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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-04 Daily Xml
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FRUIT FLY

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:01): I rise today to speak on a quarantine issue that is vitally important to the horticulture and food sector in South Australia, that is, the fruit fly free status that we enjoy. The value of horticultural food industries to South Australia, including wine, equates to about $4.16 billion. Listening to the Premier today talking about the mining industry with a value of about $4.2 billion, horticulture and agriculture are still a very strong economic driver in this state. Some of the values of those sectors include: the wine industry $1.7 billion; citrus $348 million; apples and pears $281 million; and tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums and other types of fruit all equate to about $600 million. Therefore, those industries worth $2.9 billion to South Australia are potentially at risk from fruit fly outbreak.

In saying that, the situation has become almost endemic in New South Wales and Victoria, with more than 200 outbreaks of Queensland fruit fly in the fruit fly exclusion zone beginning in the summer of 2010. I note that the New South Wales government has now abandoned fruit fly eradication efforts in the Griffith area, which is premium food growing area in New South Wales.

In Victoria we now see that they have abandoned efforts in most areas where fruit fly have been declared in endemic proportions, particularly in the Goulburn Valley, which many of us would recognise as a premium fruit growing area. So, it is unclear at this time whether our neighbours from the Riverland to Sunraysia will get any support, and that will substantially increase the risk of Queensland fruit fly outbreaks in the Riverland and into South Australia because other states have run up the white flag.

We are now the only state on the mainland that is fruit fly free and it is something that has become more valuable now than ever. In saying that—and I am calling on the government in addressing the potential of an outbreak here in South Australia—we must maintain the fruit fly program here in South Australia. We have already been guaranteed that the permanent quarantine stations at Yamba and Ceduna are to be manned 24 hours a day and that must continue.

The random roadblocks within South Australia and the other border crossings need to possibly look at increasing their frequency. I note that Oodla Wirra has had reports of trucks passing that station in the early hours of the morning without being pulled over. Again, we need an ironclad, gold-plated guarantee from our state government that, in the event of an outbreak in the Riverland or anywhere in South Australia, it will be prepared for an eradication program.

We cannot afford to wind up the white flag and must provide necessary resources to eradicate the outbreaks and maintain our fruit fly free status. Again, the assessment of the increased risk to South Australia as a result of developments interstate and a review of the fruit fly program to ensure it meets our needs must be assured.

Every South Australian enjoys eating fresh, safe produce and, in saying that today, it has been regarded that we have secured markets worldwide with that status, particularly in the Riverland. The electorate of Chaffey produces about 95 per cent of the state's citrus and about 70 per cent of the state's soft fruit. We are the engine room of the wine industry. We have the main avocado and cucurbits in the state.

It is imperative that we support the fruit fly free status because of course anyone here in this room would hate the thought of biting into a nice fresh piece of fruit and experiencing a mouthful of maggots. That is something that no-one deserves here in this state and, again, I call on the government to reassure us that they will underpin that fruit fly free status.

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