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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-11-14 Daily Xml
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FRUIT FLY

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries questions relating to the recently announced fruit fly sterile insect facility.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Yesterday, I asked a series of questions of the minister in relation to the recently announced fruit fly sterile insect facility. In her answer, the minister said that $3 million to be spent on the facility—

The Hon. G.E. Gago: Sorry, I can't hear.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Well, if you stopped talking, you might be able to hear.

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Wade, you have the call.

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Please, please! What else can I do to get thrown out?

The PRESIDENT: Order! I can name you if you like and that will start the process. The Hon. Mr Wade has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President. Yesterday, I asked a series of questions of the minister in relation to the recently announced fruit fly sterile insect facility. In her answer, the minister said that the $3 million to be spent on the facility 'will not make any difference to current expenditure in relation to public awareness and information campaigns, border protection and such like, and our grid systems'. My questions are:

1. Will the minister specifically guarantee that none of the $3 million to be invested in the facility will come from the $5 million being spent annually on fruit fly control, that is, that the capital allocation is in addition to the $5 million that is spent annually on fruit fly control?

2. Given that the Mediterranean fruit fly is the main risk to South Australia, why has the government chosen to focus on the Queensland fruit fly to the relatively greater benefit of other states?

3. Will the government own any intellectual property or patents created by the facility and, if not, who will?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:42): Oh dear, I lost a bet! I said that they wouldn't give me a Dorothy three days in a row, and they have. I thank the honourable member for his very important Dorothy, I mean government question, I mean question. This government is incredibly proud that it has been able to take national leadership in relation to the management and control of fruit fly. We are very proud. We have been—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Dawkins, we want to hear this.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: We led the way in the past, and we continue to lead the way. In terms of our horticulture industry, which plays a very important role in our economy, we know that fruit fly is one of the major pests which puts our industry at risk and which could cost our industry many millions of dollars. We could, in effect, end up losing markets if we were to lose our fruit fly free status.

I was very pleased that recently the Premier and I were able to announce a commitment of $3 million over two years to fund the establishment of a sterile insect technology facility in Upper Spencer Gulf. I have to say that this has been met with resounding support right across the industry, from our primary producers to our peak industry bodies right through to our education and research institutions, and it has also generated a great deal of interest interstate as well.

The honourable member has a lot of trouble grasping this, but I have outlined quite clearly that the $3 million that the government contributed to capital expenditure for the building of the facility will leverage $15 million of industry money contributed by HAL, CSIRO and, I think, plant security and other partners. It is an incredible project, a $3 million state-of-the-art research facility and a $15 million industry.

Currently, South Australia spends about $5 million a year on our fruit fly management system. I made it very clear yesterday that none of those programs or that funding would be affected by the new additional $3 million fund. I answered this question yesterday very clearly but the opposition is thick as a brick, truly. Anyway, I am happy to spend three days in a row going over exactly the same material, giving exactly the same commitment.

The $3 million was made up of an additional $2 million plus, as I explained: the $1 million that this government put on the table in the last budget round for new initiatives for fruit fly protection, which we said we wanted matched by industry contribution, and this project is perfect for that. The industry is indeed matching that; in fact, we are leveraging $3 million to $15 million. So this is a very important achievement and a great outcome. We have that $1 million being brought forward and put in with an additional $2 million, so that is basically new money of $3 million for capital expenditure. It leaves the current $5 million in expenditure on fruit fly unchanged; it has no impact on that.

It is a wonderful project and, as I said, everyone one else who has anything to do with horticulture, agriculture and research has embraced this and has acknowledged what a fabulous initiative this is and has congratulated the government. But the Hon. Stephen Wade still has some misunderstanding; he obviously cannot understand the figures in front of him, and he still struggles to get the fact that it is a new $3 million and the old $5 million stays as is.

In relation to Qfly, he is just showing his absolute ignorance. I can't believe that the Hon. Stephen Wade would come into this chamber with a question that just doesn't even require research, just basic information about our fruit fly industry. Really, it is disgraceful. This is how lazy the opposition are—lazy, lazy, lazy opposition. They are such a dozy lot. I have talked in this place before about the two main incursions that occur here in South Australia. There are others as well but the two main threats to our industry are the Mediterranean fruit fly which was brought over from Western Australia and Qfly which basically started off in Queensland.

We already have a sterile insect technology around our Mediterranean fruit fly and have had for some time, so I don't know what the Hon. Stephen Wade wants us to do, go back out and reinvent that technology? It is the technology around controlling and managing Queensland fruit fly that currently is not in existence, so that is why the South Australian government has taken national leadership and stepped into that research space because currently there is no sterile fruit fly technology to combat Queensland fruit fly (or Qfly).

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