fruit fly exclusion zone and provide support similar to that afforded Riverland growers?

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) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions. I have met with the Mypolonga Fruit Fly Alliance—I think that is the name of the group but I will double-check that. I have met with a number of representatives from that group. The dialogue that took place with them and senior officers and some of my advisers was very fruitful.

They were able to outline the shape of the industry in that particular region. It is a fairly small region and has limited resources available to it in terms of investing in fruit fly initiatives and fruit fly prevention initiatives. In recent times they had a fruit fly grid that was funded by Horticulture Australia Limited but they withdrew that funding that enabled that grid trapping. That left the Mypolonga group of farmers in a very difficult situation. They came to me and I said to them that I am willing to work in partnership. It is important that that area is able to demonstrate that it is fruit fly free. By having this trapping grid in place, they utilised the services of a number of processors in the Riverland area, so some of the producers moved fruit in and used those processors there.

We were concerned that, unless we were able to keep that grid intact, those Riverland processors might lose confidence and then refuse to take fruit and that would leave some of those farmers without any ability to process their fruit. Obviously that was something that we sought to avoid. What we have agreed on—and I think this is just last week, but if it was not last week it was the week before as I have met with them quite recently—is that we will work in partnership to continue with the grid. I have agreed to contribute $5,500 towards the trapping grid and the farmers have agreed to introduce a voluntary modest levy that will help to contribute to that as well. In partnership, we will be able to continue the payment for that grid to remain in place.

In the meantime, we continue to assist that group to fill out grant submissions to HAL and any other appropriate body to provide future assistance to them in managing fruit fly in that particular area. We were very pleased that we were able to land on a partnership arrangement where we will be working together to ensure that those farmers remain fruit fly free.