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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-15 Daily Xml
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FRUIT FLY

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (14:20): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. What is the importance of maintaining South Australia's fruit fly free status, particularly for our Riverland communities?

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development) (14:20): I thank the member for Mawson for his question and note his keen interest in pests, in particular ensuring that South Australia remains both fruit fly and phylloxera free.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: You try saying it three times: fruit fly free zone three years out of five. It is very difficult. I am very pleased to report that the government's fruit fly program, which has been operating for over 60 years, continues to be successful, to the point where South Australia can continue the claim to be the only mainland state free from fruit fly.

I repeat, for the third time in five years, South Australia has managed to record another season with no outbreaks of fruit fly, an achievement that provides a huge boost to our state's fresh fruit and vegetable industry. South Australia's fruit fly free status ensures that horticultural producers have access to export markets worth more than $100 million annually, and our fresh fruit and vegetable industries (worth some $480 million annually) are well protected from these damaging pests through PIRSA's fruit fly program. A fruit fly incursion can be devastating to our horticultural industries—particularly those already impacted by the drought—by cutting access to markets and placing additional treatment costs on the sector.

I am very pleased to report that South Australia's fruit fly free status comes despite significant fruit fly activity in the Eastern States, where one jurisdiction alone experienced over 40 fruit fly outbreaks in 2008. To illustrate the success of the fruit fly program, prior to—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The Hon. P. CAICA: Exactly. To illustrate the success of our fruit fly program, prior to 2002-03, there was an average of 4.6 fruit fly outbreaks per season in South Australia, while in the six years since there have been only five outbreaks in total. The key to having no fruit fly outbreaks and to maintaining South Australia's fruit fly area freedom status are the efforts of the fruit and vegetable industry, as well as the growing awareness of the travelling public to do the right thing by binning, eating or declaring fruit and vegetables before coming into South Australia or travelling to the Riverland.

I want to pay tribute to the South Australian public for their awareness and the role they have played with respect to this very important program. Our community awareness campaign is an integral part of an operational strategy consisting of multiple components with—

An honourable member: What about phylloxera?

The Hon. P. CAICA: Listen, mate, I am happy to speak to you any time. You do not need to talk across the chamber like this. You know that you can come and talk about phylloxera any time but, today, we are talking about fruit fly.

I want to highlight our community awareness campaign and the important role it has as part of the operational strategy, consisting of multiple components, as I said, with the others being fruit fly trapping grids; fixed quarantine stations; signage and quarantine bins on key entry points to the state; random mobile roadblocks in the Riverland and South-East; quarantine bins at airports, the Great Southern Rail Terminal, seaports and bus terminals; and the imposition of fines and quarantine detector dog teams at the airport.

South Australia's new Plant Health Act, which comes into effect later this year, further strengthens our state's range of biosecurity activities and will focus more of our efforts on compliance and enforcement. Other jurisdictions, with more than a touch of envy, I might add, have acknowledged the success of our fruit fly program. The Victorian government has recently expressed appreciation for South Australia's collaboration and direction in renewing its efforts to combat fruit fly.

Recent research funded by industry confirmed a high level of awareness amongst the community of the ongoing need to protect our state from the ravages of fruit fly and that there is strong public support, as I have mentioned, for the quarantine strategies used to date. The research confirmed that all components of the government's fruit fly program are effective and have made a positive impact. The government remains steadfastly committed to supporting industry, jobs and investment in our regional communities through this and many other successful programs.

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