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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-04-29 Daily Xml
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Fruit Fly

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:47): Supplementary: in light of that answer, minister, why do you think, in spite of your important zero tolerance initiative, there are so many outbreaks in suburban Adelaide?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:47): Again, a very good question. Yes, there are five outbreaks in metropolitan Adelaide of Mediterranean fruit fly. They are introduced; they are brought into the state. They have come over from the west.

Ms Bedford: From the west?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: They have come over from Western Australia. What I would say to the member is that the pressure on our horticulture sector, and on the capability of having a backyard fruit tree or a vegetable patch, has never been greater. We have increased pressure at our borders, both east and west. As you have rightly pointed out, here in metropolitan Adelaide 180 suburbs are currently in a restricted area.

That means that no fruit can be taken out of that restricted area and taken anywhere else in the state. If people do, they will be issued with a fine. We have 100 PIRSA biosecurity staff dressed in orange overalls who are currently doorknocking, asking people to pick up their fruit. If they have ripe fruit or ripe vegetables that are there to be picked, harvested and eaten—please do so. If you can't consume it all in one hit, make something. Make some preserves; make some jam.

It is only proper that every person in South Australia play their role. If it's about looking after metropolitan Adelaide so that we can enjoy the fruits of our own backyards, or if we are looking to support a $1.28 billion horticulture industry in the Riverland, everyone in South Australia needs to play their role in giving us the advantage that we have in our markets, making sure that our protocol markets are happy and comfortable with the protocol measures that we put in place.

Again, I make no backward steps in making sure that we protect every South Australian from fruit fly, whether it be Mediterranean or whether it be Queensland fruit fly. Again, it has to be enforced. If we don't use the enforcement tool, people will go about doing what they have always done, and that is putting more and more pressure on industry and putting more and more pressure on South Australia, which has a unique situation that many of the other states don't have.

Going into Western Australia, you find very few vegetable patches or fruit trees in backyards because of the endemic Mediterranean fruit fly. If you go to Mildura, just across the border, there are very few backyards there that have the capacity to plant a fruit tree or a patch of vegetables that can actually give the capacity to bite into a peach without getting a mouthful of larvae or a mouthful of maggots. The reason it is like that is because Victoria and New South Wales have dropped the ball and have allowed fruit fly to be endemic. They have allowed it to run rampant. That costs the industry many millions of dollars, and it also costs those local communities the capacity to enjoy what we take for granted here in South Australia.

Again, South Australia is in a unique position in that we are a lens, as I said, from east to west. We have to do everything that we can to make sure that South Australia remains fruit fly free and that we also protect those industries that rely so heavily on having that market advantage. We get a premium for our fruit and vegetables. We also go into protocol markets because they know that they can rely on non-contaminated fruit and vegetables that haven't been treated. Once fruit or vegetables have been either fumigated or cold sterilised, they lose shelf life, they lose taste and they lose quality. So South Australia is in the box seat for being part of a great initiative, and that is what this government is here to support—because we know that fruit fly free matters.

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