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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-06-18 Daily Xml
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Fruit Fly

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister update the house on the state government's fruit fly eradication response at Lindsay Point?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:33): I thank the member for Kavel for his very important question; I know that he has taken a great interest in the effects of Queensland fruit fly, particularly in his electorate with the horticulture and the annual crops they are growing up in the wonderful Adelaide Hills. What I can say is that again the South Australian borders are under pressure from Victoria and New South Wales. What we have seen now is that we have had another gravid female fly that has been detected in the Lindsay Point area.

For those of you who don't know where Lindsay Point is, it's just over the South Australia-Victoria border, north of the Riverland horticulture zone. That single gravid female was detected on 21 May and it has meant that Biosecurity SA have had to roll out another program to combat the ever-increasing pressure on our borders.

What I can say is that the Marshall Liberal government is responding, and we are responding in the appropriate way. We have introduced our zero tolerance approach not only up at Lindsay Point but particularly at the Yamba roadblock. The Yamba roadblock is, of course, our border protection into the Riverland. The zero tolerance approach has seen a significant reduction in the amount of fruit that has been taken. We have seen motorists who have had to incur on-the-spot fines.

To back that up, we have now implemented another $1½ million upgrade of the Yamba roadblock facility so that we can better accommodate those motorists coming across the border and also look after our staff. Not only are we upskilling the staff but we are making conditions much safer. It's also implementing a new procedure that has long been ignored by a previous government.

In the baiting and hygiene operations that are currently underway in the 1.5-kilometre outbreak area, we have put out nearly 5,000 litres of organic bait and collected almost two tonnes of fruit from the ground. It has been collected and disposed of appropriately. Approximately two million sterile Q-flies, sourced from the member for Stuart's electorate at Port Augusta, were released last week. That now sets out two million flies per week over possibly six to nine weeks, depending on the current weather circumstance, and that will break the lifecycle of the Queensland fruit fly.

We know that while flies are active, while we still have warmth in our soils, while we still have warmth and we still have fruit that can be a host, we have to act accordingly and act appropriately so that we can combat this ever-invasive pest. The Queensland fruit fly is the globe's most invasive insect, and we know that it's having a serious impact on a $1.2 billion horticulture industry, particularly in the Riverland.

It shows us that, as a government, we are throwing everything we can at eradication and also protecting the horticulture industry. Through zero tolerance, making sure that our sterile fruit fly program is implemented, upskilling our staff and making sure there are extra bins and that signage and education programs are all rolled out appropriately, we can continue to deal with the pressures on our border.

Obviously, changing culture has taken some time, but what we are seeing now is that the detection of fruit coming into South Australia has significantly reduced. People are now paying if they are not abiding by the law. The bins, education and signage are paying dividends to South Australian taxpayers because #RegionsMatter.

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