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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-26 Daily Xml
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Yamba Quarantine Station

Mr BOYER (Wright) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries. Does the minister stand by his statement on ABC radio on Monday 18 November that no fruit or vegetables were left rotting in bins for more than a week at Yamba quarantine station?

Mr Duluk interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite is not assisting.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:34): It is ironic that the primary industries spokesperson doesn't get the question, but what I would say is that—

Mr Szakacs interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Cheltenham is warned.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is called to order.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: I'm sure the member refers to the Yamba quarantine station. The Yamba quarantine station has been operating since 1954. Since 1954, fruit that has been collected gets put into bins. It then gets put into pits. Once it's been put into pits, it is then dusted with an antibacterial dusting powder that seals that collection of fruit. Over time, there have been different collection methods. Under all styles of government, we have seen that the law has been that people will not bring fruit and vegetables into South Australia past that quarantine station.

Once upon a time, those bins were collected and put into rubbish bins, into those Sulo bins, and then they were transported off site into deep burial pits. That continued to happen. Up until 4 January this year, as an emergency response we saw that fruit, now under the zero tolerance approach, had to be declared at the temporary bins at the Bede Road drop-off station, which is about five kilometres to the east of Yamba.

They were two very large drop-off bins and, as I understand it, those bins were monitored regularly. We did have some initial problems with other waste material being put into those declaration bins, but I think that over time we sorted that out. While there were temporary bins in place, as I said, biosecurity officers went down there and inspected those bins. When those bins were deemed at a level, they were then transported back into New South Wales to Buronga. Buronga is over the river from Mildura.

The reason we emptied those bins at Buronga was so that we didn't introduce any risk of fruit fly host material into the fruit fly free area in the Riverland. That was carefully considered. When that fruit was taken back to Buronga, it was disposed of in an appropriate way and it was done in a timely manner. As I said, the biosecurity officers deemed the emptying of those temporary bins in a timely fashion. What we see today is that we now have permanent bins, and they are permanent, concrete, underground structures—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: the minister was asked if he stands by his remarks on radio. He has not yet answered that. He is debating.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order. I believe that the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I believe the minister is responding to matters that are pertinent to the question, but I will continue to listen. Minister.

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: Thank you, sir. As I was saying, these new permanent declaration bins that are underground concrete bunkers are large concrete bunkers that have sealed tops on them with swing doors. Again, those bins are monitored regularly. Once those bins are deemed appropriately having an amount of fruit in them, contractors are called in to empty those bins. When those contractors take away the lids and use excavation equipment to empty the bins, it is put into the transportation vessels and it is then taken back to Buronga. It is taken back to Buronga to be disposed of properly. As I said, the same with the temporary bins, the same with all the bins: it's done in a manner that is biosecurity safe.

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