Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:43): Supplementary: can tomato growers currently, under the market access agreement, send to WA?

The PRESIDENT: We talked about jurisdictions, I guess, minister.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:44): It is important that growers who want to access any other market get in contact with PIRSA, if they are not already—I think most of them are. We have certainly encouraged them to work closely with the department and be able to make available a range of different market access arrangements, because of course it is in everyone's interest if we do have free and open trade between the different jurisdictions.

We would like to see consistency. However, each jurisdiction does have the opportunity to make their own decisions. That is a matter of those jurisdictions making those decisions. Each one is able to determine, for example, the testing regime that they will put in place and, of course, towards the end of last year we saw some of the challenges around that.

We have been very keen to advocate that the national deed, which sets out the eradication processes for this particular disease, which we had not had in Australia previously, be adhered to. It is in everyone's interests, we believe, in terms of South Australia, that we do have that consistency. However, where a jurisdiction decides that they want to protect their own growers, or be perceived to protect their own growers, then we do need to, obviously, respect that.

I have spoken on different occasions with my interstate counterparts, advocating on behalf of South Australian growers, and I think that is a really important process to continue. We do need to be conscious, however, that we have been quite successful in terms of managing this virus. In other countries around the world it has not been able to be eradicated, and they have moved to management processes. Here in South Australia, again, I want to pay credit to the growers as well as the industry organisations and PIRSA staff who have worked so hard in terms of trying to eradicate this disease so that the future for not just South Australian growers but Australian growers more generally can be protected.