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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-28 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE ZOO

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:46): Adelaide Zoo held a tribute day on Wednesday 22 April for Pusung, the much loved Sumatran orangutan who died there the previous week. Born on 25 February 1978 in Perth, Pusung was hand raised at Singapore Zoo. He was always patient, gentle, calm and too shy to cross the footbridge to go on exhibit. At the age of 10, he was sent to Adelaide where he has become part of the international breeding program. As we know, he went on to father two young orangutans.

I refer to Adam Todd's City Messenger article of 23 April 2009 quoting zoo primate curator, Emma Yengi, when she was talking about Pusung. Emma Yengi said:

He was wonderful on display, because he was such a big creature—his big cheeks, long hair, shy eyes—people couldn't walk past without having a look. Pusung just had a beautiful character, he made wonderful connections with people.

It has been a sad year for the Adelaide Zoo. They have lost several animals. Levi, the dominant lion, died at Monarto Zoo on 1 April, aged 9. Last May, the Sumatran tiger, Tiger Boy, died from kidney failure, aged 24. Eli, the Syrian brown bear, died on 18 September, aged 32. Birri, the sea lion, passed away in December. It is very lucky for animal lovers that we have the much anticipated arrival of pandas Wang Wang and Funi to look forward to. I know that it will make a great deal of difference to the Adelaide Zoo.

The Florey electorate sponsored Pusung for 12 months, ending in January 2007. We were greatly saddened to learn of his death after suffering from a respiratory infection—a common cause of death in older male orangutans. This was despite the best efforts of the zoo's wonderful and hardworking veterinary team.

As part of this tribute to Pusung today, I acknowledge Dr Chris West, CEO of Zoos SA, and his team of committed staff who work with the primates at the zoo, and congratulate them on their work, including highlighting the plight of orangutans in the wild and the devastating impact the palm oil trade is having on the species.

Orangutans are highly intelligent animals. Their intelligence is comparable to that of a five or six year old child; therefore, it was only natural that Pusung would become an ambassador for his species and the face of Adelaide Zoo.

The single greatest threat facing orangutans in the wild today is the rapidly expanding palm oil trade. Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the African oil palm tree. It is believed to have recently eclipsed soya bean oil to become the world's most widely produced edible oil. It is used in many foods, cosmetics and household products. More recently, it has been touted as a biofuel, despite evidence that the use of palm oil-based diesel actually increases greenhouse emissions.

Rainforests are being cleared at the rate of 300 football fields per hour to make way for palm oil plantations. While there are millions of hectares of degraded land that could be used for plantations, many palm oil companies choose instead to use rainforest land to gain additional profits by logging the timber first. Palm oil companies also frequently used uncontrolled burning to clear the land, resulting in thousands of orangutans being burnt to death. Those that survive have nowhere to live and nothing left to eat.

The increased demand for palm oil, which is grown only in tropical environments, is fuelling destruction of the rainforest habitat of Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, pushing those endangered species even closer to extinction. Estimates show that if something is not done soon to stop the spread of palm oil plantations into the forests, orangutans will be extinct within 10 years.

Many everyday products contain palm oil. It is found in ice cream, chocolate biscuits (including Arnott's bestseller, Tim Tams, in its many varieties), crackers, chips, margarine, fruit juice, batters, soap, toothpaste, laundry powders, detergents, cosmetics and pet food, just to name a few items. It is also found in a wide array of products sold in natural food stores.

It is difficult to know whether palm oil is in a product as it is usually simply labelled 'vegetable oil'. However, the label must declare the amount of saturated fat in the product. If the product has saturated fat, you can safely assume that the vegetable oil is palm kernel oil, palm oil or coconut oil.

Public and political pressure is the best weapon in bringing about change but, in order to do this, products containing palm oil must be clearly labelled. Currently, only three vegetable oils must be labelled in food products in Australia and New Zealand. My constituents tell me food labelling is woefully inadequate and this constantly results in consumers purchasing products they would not choose to buy if a thorough compulsory labelling system existed.

I would also like to see more encouragement given to buying Australian or locally made food items wherever possible. Clearly indicating the origin of products for sale should be imperative in the labelling of goods. Every dollar spent on Australian made or grown goods benefits the Australian economy.

Residents in my electorate are interested in buying Australian products and produce and want to support our local growers and manufacturers. In conjunction with Mike Rogers and his AusBuy 'Fightback' campaign and Drake Foodland, I know we are all keen to promote local and Australian goods to consumers.

Time expired.

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